How to clean a used candle jar
Get your supplies
Paper towels
Rubbing alcohol
Paper cup
Popsicle stick or spoon
Heat gun or blow dryer - optional
How to clean out the jar
Scrape out the old wax
Use the popsicle stick or spoon to scrape the used wax into the paper cup. Or on a paper plate, paper towel, whatever you have. You can melt this down into a tea light or put it on a wax warmer. Soy wax is very soft, so it should clump together and come right out. You may want to use the popsicle stick to shove the paper towel into the corners. After the wax is out, you’re left with a waxy oily residue all over the inside of the jar. And probably some stubborn wax in the corners of the jar. It helps to use a heat gun or blow dryer so you can just soak up the melted leftover wax with a paper towel. Besides, heat evaporates wax and fragrance oil. Now you can just scrape the wick off.
Wipe off the wax and oil.
That waxy oily residue is stubborn. Wipe down the inside of the jar with a paper towel and rubbing alcohol. It might take several paper towels. I even poured a little rubbing alcohol into the bottom of the jar and swirled it around a little bit. I couldn’t tell you why, but rubbing alcohol seems to dissolve wax and oil. You can use soap and water, as long as you don’t get wax down the drain. You could also keep heating it up with your heat gun or blow dryer to evaporate most of it. But if you use the heat gun method, make sure the jar doesn’t get too hot!!
Re-purpose it!
Post a pic of your reused jar in the comments! Bonus points if you use the old wax and paper towels to make a fire starter! You can melt the wax down and let it cool with ripped up paper towels to make a convenient piece of kindling.
