Some people purchase candles to have around the house in case the electricity ever goes out. Others purchase candles for their beauty or uniqueness, but they end up being so attractive, the candles never get used. Most people who love candles have several which have never been burnt because of that fact. The problem with keeping beautiful candles around for a long time, ones that you never burn, is that eventually they get dusty, old-looking and possibly even have chips missing. When those candles go from beautiful to being an eyesore don’t even think about throwing them away! Use them around the house – you’ll be surprised at how many different ways you can recycle a candle!
Sometimes, instead of throwing away a candle or using for household purposes, you can give it a make-over. If the candle is one you never burn there are all sorts of ways you can make it look new and different. Wrap the candle with cloth or decorative paper. Or, use fancy thumbtacks to create designs on the candle. Use a stencil or even a coloring book page as a pattern for the wax artwork. Even metallic tape can help you redo the candle with little time or effort. You’ll find the tape, which dispenses like Scotch tape, at most any craft store. It’s a great way to give a glitzy look to a boring white tape or other candle.
Would you like your house to be a little less breezy and much less dusty? All you need is a candle! Take a while candle and rub it around windowsills, door frames – most any place where a person would caulk their home. Much less messy, and much easier, a white candle can fill in cracks and holes just as well as caulking. This technique is easy enough for anyone to do and you’ll quickly notice how much warmer, and how much less dusty, your home has become.
Candle wax is a versatile thing. It can be used to repair many different problems. One example is a drawer that is difficult to open. Pry the drawer open then use the wax along the runners. Although white candles work best for most repair jobs, simply because many people don’t want red, green or other colors of wax to stand out on the repair jobs, any color can be used especially if the wax can’t be seen. The candle wax works in the same manner on windows that stick, too.
Take an empty quart or half-gallon milk carton to make an emergency or camping candle. Use a tapered candle as the wick and place it in the center of the carton. A couple of drops of wax in the bottom will help the taper stand up straight. Now, as you use candles and burn them all the way down, take the remaining pieces of the candles and place them in the carton. As time goes on the carton will be full of candle and wax chips. These make great long-burning candles for emergencies.
Do you have a favorite piece of wooden furniture with a dent in the arm or elsewhere? Fix it with an old candle. Rub the candle back and forth over the dent or scratch. The wax will fill in the indentation but will look like wax. Use a furniture marker to cover the wax and help it blend in with the rest of the wood. Since you’ll be using the marker after the wax you can use any color of candle for this project.
Use old candles in a non-traditional way by making them into some unique things you can use around the house. For example, use a large, round or square candle to make a pencil holder for your desk. Create holes in the candle, on all four sides, and use the holes to store pens and pencils. You can eliminate the look of the wick on top by simply setting something else on top. The top can be a stuffed animal or even a round, wooden ball. If you need to, use a glue dot or glue strip to secure the top item.
Use a tall pillar candle to make a sucker tree. Poke holes in the candle and insert the sucker sticks. Heating up an ice pick or similar item will help you easily push the holes into the candle. Because of the size of the candle you select cut the handles of the suckers down somewhat to make them fit, if need be.
A round or square candle can become a vase for fake flowers. Just poke holes in the candle and insert the various flowers. Further hide the candle by covering any exposed areas with Spanish moss. A different idea for the square candles is to glue pictures to five sides. This photo cube works as a paperweight or just a shelf decoration.
There are many different ways to recycle old candles and create something new and different or just make things easier on you around the house. Consider some of these suggestions the next time you go to throw out an old candle.
