Metal buckets with Citronella candles in them.

Victoria Howard
by Victoria Howard
I want to remove the candles, and use the buckets for...something. They have handles, and could be great for something! Anyone have ideas? Thanks!
  8 answers
  • Janet Pizaro Janet Pizaro on Nov 14, 2015
    If you have a few of them you can make a topsy turvy planter out of them. Drill holes in the bottom and insert a metal rod through the buckets. Fill with soil and plant.
  • Lee Lee on Nov 14, 2015
    if you have smokers you could fill with playsand and use as outdoor ashtrays. fill with styrofoam and arrange silk flowers with a pretty bow. Paint the outside and use as a gift container. Let preschooler paint outside and use in the sandbox. Or to store crayons, pencils, secret nicknacks, write wishes on paper notes and store in pail. Put in garage to collect odd screws, nails, bolts etc
  • Gayle Gayle on Nov 14, 2015
    Warm the buckets on the stove (not too hot) just enough that you can wipe the wax out with paper towels. I have found that this method works quite well.
  • Faye Campbell Faye Campbell on Nov 14, 2015
    Place the bucket in the freezer portion of your fridge. Once the pail is good and cold, the wax chips away easily.
  • Cynthia H Cynthia H on Nov 14, 2015
    I have discarded buckets like this because of the oily residue and odor. I'm assuming it's the wax candle itself that makes such a mess (have you ever had one melt in the hot sun and get knocked over?). Having said that, I found there are recipes online for making your own citronella candles, which also seems a good method for recycling them. Maybe removing all traces of the waxy residue is the way to go if you want to use them for something else. The clean up I had to do involved Dawn detergent, hot water, a scrub brush, sunny weather and scraping, repeating until the mess was off my table I also used gloves, as the citronella candle was irritating to my skin. Hope you post updates!
  • Buster Evans Buster Evans on Nov 14, 2015
    Well "They say" to get a candle out of a container put it in the freezer and get it very cold then you can turn it upside down and hit the open end of the container flat down on the ground or floor etc and the wax should come out.. That is in THEORY.. I tried this with some straight round glass pillar candles it didnt work... NOW I didn this summer have some small citronella candles sitting outside on a glass table.. when it rained I turned them upside down to drain the water BUT forgot to turn them back over and the Sun melted the wax out pretty good, ALL OVER THE GLASS TABLE... SO My first suggestion would be to try the freezer idea and see if it gets the majority of the wax out,,, hopefully the buckets taper and are wider at the top than the bottom and it will come out... then try boiling hot water to try to melt away any residue on the buckets.. Have a plastic container ready to pour the wax and water in when you are finished. If I were doing it depending on how many buckets you have, pour the boiling water into the first bucket all the way to the rim, take that one and pour into the next and the then that one to the next and after all the buckets are done pour it into the disposable plastic container.. You can repeat this until all the wax is gone... I know this was a long description but hope it helps
  • Janet Pizaro Janet Pizaro on Nov 14, 2015
    The question was what to do with the buckets not how to get the wax out....
    • Nancy Spencer Carlson Nancy Spencer Carlson on Nov 14, 2015
      @Janet Pizaro the way the post is worded, either or both things could be requested. You have any ideas for what to do with them? I'm searching images for ideas.
  • Michelle Harbee Michelle Harbee on Nov 16, 2015
    Use the above idea regarding placing it in a freezer. Works like a charm and is so simple.
    • See 1 previous
    • Michelle Harbee Michelle Harbee on Nov 16, 2015
      @Victoria Howard Yes. See Faye Campbell's comment above. It is seriously the easiest way to remove wax. Just put it in the freezer for a few hours until frozen. Then wedge a butter knife in between the container in wax. It'll pop out in one piece. I've used this method often with candle jars.