18 Ways to Reuse Aldi Glass Candle Jars

EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated for 2026. 

Aldi sells a variety of candles in different types of containers. Some candles are in a metal container, or a wooden container. Some are in colored glass jars. By far the most common candles I see at the discount grocer are 3 wick candles in a clear glass jar.

KIRKTON HOUSE 3 Wick Candles (formerly Huntington Home 3 Wick Candles) are a cult favorite at Aldi. Multiple times throughout the year, depending on the season, the discount grocer stocks these candles in a variety of scents.

I’ve been buying Aldi candles for years and have a good-sized collection, with scents to match every season. Sometimes I burn the candles, or, more often these days, I put them in a candle warmer I purchased from Aldi. I like the candle warmer because it doesn’t involve an open flame and potential soot.

All those candles can create a lot of waste after they’re used up, though, especially if you use candles often. They leave behind both the glass jar and the metal lid, not to mention the leftover wax and wick at the bottom of the jar.

Some people remove the leftover wax and then chuck the glass jar in their recycling bins. You can remove the wax by placing the candle jar in the freezer for a while. Once frozen, you can usually crack the wax and pop it out wax using a flathead screwdriver or a butter knife (just be careful not to cut yourself).

Or, you might prefer to find ways to repurpose the jar. If you’re looking for ways to reuse your Aldi candle jars, read on.

Cleaning Your Aldi Candle Jars

If you’ve already removed the largest portion of leftover wax from your candle jar (using the freezer method mentioned above), you can clean up your jar even more and make it look like new. You can view detailed instructions and photos showing how to do this at The Spruce Crafts.

The short version is that you place one or two layers of parchment paper on a rimmed baking sheet or a baking dish. Then place your candle jars upside down on top of the parchment paper, and place the baking sheet in the oven for 10-15 minutes at 180-190 degrees Fahrenheit. Check on the jars frequently, and once most of the wax has melted off onto the parchment paper, remove the jars from the oven carefully. Use a potholder to hold the hot candle jar with one hand while using paper towels with your other hand to wipe out the remaining wax and soot from the inside.

This method worked easily for me. I set my oven to 190 degrees and heated my candle for about 15 minutes. The small amount of wax residue and black soot in my jar easily wiped out with a couple of paper towels, leaving me with a sparkling glass jar.

A lot of the more recent 3 wick candles at Aldi have simple outer wraps that may easily peel off. If you have a candle that has a label sticker on it, it requires a little more work. To get the label stickers off your jars, remove what you can’t peel off by scrubbing with some Goo Gone or other cleaning product. It took me just a few minutes to peel off the front label and the bottom sticker and remove the residue with Goo Gone.

After you’ve done this, you can sanitize your jars by washing them in hot, soapy water.

If you want to remove residual scents from your jars and lids, Apartment Therapy recommends baking soda and vinegar, or setting the jars and lids out in the sunshine for a few days.

Now your candle jars are clean and ready to reuse. It’s time to get creative about re-purposing.

The jars make pretty holders for wrapped tea bags, although I probably won’t keep tea bags in recycled candle jars without first trying to remove the residual candle scent so it doesn’t potentially affect the flavor of the tea.

Instead, I designated my first recycled Aldi jar candle as a container to hold some my daughter’s sticker collection. Once I collect several cleaned-out candles, they will be a nice way to organize and showcase several small craft supplies such as erasers, googly eyes, beads, and more.

Read on for more ideas on what to put in a repurposed glass candle jar.

Ways to Reuse Aldi Glass Jar Candles

1. Storage for small sealed foods. Use clean, recycled candle jars with lids to store individually sealed tea bags, wrapped candies, wrapped mints, sugar or artificial sweetener packets, instant drink packets, etc. While it might be tempting to use candle jars for storing spices, pasta, or other loose food items, these glass jars are not made specifically for storing food, so there is concern about whether chemicals in the glass are safe for edibles, especially since candle glass is often made to hold up to high temperatures. There’s also the issue of the candle smell transferring to whatever you put in the jar, and it can be difficult to completely eradicate the scent from the jar. If you want to reuse jars for food storage, I recommend re-purposing jars that were actually made to hold food, such as Aldi marinara and alfredo sauce jars.
2. Gifts in a jar. Fill with small toiletries or sealed food items such as wrapped candy. Add a bow or ribbon to the top for decoration.
3. Office supply storage. These jars a a great size for storing paper clips, rubber bands, thumb tacks, or small erasers.
4. Art supply storage. For stickers, beads, googly eyes, crayons, etc. Leave the lid off and you can store child-sized scissors, paint brushes, glue sticks or small glue bottles, and more.
5. Toiletry and personal care item storage. These jars are a stylish way to stash cotton balls, Q-tips, bath salts, bath bombs, epsom salt, BAND-AIDS, flossers, small soaps, makeup (lip balm, lipstick, eye liner pencils, mascara, foundation, blush, brushes, etc.), ponytail elastics or scrunchies, bobby pins, makeup remover pads, makeup sponges, tweezers, nail clippers, etc.
6. Homemade body scrub jar. Find instructions for making your own scrub here.
7. Jewelry storage. A pretty way to keep your earrings, rings, pins, broaches, bracelets, pendants, etc.
8. Hardware storage. Keep nails, screws, and more in these small jars.
9. Sewing supply storage. Great for safety pins, straight pins, buttons, small spools of thread, ribbon spools, thimbles, etc.
10. Match storage. These jar are the right size for holding small wooden matches. You can cut the strike tip from a box of matches and fasten it to the bottom of the jar. For obvious reasons, this seems like an especially appropriate way to reuse a candle jar.
11. Collection storage. These jars might hold autographed baseballs to make a stunning display. The jars can also be used to hold small seashells from your vacation, or other small objects. When grouped or stacked together, they may have a real visual impact.
12. Table centerpieces. Fill with small real or artificial flowers for easy eye-catching centerpieces for special events or any time.
13. Fairy light display. Fill with a short strand of fairy lights, put the lid on, and you have an instant night light or pretty ambient lighting for a covered porch or patio.
14. Planters or seed starters. Fill with potting soil or seed starting mix and grow a flower or plant some seeds to transplant later to your garden. Many of these jars are just the right size for growing succulents. Avoid over watering because these jars don’t have drainage holes and you don’t want to drown your seeds or plants, or alternatively you can line the jar with a plastic pot with drain holes in the bottom.
15. Seed storage. Store loose seeds for your garden.
16. Potpourri bowl. Make homemade potpourri or buy some at the store and set a jar, sans the lid, wherever you want to add a nice scent around your house.
17. Homemade candles. Find instructions here. Or, if you don’t want to make your own candles, you can also purchase tea lights or larger candles that don’t come in jars and place them in these recycled jars. Craft stores and big box retailers often sell “loose” candles in various sizes, so you’re bound to find a size that will fit your jar.
18. Coin/loose change jar. Great for stashing your quarters and pennies.

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Do you reuse your glass candle jars from Aldi? Tell us what you do with them in the comments.