HOME DECOR TIPS: HOW TO CLEAN DUSTY CANDLES

HOME DECOR TIPS: HOW TO CLEAN DUSTY CANDLES

With the wrap up of our retail Clearance Sale this weekend (up to 95% off of home decor items, so sorry if you missed it) we figured this post would be an appropriate ones. We decided to clear out some of the retail and rental stock in our warehouse in preparation for a whole new shipment of goodies arriving in the fall, and part of the goods for sale were candles that may have gotten a little bit dusty in storage before the sale.

Since nearly all of  the ladies we know are as obsessed with candles as we are, we decided that whether you attended our sale or not, we’ve ALL got at least ONE dusty candle at home that could use a good wipe-down to bring it back to “like new” shape.

We collected this post from Home Makers Daily and hope it works just as well for you!

Safety Tip: Be careful with the freshly cleaned surface of rubbing alcohol and lighting the candle. Naturally, you will not want to wipe near the wick so not to soak it in alcohol and you will want to wait a decent while before lighting your candle again.

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I never thought about cleaning my candles.  I did notice that the tops got dusty and my feather duster couldn’t get rid of the dust.  But that’s as far as it went – until my grand kids started messing with the candles in the fireplace.  I was putting the candles back one day and noticed they were really dirty.  I vacuumed the candles and got rid of the cobwebs and dust bunnies but they still felt dirty.

I did some research and found out you clean candles with rubbing alcohol and cotton balls.  So I decided to give it a try.

My fireplace candles were really grimy and had black stuff on them (soot, I assume).  But after a few passes with the cotton balls, they were looking and feeling much better.  The alcohol didn’t remove the soot – I had to use my fingernail to scrape it off.

I had such great success with the fireplace candles that I decided to clean the candles on the entry table, too.  These weren’t as dirty like the fireplace candles – mainly just dusty.  But I messed up on those.  Because they weren’t as dirty, they didn’t require as much work.  Just a light pass over the entire surface of each candle was all that was needed.  But on the tall candle, for some reason, I really went at it.  The end result was that I damaged the finish on the candle.  The finish became rough and pieces of wax dropped onto the table.  I knew immediately I had been over zealous with my cleaning.

So here’s what I learned:

1. The dirtier the candle, the more work to clean it.  But when the candle color shows up on the cotton ball instead of dirt color, you’re done.
2. If the candle is just dusty, a light pass with the cotton ball is sufficient to remove the dust.
3. Clean candles infrequently so you don’t damage the wax.