How to Store Candles

By eHow Home & Garden Editor

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Years ago people used candles as necessities for light. Now they use them for decorating during the various holidays and for gifts. When retrieving stored candles, people sometimes find their candles melted into unusable shapes. Candles sent to friends for gifts might end up sitting in the hot sun on a shipping dock and softened into distorted shapes. Use some of the following storing techniques to prevent disasters.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

Plastic wrap
Foil wrap
Paper towels
Paper towel tubes
Gallon jars

Step1

Store all candles in a cool, dry place, preferably under 80 degrees F and over 32 degrees F.

Step2

Wrap candles individually in plastic wrap, foil wrap or paper towels to protect them from nicks and dents if you store them loosely in a drawer. The wrap also helps them to retain their fragrance.

Step3

Insert two wrapped taper candles in a paper towel tube to keep them from breaking.

Step4

Place ornate, molded candles inside large gallon jars after wrapping them with plastic or foil. Crunch up paper towels around them to hold them in place.

Step5

Ship candles in a large box and place the candles in the center with plenty of foam peanuts around them. Wrap the candles in several layers of foil, then crunched up paper towels, then more foil, then more paper towels and a final layer of foil. This creates protective insulation around the candles. Mark the outside of the box, "Avoid Heat."

Tips & Warnings

Store pillar, taper and votive candles in the refrigerator before using to make them burn more evenly and slowly. Wrap them in foil or plastic wrap first to keep moisture from the wick.
Use a hair dryer on gentle setting to smooth out damage caused to candles.
Placing the candles in a closed car during the summer almost guarantees damage to them.