On Instagram you might have seen that I was on holiday in Corsica. But this won’t be the content of today’s post, rather what I did there (beside hiking, swimming, climbing and mainly eating): I read up on our climate crises and how you can have an impact with your daily habits and little changes. As a DIY blogger I feel some kind of responsibility to share alternatives to buying new (and potentially harmful stuff). There’s so much that we can reuse, upcycle or replace through homemade products. So as a result of this, I want to share more DIYs and recipes that have some kind of sustainable background – a better solution for your health, our climate and the environment.

First up is a DIY that I’ve made a habit off: when I use up candles, there’s always some wax leftover. Wax that can be used to create new candles again. The bonus with this tutorial is that we also reuse some plastic bottles before we throw them out.

If you banned plastic bottles from your home already (kudos to you!), you can also use other tubes that wax won’t interacte with (or even wood that you need to treat with some oil, so the wax won’t stick to the inner tube walls.

To make this DIY candles from wax leftovers you need:

  • wax leftovers
  • wicks
  • wooden sticks
  • rubber bands
  • plastic bottles
  • a pen
  • a cutter

I’ve made a video to show you how to make these handmade gradient candles:

  1. Cut the bottoms of the bottles to get tubes. It should be a quite even cut so the wax won’t run out.
  2. Attach two wooden sticks together with rubber bands on each end.
  3. Jam the top of the wicks between the wooden sticks.
  4. Place the plastic tubes on a metal tray and hang the wicks in them. The bottom with metal part should touch the tray.
  5. Melt the wax leftovers in a fireproof pot.
  6. Pour just a teaspoon of wax into the plastic tubes and stick the metal bottom of the wixs in that wax blop.
  7. Now fill the tube slowly but surely. To get the gradient effect, change the color of the molten wax but don’t let the wax already in the tube dry completely beforehand. Leave a little wax for later.
  8. Let it dry completely and you’ll notice that it will sink in around the wix. Melt the wax you haven’t used already and pour it in the middle.
  9. Once this is dried out completely it will slowly slide out of the plastic tubes. You can use those again if you like.
  10. Voilá! You just created candles out of something you might have thrown out.

I also learned in a book that I read during my holiday that you can make your own wickets but for this, I used some that I already had at home. I might update this blog post once I tried this.

What smart, sustainable ideas do you have to reuse stuff you have at home? I’m looking for tips on how to give presumable rubbish another life – even if it’s just for one more use. Let me kow in the comments!

Now. Carry on!