Adding Fragrance To Your House For FREE

Sometimes when you're burning a candle, the wick burns down so far that all you have left is wax and no wick. Or you may have a candle but don't want to spend the money on a holder. I used to take those pieces of wax and orphan candles and use them in the fireplace when I needed help starting a fire. Last Winter, however, with me using the fireplace less thanks to the kids' busy schedules, I had a stockpile of wax and nothing to use it for.

Without a holder, this candle is useless, right? WRONG!

Then one day when I was in the store looking at wax melts, I realized that they're merely leftover pieces of candles, like the kind I had at home. So I grabbed a few clean baby food jars (I ALWAYS stockpile those) with the labels peeled off, chopped up pieces of my old candles, and placed the now-filled jars on a candle warmer I'd bought on clearance. The wax pieces melt on the warmer and my house smells like I have a candle burning. 

Candle fragments melted in a baby food jar.

Alternatives to this are:

1. If you don't have a baby food jar, use any kind of clean jar without labels that will fit on the warmer. When you need to label the scent, just write on the jar using a Sharpie marker; you can re-label the jar by washing the marker off with alcohol or scrubbing it clean.
2. If you don't have any candle fragments lying around, grab some dryer scent boosters (see photo below) and place those in a jar.
   
   

   

   Laundry scent booster

   
   
3. So that you remember to turn off the candle warmer before you leave the house or go to bed, leave your car keys or cell phone near the warmer. Chances are, you'll reach for one of those, realize that they're not where they should be, and turn the warmer off.

Do you have any uses for leftover candle pieces? Let me know!

Ahhh...the house smells lovely!

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Daydreaming, Courtesy Of The White Company

Dreaming of this...

Please note that although I was compensated for this post and that writing on this subject was suggested, all opinions are my own. 

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When I was growing up, back in the Dark Ages before the Internet, I lived for catalogs. Whenever the Sears, Lilian Vernon, or Spiegel books came, I'd snatch them up so that I could dream about what my house would look like when I grew up. I'd rip pages out showing items I wanted to buy, without a thought of cost, to fill my “happily ever after” place. I paid attention to things like high thread count in my linens, ways to “dress” up my tables to coincide with the Seasons, and tried to understand why table runners were important (they add color and texture to your decor). Dreaming blocked out the reality of my family's extremely tight budget and my mother's obliviousness to anything but practical matters like food and clothing.

Recently, I was transported back to my childhood as I looked over the website for The White Company. Unlike my life right now which is happily filled with kids who leave fingerprints on ANYTHING white, family members with allergies that render bed skirts a health hazard, and my own laziness about dusting and laundry, The White Company allowed me to dream as I had in the past.

I looked a white linen tablecloths and napkins, breakfast in bed trays, soap trays, and white bedding Savoy collection has a 400 thread count!). I delighted in the beautiful champagne glass buckets. I puzzled over a ceramic bottle arch (for those, like me, who don't know what they are, they hold bottles of body lotion). All the while, I tried to forget that my kids ignore the rule about playing ball in the house, that we never serve breakfast in bed due to crumbs, and don't have lit candles or diffusers around because our cat resembles a mountain goat in her desire to climb on any surface regardless of the height.

Some things are out of my reach right now, just as they were as a child, but for different reasons. One day, the kids will be off on their own, and there will be plenty of time to buy some of the lovely, impractical things I see in catalogs and on The White Company's website (although the site has plenty of useful items at decent prices) to adorn my retirement home. Until then, I can dream.

So that's what a ceramic bottle arch is!