Wax On/Wax Off

I was reluctant to try wax melts for a long time for one very practical reason: cleaning out the melter sounded annoying and cumbersome. Dried wax is hard to scrape out, and if you like switching fragrances, leftover wax can easily mingle with the next scent. I liked the idea of wax melts. I did not like the idea of chiseling hardened wax out of tiny ceramic dishes.

That all changed when I discovered wax melters with silicone liners.

I started with a higher-end melter that had a built-in 3, 6 or 9-hour timer. At the time, that sounded like a great feature because I was convinced I would forget to turn it off. In reality, nine hours was never quite long enough, and I got tired of realizing the melters had shut off and going around the house turning them all back on.

Eventually, I settled on ⁠this wax melter from Amazon. I’m sure there are plenty of similar options, but these have worked well for me. My one complaint is that the silicone dishes they come with are a little rigid, and I don’t think they handle repeated heat quite as well as some softer silicone liners. I swapped the original dishes for ⁠these silicone liners from Amazon, which fit the melters well and make changing wax incredibly easy.

The best part of my setup, though, is the smart plugs.

I leave the rolling wheel switch on each melter’s cord permanently in the “on” position and plug the melters into smart plugs. Alexa handles the actual on-and-off schedule. Every morning, I gather the silicone cups from around the house, pop out the cooled wax from the night before and add fresh wax. Once the cups are back in their melters, I get to say, “Alexa, wax on,” which is admittedly more fun to say than it has any right to be.

At night, it’s simply, “Alexa, wax off,” which is also a giggle-worthy experience. All the melters turn off at once, the wax cools and hardens overnight, and everything is ready to pop out again the next morning. No scraping, no digging hardened wax out of ceramic dishes and no lingering fragrance from yesterday’s melt.

I personally keep one melter in each of our main rooms and find that one wax melt square per melter, per day works well for me. That certainly isn’t a rule. Some people use the same wax for a couple of days, while others prefer more than one square at a time. It really depends on the strength of fragrance you enjoy, the size of the room, how many melters you have going and the particular throw of the fragrance you’re using.

There’s a little experimentation involved in finding your sweet spot, but once you do, wax melts become remarkably low-maintenance. With silicone liners, smart plugs and a routine that takes only a few minutes each morning, I get fragrance throughout the house all day without the cleanup that kept me from trying wax melts in the first place.

And, of course, I get to say "Wax On, Wax Off " every day. (Karate Kid reference if you happen to be to young to get it!)

That alone might be worth it.