What to Do with a Loved One's Cremated Remains

Beautiful and meaningful ways to memorialize someone after cremation

Co-authored by Dev Murphy

Last Updated: February 20, 2023 References

When a loved one dies and is cremated, it is common to want to honor their legacy and the love you had for them by doing something meaningful with their remains. There are a number of ways to celebrate their life after they’ve passed on, whether by storing their ashes in an attractive urn or scattering them across the sea. If you’re wondering what to do with the cremated remains of your loved one, keep reading for inspiration. We’ve assembled a list of ideas, from the traditional to the more unique, for what to do with a loved one’s ashes.

Things You Should Know

Inter your loved one's ashes in a cemetery or an urn garden for a more traditional way to pay your respects to someone who has died.
Use cremated remains to make ornaments, paperweights, stuffed toys, or jewelry in order to have your loved one close by.
Let the deceased live on by creating a tree urn or by using the ashes to create a cement reef to support marine life.
Say goodbye in a truly unique way by scattering the ashes while skydiving or sending the ashes to the moon.

1

Store them in an urn.

Save your loved one’s ashes in a beautiful container as a keepsake. Urns are a common place to store the cremains of deceased relatives or friends. Display them on the mantle in your living room, or keep the urn private and store it in your bedroom or a cabinet with other valuables and keepsakes.^{[1]
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2

Inter the ashes.

Bury the ashes in a meaningful place that you can visit. Just like most people do with uncremated remains, you can lay your loved one’s ashes to rest in a cemetery or a mausoleum. You can bury them in a plot, in a columbarium niche (a small building that houses cremated remains), or in an urn garden.^{[2]
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- Urn gardens offer dedicated spaces to bury ashes, but many of them also give you the option to use your loved one’s ashes in the creation of benches, fountains, and other structures.

3

Put them a tree urn.

Let your loved one live on by planting a tree for them. You can put the ashes of a deceased person in a biodegradable urn. The urn is then buried with specific soil mixtures, and in time, a tree will grow. This idea is a poetic way to say goodbye to a loved one—rather, you never have to say goodbye, because they will live on as a tree.^{[3]
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- Capsula Mundi offers egg-shaped biodegradable caskets for $370. The egg is buried, along with seeds to a tree of your (or the deceased’s) choosing. You can visit the spot over months and years and see how the tree grows.
- The Living Urn offers attractive biodegradable bamboo urns for $69 that you can bury in the garden, a forest, or at another site of your choosing or keep on your mantle forever or until you decide where to bury it.

4

Turn the ashes into art.

Carry the memory of the deceased in a piece of ceramic or glass art. You can commission an artist to blend your loved one’s ashes with the glaze for different works of art, from decorative pottery to more practical objects like coffee mugs. Artists can also use ashes in glass blowing to make beautiful stained glass decorations.^{[4]
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5

Use the ashes to make a record.

If your loved one was a music lover, let them live on in a vinyl record. The company And Vinyly uses cremains to produce vinyl records. You can create a record of the deceased speaking, make a playlist inspired by them, or make a record of their favorite album.^{[5]
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- Only a bit of the ashes can be used before the sound of the record will become distorted, but because you can easily make a lot of records at once (most of the work is in the preparation and fabrication rather than materials), you can create a record for everyone in the family.
- Because each record is custom-made, the price varies, but it usually ranges from about $1100 to $4000.

6

Put the ashes in a stuffed toy keepsake.

Store your loved one’s ashes in something you can cuddle for comfort. This may seem like a rather unusual option, but it’s a warm and fuzzy way to memorialize someone who has passed on. You’ll have something soft you can hug whenever you miss your loved one.^{[6]
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- Many independent artisans custom-create stuffed toy urns on Etsy.

7

Get a tattoo.

Wear a permanent tribute to your loved one on your skin. Tattoo artists can use the ashes from your cremated loved one in the ink used to tattoo. Get a tattoo of the deceased’s face, their birth or death date, or an image that symbolizes who they were, such as wedding rings for a spouse or a bird for someone who was free-spirited.^{[7]
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8

Make jewelry.

Create an accessory to remind you of your loved one. Ashes can be used in the production of custom jewelry, from bracelets to pendants to rings. This is a great way to keep your loved one with you all the time. Remember your loved one every time you look at your piece of jewelry.^{[8]
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- Try Close By Me Jewelry and Spirit Pieces for beautiful cremation jewelry.
- You can also use your loved one’s ashes to create a diamond. Companies like Heart in Diamond and Eterneva make lab-grown diamonds using human ashes. Prices start at around $3000.

9

Scatter the ashes at sea.

The ocean is a beautiful way to memorialize your loved one. Scattering your loved one’s ashes into the sea is not only a meaningful way to honor your loved one, but spending time by the ocean will likely have soothing, healing effects for you while you mourn this important loss.^{[9]
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10

Scatter the ashes at a national park.

Lay your loved one to rest in a peaceful environment. Whether they were a nature-lover or you want to literally give them back to the earth, scattering your loved one’s ashes in a scenic national park offers you a touching way to honor the life they led and left behind.^{[10]
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11

Perform an aerial scattering.

Scattering the ashes while skydiving is a unique way to say goodbye. Aerial scatterings are exhilarating and meaningful ways to mourn a loved one. You will not only say goodbye to the deceased; you will experience a rare and exciting event that will make the ceremony all the more memorable (unless, of course, you already regularly skydive).^{[11]
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12

Create a cement fixture for the coral reef.

Memorialize a nature-lover by using their ashes in marine preservation. You can incorporate cremated remains into cement to create an artificial marine reef to help support marine life. They will live on not only in your memory, but in the lives of the creatures that their ashes help sustain.^{[12]
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- Check out Eternal Reefs and Neptune Memorial Reefs for more information. Costs vary widely depending on your needs, and can range from $3000 to $15,000.

13

Make a paperweight.

Put the ashes in a knickknack to keep your loved one close. By storing their ashes in a beautiful glass paperweight, you can keep them and their memory close by. Keep the paperweight at your desk or on your nightstand and know they are always near.^{[13]
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- Spirit Pieces makes stunning paperweights from ashes starting at around $100.

14

Make an ornament.

Remember your loved ones during the holidays with a beautiful decoration. Some companies create decorative baubles to store ashes in. Make a decoration to hang in your window or Christmas tree so your loved one is with you during the holidays.^{[14]
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- For about $120, you can buy a gorgeous ornament from Spirit Pieces to store your loved one's ashes in.
- Many independent crafters make glass knickknack urns on Etsy as well.

15

Use the ashes in fireworks.

Give your loved one a last hurrah with a fireworks display. This idea gives the notion of “going out with a bang” a new meaning. Celebrate a life by using the cremated remains in a stunning fireworks display via Heavenly Stars Fireworks. This tribute to your loved one will be seen from miles away.^{[15]
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16

Launch the ashes into space.

Honor their life by sending their ashes into the final frontier. Companies like Celestix, Aura Flights, and Elysium Space offer a variety of space burial services, including bringing cremains to space and back or taking the ashes to deep space for a permanent “burial.”^{[16]
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- These services can run anywhere from a couple thousand dollars to $12,000—this may seem like a lot, but remember that the average cost of a funeral in the U.S. is around $9000.

17

Send the remains to the moon.

Remember your loved one every time you look at the night sky. There are companies, including Elysium and Celestis, that will take samples of your loved one’s ashes into outer space and store them on the moon for about $10,000. While you can’t send all of their ashes to the moon—only a few grams—it’s a meaningful and unique way to memorialize someone you cared for once they have gone “into that good night.”^{[17]
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