Would it be too weird if I asked you to save your dryer lint for me? Okay. I agree! But dryer lint is highly flammable making it the perfect base for your own fire starters. Got a wood stove? Know someone who does? Ever want to start a bonfire quickly? These are the easiest and cheapest fire starters you can make.
Supplies
- An older pot (translation: Don’t use your Calphalon one)
- Paper towel rolls, toilet paper rolls and/or wrapping paper rolls
- An old soup ladle (the cheap plastic ones at Panera Bread are perfect)
- Several old wax candles
- Scissors & a tape measure
- A big soup can (mine measures 7 inches tall & 4 inches across, the small 15 ounce cans are too small)
- Wax paper
- All the dryer lint you can acquire
Instructions
1. Fill your pot with water just like you would if you were making pasta. Place your big soup can in the pot. Break up several candles into the can. Melt on medium heat for about 20 minutes until wax is completely melted. (You really don’t want the water boiling, just hot enough to slowly melt the wax).
2. While the wax is melting, cut up your paper towel, toilet paper or wrapping paper rolls into sections that measure about 1 1/2 inches. For example, you would cut a toilet paper roll into three pieces making small rounds. As long as you’ve saved enough dryer lint, you should plan on making at least 60 fire starters. So you’ll need to cut up that many rounds.
3. Lay out your 60ish rounds on several pieces of wax paper right next to the stove. (You don’t want hot wax dripping on your countertop). Jam-pack each round with as much dryer lint as you can stuff in there. The close up shots proved to be disgusting so I left them out!
4. Drape more wax paper on any counter or stovetop space that hot wax could get spilled on when you are transferring the wax. Another strategy (if the wax is 100% liquified) is to just turn off the stove and hold the can with a pot holder while working with the wax in the next step).
5.) Scoop one small ladle of melted wax in each round. Let the rounds sit for several hours before storing. It’s that easy. And cheap. Not as fun as making brownies, but gets the job done.
A last tip: Cardboard egg cartons work wonderful as well ~ if you can still find them! Typically, the eggs I buy always seemed to be packed in styrofoam.
Thanks for sharing with your wood burning, fire starting friends. And as always, thanks for being such wonderful readers!!
These would be REALLY handy for us this time of year. Thank you for sharing!
Very cool
I loved it great idea
These are some great tips to remember. Thank you’
Very unique way of making a firestarter…never would have known of this befor…Thanks for the great info!
Wow! Will definitely be making these
I am gonna try this
You can get old ugly candles at thrift stores for cheap too.
Timely info!
Really great ideas. Wish “Raise Your Garden” came out in print form.
This is an interesting strategy for making use of items that might otherwise be thrown away: dryer lint, old wax candles, toilet paper rolls.
👍
good quarantine project
Awesome
Not something I would make.
These would be great for out outdoor firepit! Thanks for the directions!
Clever and neat idea if the world ever came down to that but I don’t think I would have the patience but would be willing to try that mehtod.
I’ve done this for years. They work great. I keep a bag hanging on wall for the lint to go in. Very handy for camping in damp conditions. Put 1 in an empty soup can, good hand warmer when it is cold. Thanks for the useful article!
Those would come in so handy for people who often build fires.
While this sounds like a great idea (and the only way I’ve heard of using dryer lint), it’s too much work for me.
Love this idea. We make them using cardboard egg cartons. Thanks.
Perfect idea to keep on hand for us to use in wood stove during a power outage.
Great idea!
these are awesome. I make mine almost the same way!
Thanks for the tips! I’ll definitely do this in the future.
Great post!
Wow. This is amazing and so good to know. Thank you
This sounds like a great idea!
Lot’s of good tips. Thank you!
This is a great idea! I am going to start saving my wax now.
Thanks for this, I like how I already have everything there to do this.
This is an awesome idea! I’ve never made my own before.
thanks for the great information and tips as always
Great idea! I can’t wait to try it. Thanks for posting!
That’s a really good tip for camping. Much better than buying them.
The fire starters really help out when I have to cook outdoors.
What a great idea.
Cool idea
Those could come in handy – as one day I do hope to do some camping
Very handy info, I will make these for camping trips!
What a clever & practical way to recycle and reuse everyday household materials! Thank you!
What a great idea and very easy. I’ll have to keep this in mind for my fireplace buddies. But this would also be great for camping. Also keeping in survival kits.
great idea!
Great ideas!! Love this!!
Fingers crossed
We save dryer lint for a fire starter, too. I like the idea of putting it inside a paper towel core. Thanks for the post.
There has been a few times had difficulty getting a fire going, but didn’t have anything on hand to help. Now, I’ll be ready.
Making your own Fire Starters is such a great idea. We love to go camping so this are perfect for us to make ourselves to use.
What a great idea!
I’s be concerned about the fumes from synthetic materials in the lint. Not for me.
I have never made a big batch before but I will now. These are great and they are part of my emergency supplies.
I never learned this in girl scouts. Good to know,
Never thought about this!! Great idea for the chiminea!!!
if you’re in a pinch, cotton balls and petroleum jelly works
I will make some of these. I love to make useful items out of trash
This is was very interesting. I showed my husband and he said “you will probably burn the house down trying to make them”! He is probably right as I am a Klutz in capital letters!
Great idea. We use to make fire starters kind of similar with the wax but out of pinecones, and we also made pitch sticks too, out of pine sap and some other things when out camping to keep with us.
I like this ides I will try this for sure .
Interesting! I’ll have to start saving my lint.
Cool
This is a great idea. Thank you
I hope to add a fire pit this summer so I’ve bookmarked the page.
Thank you, we need this!
What a neat idea, I thought that dryer lint was meant to go directly in the trash can! Now I know dryer lint is good for something. I am going to try this!
My sister has an outdoor firepit. I will share this idea with her.If we all came up with interesting ideas like this to recycle the world would be a better place.An interesting idea a family member shared with me was using old credit cards as pot scrappers to get the crud off after cooking.This works great without damaging the pot.Thanks for sharing .
What a clever idea.
Great idea. Thank you
I’d never thought about making these before. Thanks for the idea!
Great for camping!!!
I really have been enjoying your site!
This is a great! I always have a hard time starting bonfires when I’m camping. This will definitely help.
You learn something new everyday #truth 🙂
Great info!
Good ideas thank you.
This sounds easy enoght.
I love this idea. I do save my dryer lint for emergency fire starters, too.
I make these for my fireplace!
A great idea to recycle waste products!
Such a cool and fun project. I would enjoy doing this also!
So nice. This is great !!
Thanks for the informative post.
Very cool! Thank you for the info. I’m sure my husband would love this
I never thought about using dryer lint before, thanks for the information
The dryer lint is ingenious! I just use paper and small sticks, or empty cereal boxes also cardboard.
Thanks for the instructions. These are awesome and I am looking forward to making some soon!
These are great ideas for indoor fireplace as well as outdoor firepits
Nice, just like scouts!
I live in a rural area of Texas and this is very useful information.
What a great idea!
neat idea!
Wow .. I never thought of this! Great ideas!
A bit daring I’d say but doesn’t look too hard.
Good idea and recycling. I have used the Vaseline and cotton ball trick when camping.
I bookmarked this. Dryer lint is useful for something!