Handy Dandy Fire Starters

I seem to be pretty hit and miss with my posts lately but, eh, whatcha gonna do?  Life has a way of being, well, life.

But, I did have the forethought to take pictures the day I made a batch of fire starters, just in case I had the time to sit and write about it.  So, here they are and they are super simple to make at relatively no cost because they use only three things that I usually have around that house (and maybe you do too).

Here's what you need:  egg cartons (not the foam kind), dryer lint, and household wax.  See...simple.

Rip the lid off the egg carton (you can use that for fire tinder or just recycle it).  Line up all the ones you will use, side by side.  I normally put them paper towels because I tend to make a mess no matter what I'm doing.  

Now pull off pieces of lint and stuff them in the egg holes.  Wait, is that the right term for that?  Egg holes?  Well, you get it...put it in the spots the eggs go.  There's no magic amount, about half full...just enough to give it a good absorber for the wax.

Now melt the wax in a double boiler type set up.  I have an old metal pitcher that I set inside a saucepan.  One package of wax will usually make 10 dozen starters.  When the wax is melted, just pour it over the top of the lint/egg cartons.  Just enough to make sure the lint will adhere down in the carton but you don't have to soak it.  

Here is a close up of what it will look like....

And here are all of them laid out on the table drying...I made 11 dozen this go-round and probably should have stayed with 10 to give them a bit more wax on each.

Once they are all cooled/dry, just rip them apart in individual sections.  All done!  

I store them in a basket near the fireplace for easy keeping.  They light quickly and I usually only use one to start the fire...no other newspaper/tinder/starter material needed.

We use almost exclusively wood heat in our home which means I start a fire just about every morning along with the coffee.  I make up a batch of these at the beginning of the fall and then another around January and that sees me through.  

What's a little frightening is that I have enough dryer lint to make the these batches...but living on a farm and having 3 kids who are in sports makes enough laundry to produce a massive amount of lint.

Ok...so there's my handy dandy fire starters.  Hope they work for you as well as they do for me!