Repurpose: Turning Trash Into Fire

Winter is slowly approaching.  Well, in Mississippi it is very very slow.  My mother calls to let me know that its actually cold where she lives.  My response is always the same: quit rubbing it in before I kick your butt.  I hate summer time. It's full of bugs, heat, sweat, stinky sweaty people, grass that needs to be cut and me making a desperate attempt to turn my blinding white legs into shiny, smooth, golden brown summer legs.  Yeah, that never happens.  I celebrate the changing of the leaves and look forward to nights of hot chocolate, fluffy socks and a fire. 

I am totally hooked on fire.  We have central heat but nothing warms you like a fire.  It's so peaceful to sit in front of a fire with some hot chocolate, all of the lights off and just watch the flames dance.  It's relaxing.

I try my hardest every year to make a fire.  Occasionally I get it. On the times that I do manage to get it started the kids quickly huddle around the fire with their favorite blankets attempting to stay warm while all of the windows are open, the smoke alarms are screaming and I am running from room to room pressing the reset button which does absolutely nothing because this small fire is producing more smoke than a forest fire.  I finally get everything calmed down and we relax until the next day..when it all starts over. 

I'm sure that more experienced fire starters don't require half a dozen starter logs to make 2 small logs burn.  Well, more power to you.  Unless you are going to volunteer to come start my fires every night during the winter don't talk to me.  I ran out of starter logs one night last year and I was determined to make fire so I started searching the house for things that burn easily.  And then it hit me..dryer lint.  They always warn you to clean your dryer's lint trap so you don't burn your house down.  So I grabbed some lint and made fire.. it didn't work.  I don't know how dryer fires happen so frequently.  As soon as I set the lint on fire it was gone.  It probably had something to do with me wanting it to burn for a while.  I'm sure if it had been in my dryer it would have burned for weeks. 

I wasn't giving up because I didn't want to have to tell the man to build a fire for the poor helpless girl.  Next I packed lint into a toilet paper roll.  I figured that the cardboard would make it burn a little longer.  Yep!  Perfect...score..yes...I did it!  Worked perfectly!  I was so proud of my fire building skills and even more proud of the fact that I made a fire starting log with things that I was going to throw in the trash because there was no other use for them.
I love making things for the house that are completely free.  By making my own starter logs I save a little cash every winter.  I don't have to worry about running out because there are always toilet paper rolls and dryer lint in the house!

It's very simple to make.  Simply stuff an empty toiler paper roll with dryer lint.  Place in fire place or fire pit and burn. It works just as well as starter logs.

Does anyone have a homemade product that they would like to share with everyone?