DIY Dryer Lint Fire Starters: How To Make, Cheap & Easy

Why Dryer Lint Works

You probably know one of the most common causes of house fires start in the laundry room.

According to FEMA’s U.S. Fire Administration, each year there are approximately 2,900 home clothes dryer fires reported resulting in an estimated 5 deaths, 100 injuries and a loss of approximately $35 million in property.

The leading cause of these fires: Failure to clean the dryer!

Needless to say, dryer lint is a great fire starter. So, not only is this a great project to inexpensively produce an effective means to start your campfires or wood stove fires, it’s also a good way to keep your home dryer vent clean.

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Kid-Friendly Project

We decided to create unique starters that feature entertaining trivia questions about our favorite bear … Smokey!

If you have kids, these types of camping crafts projects are cool to do at the campsite or at home in advance of your camping trip. And, because our firewood starters don’t use melted wax and messy sawdust, they are safe and clean for kids to help!

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Tips For Collecting The Recycled Materials

It can take a while to accumulate enough dryer lint and empty toilet paper rolls to make these firestarters … especially if you are making a big batch to give away as gifts … so … use a container to store the lint and rolls until you are ready to do the project.

The lint can get a little messy so I like to use a freezer bag to collect it and place it in a location I don’t forget about. LOL

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Easy DIY Camping Project How To Make Homemade Fire Starters Using Dryer Lint

Things You’ll Need For Making Fire Starters

This popular method to make makeshift DIY fire starters uses normal household items, most of which are waste!

1. Dryer lint. You won’t get a big ball of dryer lint by doing one load of laundry. I recommend placing a large jar or plastic bag in your laundry room so every time you do a load of clothes you can clean out your lint trap and store the dryer lint in a Ziplock bag. When you have saved enough lint to do this easy project, you’ll be ready to make the starters.
2. Empty toilet paper tubes. You can use any type of cardboard tubes, if you use paper towel tubes, cut them into about 3 small pieces so they are about the same size as a toilet paper roll. Start early so you have enough time to collect as many tubes as you need to create the number of starters you’d like.
3. Wax paper. You’ll need a piece of wax paper large enough to wrap around the cardboard tube. The wax is the accelerant that will help ignite the cardboard tube and natural fibers/pet hair you’ve accumulated from your dryer lint filter screen. (You probably didn’t know dog hair and cat furballs were so useful, did you? ha ha)
4. Outer paper. You can just use regular paper, a sheet of newspaper, or get our patterns with the fun trivia questions about Smokey Bear.
5. Scissors (optional).

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Process To Make Dryer Lint Fire Starters

1. Stuff the wad of dryer lint lint inside the tube … pack it full but don’t over-stuff it because the starter needs enough oxygen for ignition.
2. Print the Camping For Foodies fire starter outer wrapper patterns or just use plain 8.5″x 11″ paper. If you just use plain paper the fire starters will still work but won’t be nearly as much fun!
3. Cut (or tear if you don’t have scissors) a piece of wax paper to approximately 6” x 7” and roll the stuffed tube inside the wax paper.
4. Now roll that in my cute little DIY fire starter wrappers with trivia questions about our favorite bear … Smokey! Make sure the long end of the roll is set on the long end of the paper so after you roll it, the trivia question is visible on the finished fire starter. (Or, you can just use boring plain paper LOL)
5. Twist the ends to hold everything together (like a wrapped piece of hard candy).
   You’re done!
6. If you are giving these cute homemade fire starters as a gift: Just make a bunch of them and put them in a fun decorative gift bag or a gift basket with a DIY jar of hot cocoa mix and boom … you’ve got a gift to give to your favorite campfire-loving friends!

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Make Them In Bulk

Once you get things set up, you can almost create a mini assembly line to create a bundle of these great fire starters for every camping family you know … but don’t rush too much or it might begin to feel like work! LOL

When I realized how quickly and efficiently a fire starts with these, I began using them at home in our indoor wood-burning fireplace and our backyard wood-burning fire pit too. So, I started making even bigger batches to use at home during the winter months. The main trick is to allow yourself sufficient time to collect all of the cardboard paper rolls and lint necessary to keep up with your demands.

These homemade fire starters make awesome little gifts on their own … or … they can be combined with more substantial camping gifts too!

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Other DIY Fire Starter Ideas

DIY homemade fire starters can be made with different combinations of pine cones, egg cartons, cotton balls, shredded paper, melted paraffin wax, petroleum jelly or just about anything else that is highly flammable. 

Pre-Made Camping Fire Starters

We’ve used lots of different methods to get our camping fires going.

If you’re more interested in checking out the scenic views at your campsite than making your own fire starters … and … want commercially produced fire starters camping products, check out our Fire Starters Camping Enthusiasts Must Have post for some really cool options!

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What Comes Next?

Having an awesome fire starter is just one step in creating your campfire. Learn how to start a campfire no matter where you are camping and what kind of weather conditions exist.

 

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More Campfire Activities For Kids

Once the kids are finished making fire starters and have used them to start your campfire, they might get a little bored unless you have more activities lined up.

Check out our 10 Fun Activities And Campfire Games For Families With Kids post for ideas to keep everyone smiling around the fire!

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First: Make Fire Starters DIY. Second: Start Fire. Third: Get Campfire Cooking Equipment Ready.

I know, you are probably thinking … does she always think of food when it comes to campfires? Well, yes … I certainly do!

I also think about “how” I am going to be cooking over the campfire and what special campfire cooking equipment I will need to finish creating our meals.

By the way, cooking over a campfire is one of my favorite RV tips and hacks to keep my rig’s kitchen clean!

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Making Fire Starters Is The Beginning To A Great Camp Meal