EASY Dryer Lint Fire Starters DIY

Stop throwing your dryer lint in the garbage and start making these easy dryer lint fire starters with this DIY tutorial using recycled materials. Making dryer lint fire starters is the perfect craft activity for children to make and to use camping! Learn how to assemble your own today!

I go through a lot of laundry in my household with two toddlers and a husband. There’s always a muddy load of laundry needing a quick wash and repeat. There are surprisingly a lot of things that you can make with dryer lint.

I remember as a girl guide making fire starters with dryer lint. When we started preparing for our upcoming camping trips I new I had to do it again with my children.

It’s super simple to make DIY fire starters to help light a camp fire with a match and some dry kindling. They can also be used to light a wood stove in the house, or given as a sweet little gift with a classy saying or verse about lighting a fire.

Use these dryer lint fire starters to get your fire started !

DRYER LINT FIRE STARTERS

For this DIY craft activity you’ll need to start collecting some of your recycling products. Such as paper towel or toilet paper rolls. Paper towel, waxed paper and of course dryer lint.

You’ll also need some vaseline or petroleum jelly to help light the fire.

I suggest keeping a mason jar in your laundry room to collect dryer lint, and once its full you can make a few fire starters to tuck away in the trailer with the camping supplies or the wood stove box.

Try switching to homemade laundry detergent to guarantee that your lint won’t smell like toxic chemicals when the fire is lit!

GRAB THE RECIPE FOR HOMEMADE LAUNDRY DETERGENT HERE

HOW TO MAKE DRYER LINT FIRE STARTERS

Making dryer lint fire starters is a fun activity to do with kids to demonstrate reusing recycling items to make into something new and useful.

Kids also are very intrigued with fire and how to make fires. This activity can easily lead to a summer fire safety lesson.

Go ahead and gather your supplies and get ready to make a ton of fire starters to light all your campfires with!

STUFF LINT INTO TOLIET PAPER ROLL

Stuff as much of the lint into the toilet paper roll as possible. A 1 litre mason jar easily fills three of four toilet paper rolls full.

RUB VASELINE AROUND THE TOLIET PAPER ROLL

Vaseline is highly flammable and sets the fire starter into a quick ball of fire. Sure you can start your fire without a fire starter, but these are just too fun to make and really get a fire going when you’re out in the woods and cold!

I highly recommend not skipping this step for a better success rate and a quicker start to your fire! The sooner the fire, the sooner the mashmallows!

WRAP WITH PAPER TOWEL

Secure the lint and vaseline in and around the toilet paper using paper. I chose to use paper towel, but there are unlimited options.

Why not have the kids colour a picture with crayons and wrap the toilet paper roll in their artwork? Another option could be using newspaper pages.

WRAP WITH WAXED PAPER

Wrapping the rolls with waxed paper is the final step of making your fire starters.

Wrap, twist and tie using jute or yarn. I chose to wrap ours like little campfire burritos and taped them shut.

TIE ENDS CLOSED

Now it’s time to put those fire starters to use! My toddler was more than excited to test it out in our fire pit. Simply place the fire starter in your fire pit on some dry coals. Surround with a kindling, and ignite!

There’s no need to disassemble your fire starter, but this little guy thought it was a gift and needed to be unwrapped!

That’s it, there you have it DIY fire starters made with all that dryer lint you’ve accumulated from your laundry chores.

Check out more fire starter ideas and preparedness info from my friend Angela.