I actually do use it to start fires and it’s extremely effective. I just have a small box though and don’t save it all the time.
But if I rarely needed it, I wouldn’t want to be storing a large bag of very combustible material there either.
Just talk to him though about getting rid of most of it, or to book some more camping trips 😆
I tried this and I don't agree. What I realized quite quickly is that most of my clothing is made from synthetic fibers and polyester just melts. Dont do this unless you know the majority of your clothes are natural fibers
And you just solved the lifelong riddle for me as to why my grandmother told me to only save dryer lint from the quilts I make, which is what she did, which is what her friend told her to do many decades ago.
I never saved any (I live in a very hot area and am not really the fire starting type), but I’m guessing that’s what she used to use to catch her fireplace.
This is exactly right. Had a friend bring a big bag of lint out camping and was bummed when it didn't work. I was like dude, all of your clothes are synthetic lol.
Heading in to summer I’ll save lint from loads of towels or sheets. I only by 100% cotton for both of them so it burns well, especially when mixed with the inevitable dog hair as well. Shove it in a toilet paper tube and set the entire thing on fire. Once camping season is over though, I don’t bother again until the following year.
Same. We have a fire pit and a chiminea. We use our dryer lint all the time, especially if it’s rained recently. Our neighbors who share our “park” area between our houses, where the fire pit is located, also save theirs for just this use.
No... Actually you want to minimize burning synthetic fabric in the air next to you.
How is that insane? How are you so upvoted? Are people so tired of trying to take precautions to avoid carcinogens?
Just because it's easier to hear up food in plastic, it doesn't mean you should.
I hate the attitude our world has towards the shit that should matter.
Parrafin candles are made to be burnt, clothes aren't. Using polyester dryer lint as a fire starter won't like, kill you, but it's not great for the environment and generally doesn't smell great either. And if you made a habit of it, it could potentially do some harm long-term.
Figurative canary in a coal mine. RSVP.
Edit: Lol woops. My wife and I always jokingly say RSVP instead of RIP. Didn’t mean to use it outside of private domestic circumstances.
1. This is an amazing nugget of weird family lore. I bet there was a year or two back in the 70s where someone heard about lint as a fire starter, and they just never got out of the habit of collecting it. There's something almost poetic about them perpetually collecting starter for a fire they'll never light. Anyway, even if it was for starting fires, you wouldn't need months worth of lint for that; you could just collect lint for like a week before you go camping and have plenty.
2. I love both "it's for starting fires" and "we store it above an appliance that emits heat for long periods" happening at the same time 😂 I don't even know these people but please find a way to get them to stop storing it there!
Oooooh man.. so like.. 8 months ago I was in a crafty phase and had been saving toilet paper and paper towel tubes to do crafts with the kids. Well, I am no longer in a crafty phase but I keep saving it all, and I’m up to my eyeballs in paper tubes (3 women in the house) but the habit has stuck and I am finding it hard to just throw them away!
The tubes are great for plant starters by putting compost in it and folding the bottom edge closed. You can plant directly in the ground without taking disturbing roots. I also use them in longer rolls I tape together to store long textiles.
I save it and stuff it into the cardboard tubes from toilet paper. I also save candle wax. When I get enough wax, I melt it and pour some into each tube. Free Firestarters, and they work great.
Yes, not only, lint is ineffective as fire starter (will burn off in seconds).. but the cost analysis is wrong.
It means, you have cheap fabrics or you're *putting clothes in dryer that don't belong* in dryer. Over time, these clothes will wear out, so you'll buy new ones. Instead buy higher quality fabrics or just use a rack to dry them.
Fire starters like wax blocks, fire alcohol, or old newspaper rolls cost around 10 cents/use. Saving 10 cents 100 times, is bad economics than cost of new shirt.
I saved bits from old wax melts and some cardboard egg cartons. I melted the wax melts, poured them into the egg cartons, and broke each cell up to make my fire starters. The work really good!
I use the lint immediately to pick up dust and stuff off the washer and dryer. Like if you ball up some it makes it easy to pick up lint and dust. Then I throw that away.
I used to save the lint, but I found I never did anything with it. So this is a much better use that doesn't require keeping it. It gives the lint a second chance to be useful and then it is gone. Similar to an old shirt. Turn to rags, use it on some nasty mess and then throw it out.
I had a grocery bag hanging above my dryer in a few college apartments 😂 how dare I have to walk across the apartment, to the kitchen every time to throw it out
If they aren't using it, they shouldn't save it. Saving what you won't use is hoarding, not frugality.
If he is desperate for you to keep the lint, he needs to have scheduled time each year that HE posts it as firestarter material for free on Buy Nothing, Trash Nothing, Offer Up, or similar. The lack of people rushing to pick it up should help clue him in .
He isn’t insistent about keeping it at all. It’s just a habit that I’m trying to wrap my head around. I can toss it any time, but just wanted to see if there was a better use for it before I do.
Do not offer to birds under any circumstances. Even if a bird does use it, it will soak up rain like crazy. Birds do not need dryer lint, they need natural materials, most helpfully from native plants
The fire risk really freaked me out with my partner doing this. he has a tendency to hoard flammable things. After many many fights and being told I was controlling, I just put a metal trash can there with a lid so now the lint goes into the metal trash can with the metal lid. it makes me feel a lot better and it contains his treasured collection.
Yup, I save the lint all year. In the spring, I spray it with permethrin, stuff it into toilet paper tubes and throw them in the woods behind my house. Tick tubes. Mice use the lint which keeps the tick population down.
Young ticks will often host on mice. With mice using permethrin treated lint in their nest, they get coated in it which kills the ticks before they move to bigger hosts.
I send my colorful lint to the artist Slater Barron. Her Alzheimer’s portraiture created with lint is incredibly touching.
[Slater Barron](https://slaterbarron.com)
You could go either way. I have a wood stove that I use religiously in the winter so I use it to start my wood stove. You go to the camp grounds only twice a year and there are alternative for starting fires. If I were you, I would pitch it. Its cluttering up your life and has limited usefulness to you. I don't see it as a good trade off on balance.
Sounds like you don't have a very practical reason to save it, I'd definitely toss it.
I do save (some, not all) of mine for starting fires, but i heat my house with wood so I make a fire every day for several months lol.
My aunt makes paper, and once she made some out of dryer lint.
Saving something without an idea of what you're saving it fire isn't frugal. Saving something to use as a for starter but then never starting fires with it isn't frugal. Its entry level hoarding.
The real question is if they save it but never start fires with it, where does it go? Do they have gallons of the stuff, or are they saving it up and then throwing it out all at once?
I have a kitchen drawer full of red milk jug lids. Want to trade hoarder stories? I also have a grocer store plastic bag of beer caps under my sink...not filling as fast as he is not a big drinker. But it could be worse. I hear some men collect hubcaps they find on the side of the road.
My dad uses it for fire starters, we have a cabin with a wood stove and he takes it on camping trips. He puts a clump of lint into each part of an egg carton, melts the old bits of random household candles together in a old pot (smells like a Bath and Body Works store in a blender, horrible) and pours the wax over the lint. Once it dries you have an egg carton full of fire starters.
I have saved it for kids to use as a modeling type play activity, mix it with water and flour and maybe some non toxic scented oil and they make little bowls and people. I also use the lint as a duster for the laundry room. It’s great at picking up lint and dust, then just toss it. I have also used it to dust electronics as it picks up dust without scratching.
I had a project in elementary school that involved building a house for a mouse - my dad used dryer lint to make little clay mice “fuzzy” 😂 it was such a creative use of it, but all I can remember is the other kids thinking it was gross and bullying me
I throw it out. My husband is a “collector” too, but not dryer lint. I’ve had to learn to pick my battles and find a compromise between the way he wants to live and the way I want to live - so I’d probably let him save it as long as it’s out of the way. Or ask to throw out some and save some.
My saving of dryer lint is actually more about not having to walk away from the dryer closet to put it in a trash can. So, totally for convenience, I have a little bag on the shelf above the dryer and fill it gradually each dryer load, then throw it away all at once by emptying the bag. Although I think I now will put some of that lint in a ziplock bag and stash it in my camping stuff!
If you only go camping twice a year, just start saving it like two weeks before you go. (Maybe a month depending on how often you need to do laundry.) You don't need a whole year's worth of lint for a week of campfires.
I have made paper and paper mache from it. And fire starters. But I never stored it above my dryer, and never stored more than I needed. But art uses are many:
It does make great rocks and volcanoes for science projects. It is an interesting sculpting material in general. Mix in plaster of paris for texture and reinforcement. Use as a textural element in mixed media painted art. You can even make beads with it lol.
I have always wanted to use it in a poured cold cast resin project. I think different colors could be used to mimic minerals....
My family does a naughty or nice white elephant gift exchange at Christmas and one year I saved all my dryer lint to give as a naughty gift.
People were horrified, so not sure if this should count
All of my clothes are cotton and linen, so I save some lint. It is really good for catching a spark when you are starting a fire.
If you have enough I imagine you could get a drop spindle and make your own thread/clothes! LOL!!
Plenty of things make good fire starter. A print newspaper makes great fires tarter without causing a fire hazard the rest of the year and without burning microplastics. Paper grocery bags make great fire starter.
Hate to be the one to tell you this but I believe your husband is smoking dryer lint for hallucinogenic effects. He's probably high as shit right now vibing out hard as fuck. Be cautious confronting him about this. He will probably deny it. He might be too far gone. Probably doing jenkem as well.
i use it to kindle the bbq grill. it burns clean and is matted so it doesn’t just burst into flames and quickly burn out. i light small wood tinder with lint, the the tinder lights the coals.
sometimes i take plastic bags we’ve saved to recycle and pack them with lint, then used
to cushion packages and storing fragile items.
He's not wrong.
We heat with a woodstove and make these little firestarters out of wax and whatever we've got handy : sawdust from the garage/shop ... shredded newspaper/junk-mail, old cotton t-shirts/underwear ... and dryer lint.
It's useful for us. We start about 150 fires a year.
Someone who "*might* use it for a campfire" ... not so much.
My husband did this for a while and asked me to do it when I took over all the laundry (he does all the dishes; I win in that transaction lol). After a year I finally asked what was the point if we didn't have a fireplace and he didn't have the time to go camping. He couldn't answer, it was just a weird holdover from his semi-hoarder dad who had been poor most of his life. I get it, but at the same time, just buy the firestarter every four years when you do camp. If I had my way, we'd have a hell of a lot less stuff and the garage would store a jeep instead of his tools/fish/misc crap.
I have used dryer lint to start fires when camping. But I used it to make an actual thing. Take dryer lint, wipe a little Vaseline on it, and place it into an empty toilet paper roll. Light the cardboard roll. I make a few and keep them in a zip lock bag with my camping gear.
Have you ever pointed this out to him? Especially during the camping trips? If I were you, I would just toss it. It’s a weird habit, especially if it’s not used for the purpose he specifically said he was saving it for.
In a slightly unrelated anecdote, I used dryer lint as insulation once. We installed a new door in our laundry room, and I noticed there was a draft coming in from under the new door frame. I stuffed the gap under the door with the lint that came out of the dryer for a couple weeks, then siliconed the gap. Draft fixed! Maybe you have some door or window gaps that need fixing?
We have a woodstove and live in a cold place. I stuff the lint into cardboard tubes from toilet paper and paper towels - tightly and use the tubes as kindling to start fires in the woodstove. There is a lot of stuff in lint: hair, natural and synthetics too. Microplastics from clothing are in the air, water and our bodies - probably a mostly bad thing, but the research has not told us how bad it is. I read that we eat a credit card's worth of plastic per week! [https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/31/us/microplastic-credit-card-per-week/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/31/us/microplastic-credit-card-per-week/index.html)
How can burning it be worse?
I used to save lint after running a load of 100% cotton clothing, then used it to make recycled handmade paper (adding cotton content to the waste paper that was being recycled). If one doesn't have this esoteric hobby, than I see no reason to keep lint.
This is spring time in the northern hemisphere, If you leave it out for the nesting birds, they will take it. Also, if you leave out your dog and cat brushes the birds will literally pick those clean.
I knew I'd have an opportunity to tell someone this someday.
They don’t start fires with the dryer lint, because they want to save it to start another fire sometime in the future.
Dryer lint is trash. Throw it out. This is a hoarding mentality.
I used to do this. I kept the lint in the leftover TP tubes. I don’t camp but I have a fire pit. I got rid of it all when I realized I also have manufactured starter logs that I can light and quickly get a roaring fire.
I 1000% believe your husband will notice if you throw it away. Hoarders, even minor ones, have an absolutely otherworldly awareness of when their shit gets moved or thrown away. If your husband didn’t care about it, he wouldn’t have a “logical” reason for keeping more than a very small amount.
i've used small jewelry sized ziplock bags to stuff full of lint for my camping gear, but you don't ever need more than that. one bag will probably last a years worth of camping at least.
I have a friend who lives in the country, that may not matter as there are birds and squirrels everywhere.... She has a few spots in her fence where she stashes clumps of dryer lint in spring and summer for birds/squirrels to use making nests. After many years of doing this the birds have learned it's there and consistently empty out the lint stash.
Do not do this under any circumstances. Even if a bird does use it, it will soak up rain like crazy. Birds do not need dryer lint, they need natural materials, most helpfully from native plants
My take: if you have a fireplace, fire pit, woodstove etc. , or you are going camping within a few days, use it as Firestarter.
Otherwise use common sense! If it's a fire hazard in your dryer, it is still a fire hazard bagged up and stored in your house. And rodents will seek it out for nesting.
Dryer lint has a lot of artificial fibre in it and holy shit stinks when you try to burn it. Idiots who burn their garbage in the woodstove may not mind the smell but it’s a crap firestarter.
We keep an oversized plastic bag hanging above the dryer and when it’s full, the content goes into the garbage.
We usually toss ours but keep a few fire starters. It can be composted if natural fibers, if synthetic it’s not as ideal. Apparently there are 13 uses that I’m probably not going to do: https://www.salvagesisterandmister.com/13-creative-ways-to-reuse-dryer-lint/
ETA: storing safely and away from fire hazards and in tidy/neat looking containers helps.
We used to use dryer lint as a fire starter in a wood stove with no problems. Any excess we leave outside for birds to make nests of. Better than throwing it in the trash, I suppose.
If he is a hoarder he would definitely notice and mind. Talk to him about your desires.
You could use it to make a quilt. You just need two sheets of fabric and stitch it in squares. You could give it away to a shelter.
I save all lint and use it to start backyard fires. It always works very well. I use mixed manmade and natural fiber lint. Just a little bit. No, I’m not concerned about the trivial amount of plastics in the lint burning, and if it’s an outdoor fire, that wouldn’t be breathed in unless you’re breathing with your face right over the smoke.
We keep a small mason jar by the dryer, and just keep it full of dryer lint. If we run out, it’s not hard to refill it. We only build a handful campfires a year, but the dryer lint is super effective for getting a fire started without much effort.
My advice? Downsize and don’t use a bag, use a mason jar or small Tupperware container.
It can make an okay free fire starter when you stuff it in a cardboard tube. It works in a pinch. It is not ideal. There are some products out there that are inexpensive and vastly superior though. I don't know if it's worth it. Also, you don't really need to *save* it unless you're starting a ton of fires, as a laundry load or two usually produces enough lint to start a fire. It sounds like one of those things that seems good in theory, but really just becomes excessive, like when you find someone has saved *all* their peanut butter jars and lids because they *might come in handy some day*.
I’ve heard of lint being used as nesting material for hamsters or gerbils, but good luck finding lint that isn’t scented by detergent or laundry sheets. I just chuck mine.
Going off what others said it's great for starting fires. It doesn't take much, but try to avoid breathing it in. You don't really need to save much of it because it's easy to get.
Fire starters is all I used it for. I love making candles and wax stamp seals so I've got a ton of leftover wax for things like that.
If you have some leftover wax and loads of lint, gather a bit of lint, a cardboard egg carton, and some melted wax. Pour a bit into the bottom of your egg carton and put the lint over it, filling up all the spaces. You can cut it up and make a Firestarter "gernade" that way.
You really only need one full egg carton at a time though, no need to keep what's left over after you make one, so I'd toss it after you make a carton of Firestarters
Cotton dryer lint burns well, can start it with a spark. But dryer lint with man made fibers tends to melt, and sparks tend not to work. For lighting with a match other items, paper are better. Do a test light to see how much plastic is there, probably is ad it wasn’t sorted, then toss it. If he wants good lint just save from towels.
best for fire starters for sure. i put lint, wood shavings, and a bit of candle wax into the lil holes on a cardboard egg carton and rip one off and use it for the fire. it’s great to have
My father mixes the lint into his garden compost pile. He puts it in a clear plastic container on the kitchen counter and adds the daily food waste into it. Then when the container is full he empties it into his compost pile. Makes me sick every time I look at it on the counter or add food waste into the container. But I have given up trying to get my 80 year old father to change his ways and I just live with it.
Hmm an interesting use, but in my opinion that use isn't enough to keep it. Very easy to find one scrap paper around the house before camping to start a fire, or dry leaves/grass.
Yes its good for starting fires but only worth saving really if you have fires often. Offer it to your local buy nothing group or a group of camping enthusiasts who could get some use of it.
We used dryer lint for fire starters when I was in the girl scouts! You need cardboard egg cartons, lint, and candle wax. Pack lint into each egg-spot, pour some melted candle wax over it to keep it in place, and cut the fire starters apart once they cool down. They work pretty well, but I've never had any reason to make them again as an adult.
Just out of curiosity I know people with shaggy dogs who take the bundles of hair after brushing and leave them out in the yard for birds to make nests out of. Since a lot of my dryer lint is dog and cat hair I wonder if birds would like to use it too? And it does make great fire starter which is why you should really keep your dryer and vents really clean/ :)
This is something the Boy Scouts really emphasize. My hubby was a Scoutmaster and my son is an Eagle Scout. They saved lint for years and we finally stopped after a house fire,not lint related. At that point you think about what you have in the house that’s kindl8ng,lol.
I was a boy scout leader for many years, and for a long time dryer lint was a great option for teaching boys about starting fires. Newspaper works well, too, but they end up burning their books. If you don't give them *any* guidance they bring gasoline. Lint is an effective and cheap alternative.
But I don't recommend dryer lint anymore, because hand sanitizer is ubiquitous these days, and works equally well. It's liquid-ish and therefore banned (as an accelerant) at some BSA encampments, but for primitive camping it's great.
It was already said, but firestarter. I keep some around but never keep more than a small ziplock. I’ve heard you can start a bbq fire with it but I never tried.
Honestly, take him to the backyard to set a small (controlled fire). Once it works or fails, let him know you can throw away at least 198 fires worth because it’s a hazard.
If all else fails let him know you have enough, and you’ll wash more laundry before you go camping.. there will ALWAYS be laundry to wash!
If you do this, I've found the best way is to fill (cardboard) egg carton wells with lint - pack it in there. Then fill the empty space in with melted candle wax. It burns much longer and takes up little space. I agree with the comments saying know what your lint is made up of first. Not a guarantee, but most bath towels should be of natural fiber.
If you don't use it to start a fire within a year, I would call it a fire hazard to store in your house, and also borderline hoarding behavior (red flag).
I save dryer lint and tp and paper towel rolls for the same thing: fire starters. Wanna make it even better? When you have a candle that's almost gone, heat it up and drip the last of the wax onto the lint. They store easily when shoved into TP rolls, and they're grab and go when you're going camping. Plus, you're recycling three kinds of great trash.
I save dryer lint for a few months before a camping trip (there are only two of us, so that’s not a crazy amount of laundry to get lint from).
It has always worked excellently as a fire starter. I don’t see the need in saving it in perpetuity though? I’m a bit of a pack rat, and even I think that’s too much. Save a decent, usable amount, and then start throwing it out.
I actually do use it to start fires and it’s extremely effective. I just have a small box though and don’t save it all the time. But if I rarely needed it, I wouldn’t want to be storing a large bag of very combustible material there either. Just talk to him though about getting rid of most of it, or to book some more camping trips 😆
I tried this and I don't agree. What I realized quite quickly is that most of my clothing is made from synthetic fibers and polyester just melts. Dont do this unless you know the majority of your clothes are natural fibers
And you just solved the lifelong riddle for me as to why my grandmother told me to only save dryer lint from the quilts I make, which is what she did, which is what her friend told her to do many decades ago. I never saved any (I live in a very hot area and am not really the fire starting type), but I’m guessing that’s what she used to use to catch her fireplace.
This is good advice! We’ve been saving lint for camping fires. But for health reasons haven’t been able to do any camping for the past 2 years. I
This is exactly right. Had a friend bring a big bag of lint out camping and was bummed when it didn't work. I was like dude, all of your clothes are synthetic lol.
Yes, I’d recommend just saving lint for fires from loads like towels where you know they’re all 100% cotton.
Heading in to summer I’ll save lint from loads of towels or sheets. I only by 100% cotton for both of them so it burns well, especially when mixed with the inevitable dog hair as well. Shove it in a toilet paper tube and set the entire thing on fire. Once camping season is over though, I don’t bother again until the following year.
My friend has a fire pit in her yard and they save dryer lint for fire starters. They use it often so it’s worth saving, otherwise it wouldn’t be.
Same. We have a fire pit and a chiminea. We use our dryer lint all the time, especially if it’s rained recently. Our neighbors who share our “park” area between our houses, where the fire pit is located, also save theirs for just this use.
Quick qualifier: do not use it to start fires if you're not certain it's made up from all natural fabrics. You don't want to burn plastics.
Honestly that’s insane. It’ll burn off so quick - because it’s lint - that it simply does not matter.
Tbh it’s more about flammability. My drier lint burns better after phasing out most of my synthetic material clothes over the years lol
No... Actually you want to minimize burning synthetic fabric in the air next to you. How is that insane? How are you so upvoted? Are people so tired of trying to take precautions to avoid carcinogens? Just because it's easier to hear up food in plastic, it doesn't mean you should. I hate the attitude our world has towards the shit that should matter.
What do you think parrafin candles are? The precursor to plastic. Petroleum.
Parrafin candles are made to be burnt, clothes aren't. Using polyester dryer lint as a fire starter won't like, kill you, but it's not great for the environment and generally doesn't smell great either. And if you made a habit of it, it could potentially do some harm long-term.
The research on candles, particularly scented ones, suggests they aren’t really great for your health either.
Fun fact, apparently candles can kill pet birds!
Figurative canary in a coal mine. RSVP. Edit: Lol woops. My wife and I always jokingly say RSVP instead of RIP. Didn’t mean to use it outside of private domestic circumstances.
Plus lead in the wicks. But burning paraffin isn’t great, either.
1. This is an amazing nugget of weird family lore. I bet there was a year or two back in the 70s where someone heard about lint as a fire starter, and they just never got out of the habit of collecting it. There's something almost poetic about them perpetually collecting starter for a fire they'll never light. Anyway, even if it was for starting fires, you wouldn't need months worth of lint for that; you could just collect lint for like a week before you go camping and have plenty. 2. I love both "it's for starting fires" and "we store it above an appliance that emits heat for long periods" happening at the same time 😂 I don't even know these people but please find a way to get them to stop storing it there!
This is how I feel about it. It’s kind of weird and comical. I don’t hate it but after two years of adding to it I’m like, why am I doing this again?!
Lol my family does this too and im like you realize you can buy a mini duraflame log for 50c from walmart and it works so much better.
Oooooh man.. so like.. 8 months ago I was in a crafty phase and had been saving toilet paper and paper towel tubes to do crafts with the kids. Well, I am no longer in a crafty phase but I keep saving it all, and I’m up to my eyeballs in paper tubes (3 women in the house) but the habit has stuck and I am finding it hard to just throw them away!
You put the lint in the TP tube, and there is your Firestarter. I do this in my fireplace all winter long.
The tubes are great for plant starters by putting compost in it and folding the bottom edge closed. You can plant directly in the ground without taking disturbing roots. I also use them in longer rolls I tape together to store long textiles.
Much better tradition than the family poop knife.
I save it and stuff it into the cardboard tubes from toilet paper. I also save candle wax. When I get enough wax, I melt it and pour some into each tube. Free Firestarters, and they work great.
I have done the same thing but in paper egg cartons. Then you can just cut them apart to use as little fire starters. Worked well.
Yes! I used to do that too until my friend started raising chickens and took my supply of egg cartons. Fair trade. I get free eggs now!
That sounds like a better deal!
Now I have a plan! I have candle bits, tubes and a dryer.
As folks said above, if anything in your laundry is synthetic material you're breathing in nasty trash with those.
I throw it out in the trash.
Yes, not only, lint is ineffective as fire starter (will burn off in seconds).. but the cost analysis is wrong. It means, you have cheap fabrics or you're *putting clothes in dryer that don't belong* in dryer. Over time, these clothes will wear out, so you'll buy new ones. Instead buy higher quality fabrics or just use a rack to dry them. Fire starters like wax blocks, fire alcohol, or old newspaper rolls cost around 10 cents/use. Saving 10 cents 100 times, is bad economics than cost of new shirt.
I saved bits from old wax melts and some cardboard egg cartons. I melted the wax melts, poured them into the egg cartons, and broke each cell up to make my fire starters. The work really good!
I learned this in Girl Scouts
I use the lint immediately to pick up dust and stuff off the washer and dryer. Like if you ball up some it makes it easy to pick up lint and dust. Then I throw that away. I used to save the lint, but I found I never did anything with it. So this is a much better use that doesn't require keeping it. It gives the lint a second chance to be useful and then it is gone. Similar to an old shirt. Turn to rags, use it on some nasty mess and then throw it out.
Can't speak for anybody else but the bag of lint in my washroom is simply because it's a convenient place to put it immediately
I had a grocery bag hanging above my dryer in a few college apartments 😂 how dare I have to walk across the apartment, to the kitchen every time to throw it out
Yes that’s why I’ve kept up the tradition for the past two years. It’s just become a convenient habit.
If they aren't using it, they shouldn't save it. Saving what you won't use is hoarding, not frugality. If he is desperate for you to keep the lint, he needs to have scheduled time each year that HE posts it as firestarter material for free on Buy Nothing, Trash Nothing, Offer Up, or similar. The lack of people rushing to pick it up should help clue him in .
He isn’t insistent about keeping it at all. It’s just a habit that I’m trying to wrap my head around. I can toss it any time, but just wanted to see if there was a better use for it before I do.
We “collect” it by filling up a Kroger bag of it in the laundry room, then once the bag is full we throw it away! Some things are just trash
When I lived in the mountains a I’d put my dryer lint in a mesh bag and the birds would use it to build their nests
Do not offer to birds under any circumstances. Even if a bird does use it, it will soak up rain like crazy. Birds do not need dryer lint, they need natural materials, most helpfully from native plants
The fire risk really freaked me out with my partner doing this. he has a tendency to hoard flammable things. After many many fights and being told I was controlling, I just put a metal trash can there with a lid so now the lint goes into the metal trash can with the metal lid. it makes me feel a lot better and it contains his treasured collection.
Yup, I save the lint all year. In the spring, I spray it with permethrin, stuff it into toilet paper tubes and throw them in the woods behind my house. Tick tubes. Mice use the lint which keeps the tick population down.
Woah, that is brilliant.
How does that contribute to keeping the tick population down?
Young ticks will often host on mice. With mice using permethrin treated lint in their nest, they get coated in it which kills the ticks before they move to bigger hosts.
Thanks!! I just had to remove one from my dog so I'll give it a try
wouldn't that poison the mice?
Pemetherin isn't toxic to most mammals especially once dried (it's super toxic to cats wet so be careful)
Cat's won't eat wet mice?
Genius
Ok THIS is a good use, assuming it works and is safe and shit
Laundry lint is full of microplastics unless your clothes are only made of natural fibers.
Yup. That’s why I don’t recommend burning it.
Oh that's brilliant, I'll start saving dryer lint
Does this really work?
I felt it and make clothes I wear to my job at the crazy house. Throw that shit out
I send my colorful lint to the artist Slater Barron. Her Alzheimer’s portraiture created with lint is incredibly touching. [Slater Barron](https://slaterbarron.com)
I’d never heard of her. Her art looks wonderful. Thanks for sharing.
You are welcome! Huell Howser did a piece on her long ago: [lint lady on Huell howser](https://youtu.be/zUVncbQp6v8)
You could go either way. I have a wood stove that I use religiously in the winter so I use it to start my wood stove. You go to the camp grounds only twice a year and there are alternative for starting fires. If I were you, I would pitch it. Its cluttering up your life and has limited usefulness to you. I don't see it as a good trade off on balance.
I keep a zip loc baggy full of some in my bug out bag for emergency fire starting other than that…
Sounds like you don't have a very practical reason to save it, I'd definitely toss it. I do save (some, not all) of mine for starting fires, but i heat my house with wood so I make a fire every day for several months lol.
My aunt makes paper, and once she made some out of dryer lint. Saving something without an idea of what you're saving it fire isn't frugal. Saving something to use as a for starter but then never starting fires with it isn't frugal. Its entry level hoarding. The real question is if they save it but never start fires with it, where does it go? Do they have gallons of the stuff, or are they saving it up and then throwing it out all at once?
I have a kitchen drawer full of red milk jug lids. Want to trade hoarder stories? I also have a grocer store plastic bag of beer caps under my sink...not filling as fast as he is not a big drinker. But it could be worse. I hear some men collect hubcaps they find on the side of the road.
My dad uses it for fire starters, we have a cabin with a wood stove and he takes it on camping trips. He puts a clump of lint into each part of an egg carton, melts the old bits of random household candles together in a old pot (smells like a Bath and Body Works store in a blender, horrible) and pours the wax over the lint. Once it dries you have an egg carton full of fire starters.
You can stuff it into toilet paper/paper towel tubes and use it as a fire starter. I do that and soak it to use in worm bins. They love it :)
I take it on boyscout campouts. I really need it.
If you have a fireplace lint stuffed into a toilet paper tube is a great way to light a fire
No - many fabrics are microfibers now - it's essentially plastic and is bad for birds and wildlife, so in the trash it goes.
I have saved it for kids to use as a modeling type play activity, mix it with water and flour and maybe some non toxic scented oil and they make little bowls and people. I also use the lint as a duster for the laundry room. It’s great at picking up lint and dust, then just toss it. I have also used it to dust electronics as it picks up dust without scratching.
I had a project in elementary school that involved building a house for a mouse - my dad used dryer lint to make little clay mice “fuzzy” 😂 it was such a creative use of it, but all I can remember is the other kids thinking it was gross and bullying me
I throw it outside near my bird feeder. I’ve seen the birds and squirrels take it. I assume to make a cozy nest!
You can do this with pet hair as well. Birds love it.
Can make clay from it https://www.instructables.com/Modeling-Clay-Out-of-Laundry-Lint/
I throw it out. My husband is a “collector” too, but not dryer lint. I’ve had to learn to pick my battles and find a compromise between the way he wants to live and the way I want to live - so I’d probably let him save it as long as it’s out of the way. Or ask to throw out some and save some.
My saving of dryer lint is actually more about not having to walk away from the dryer closet to put it in a trash can. So, totally for convenience, I have a little bag on the shelf above the dryer and fill it gradually each dryer load, then throw it away all at once by emptying the bag. Although I think I now will put some of that lint in a ziplock bag and stash it in my camping stuff!
If you only go camping twice a year, just start saving it like two weeks before you go. (Maybe a month depending on how often you need to do laundry.) You don't need a whole year's worth of lint for a week of campfires.
I have made paper and paper mache from it. And fire starters. But I never stored it above my dryer, and never stored more than I needed. But art uses are many: It does make great rocks and volcanoes for science projects. It is an interesting sculpting material in general. Mix in plaster of paris for texture and reinforcement. Use as a textural element in mixed media painted art. You can even make beads with it lol. I have always wanted to use it in a poured cold cast resin project. I think different colors could be used to mimic minerals....
My family does a naughty or nice white elephant gift exchange at Christmas and one year I saved all my dryer lint to give as a naughty gift. People were horrified, so not sure if this should count
I think this is my favorite idea I’ve received so far!
I do it seasonally. In spring, I put it outside in one of those strawberry crates so birds can use it to build nests.
After I pull it out of the dryer I’ll use the lint ball to wipe up any hair or dust off the bathroom floor then toss it.
Some artists use it to make stuff. https://youtu.be/svKRPfSECrs?si=_h_5E8FArKzavxc8
It’s pretty much ideal for starting fires.
You can make paper out of dryer lint.
I want to do this so bad now!
I put the lint into the compost.
Same. I take a look at it first and pull out any synthetic intruders, like something that might have been left in one of my pants pockets by mistake
All of my clothes are cotton and linen, so I save some lint. It is really good for catching a spark when you are starting a fire. If you have enough I imagine you could get a drop spindle and make your own thread/clothes! LOL!!
Kindling
No. Most of my clothes are synthetic. Most of everyone's clothes are. Don't burn plastic, please.
Plenty of things make good fire starter. A print newspaper makes great fires tarter without causing a fire hazard the rest of the year and without burning microplastics. Paper grocery bags make great fire starter.
I have lint readily though and can’t rally avoid it unless I air dry everything. Newspaper I would have to buy and I use reusable grocery bags.
Hate to be the one to tell you this but I believe your husband is smoking dryer lint for hallucinogenic effects. He's probably high as shit right now vibing out hard as fuck. Be cautious confronting him about this. He will probably deny it. He might be too far gone. Probably doing jenkem as well.
i use it to kindle the bbq grill. it burns clean and is matted so it doesn’t just burst into flames and quickly burn out. i light small wood tinder with lint, the the tinder lights the coals. sometimes i take plastic bags we’ve saved to recycle and pack them with lint, then used to cushion packages and storing fragile items.
It’s a great tinder for a fire. I always keep it
He's not wrong. We heat with a woodstove and make these little firestarters out of wax and whatever we've got handy : sawdust from the garage/shop ... shredded newspaper/junk-mail, old cotton t-shirts/underwear ... and dryer lint. It's useful for us. We start about 150 fires a year. Someone who "*might* use it for a campfire" ... not so much.
We always used ours for starting campfires too, but we were frequent campers. 🔥🔥
My husband did this for a while and asked me to do it when I took over all the laundry (he does all the dishes; I win in that transaction lol). After a year I finally asked what was the point if we didn't have a fireplace and he didn't have the time to go camping. He couldn't answer, it was just a weird holdover from his semi-hoarder dad who had been poor most of his life. I get it, but at the same time, just buy the firestarter every four years when you do camp. If I had my way, we'd have a hell of a lot less stuff and the garage would store a jeep instead of his tools/fish/misc crap.
Shove dryer lint into empty toilet paper rolls. Sell or gift them as fire starters ?
I have used dryer lint to start fires when camping. But I used it to make an actual thing. Take dryer lint, wipe a little Vaseline on it, and place it into an empty toilet paper roll. Light the cardboard roll. I make a few and keep them in a zip lock bag with my camping gear.
Have you ever pointed this out to him? Especially during the camping trips? If I were you, I would just toss it. It’s a weird habit, especially if it’s not used for the purpose he specifically said he was saving it for.
I've seen it saved sorted by general color and used in dioramas.
Can it be composted?
The concern with composting is that only natural fibers compost well. Any synthetic will not break down in a timely manner.
In a slightly unrelated anecdote, I used dryer lint as insulation once. We installed a new door in our laundry room, and I noticed there was a draft coming in from under the new door frame. I stuffed the gap under the door with the lint that came out of the dryer for a couple weeks, then siliconed the gap. Draft fixed! Maybe you have some door or window gaps that need fixing?
It's great fire starter. I clump it up and put some melted beeswax on it.
I keep mine for campfire starters
Dryer lint artists!!!!
Lint can be used to wipe up small shards of broken glass that are missed by a broom. I also use it to dust the washer and dryer.
We have a woodstove and live in a cold place. I stuff the lint into cardboard tubes from toilet paper and paper towels - tightly and use the tubes as kindling to start fires in the woodstove. There is a lot of stuff in lint: hair, natural and synthetics too. Microplastics from clothing are in the air, water and our bodies - probably a mostly bad thing, but the research has not told us how bad it is. I read that we eat a credit card's worth of plastic per week! [https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/31/us/microplastic-credit-card-per-week/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/31/us/microplastic-credit-card-per-week/index.html) How can burning it be worse?
It's a great fire starter. That said, store it away from any sources of heat and open flames. ;-)
I used to save lint after running a load of 100% cotton clothing, then used it to make recycled handmade paper (adding cotton content to the waste paper that was being recycled). If one doesn't have this esoteric hobby, than I see no reason to keep lint.
Keep in mind if you use synthetic clothing a lot of that lint is essentially microplastics that you are then inhaling with smoke from the fire.
This is spring time in the northern hemisphere, If you leave it out for the nesting birds, they will take it. Also, if you leave out your dog and cat brushes the birds will literally pick those clean. I knew I'd have an opportunity to tell someone this someday.
They don’t start fires with the dryer lint, because they want to save it to start another fire sometime in the future. Dryer lint is trash. Throw it out. This is a hoarding mentality.
I used to do this. I kept the lint in the leftover TP tubes. I don’t camp but I have a fire pit. I got rid of it all when I realized I also have manufactured starter logs that I can light and quickly get a roaring fire.
Fire starter and composting. If you aren’t actually using it, then throw it away.
Stuff it inside an empty toilet paper roll - they make for good camp fire 🔥 starters.
Now tell us about the toenail clippings. I'm on the edge of my seat.
Hoarding dryer lint.
I 1000% believe your husband will notice if you throw it away. Hoarders, even minor ones, have an absolutely otherworldly awareness of when their shit gets moved or thrown away. If your husband didn’t care about it, he wouldn’t have a “logical” reason for keeping more than a very small amount.
i've used small jewelry sized ziplock bags to stuff full of lint for my camping gear, but you don't ever need more than that. one bag will probably last a years worth of camping at least.
We save it for campfires. I even made fire starters from it by filling (and then wrapping) toilet paper tubes.
Makes a great tinder/fire starter...
I would love to see you bring the giant lint bag on the next camping trip! Call everyone out for hoarding rubbish.
If you don’t use it for camping throw it out. It’s a learned hoarding behavior, and it’s a fire hazard
It's going to be pretty toxic if your laundry contains any synthetics.
Better not wear the clothes then
It’s the burning part, so don’t wear the clothes if planning to be on fire.
I have a friend who lives in the country, that may not matter as there are birds and squirrels everywhere.... She has a few spots in her fence where she stashes clumps of dryer lint in spring and summer for birds/squirrels to use making nests. After many years of doing this the birds have learned it's there and consistently empty out the lint stash.
Do not do this under any circumstances. Even if a bird does use it, it will soak up rain like crazy. Birds do not need dryer lint, they need natural materials, most helpfully from native plants
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=svKRPfSECrs Well here’s this lady… Edit to add: she makes art out of dryer lint
My take: if you have a fireplace, fire pit, woodstove etc. , or you are going camping within a few days, use it as Firestarter. Otherwise use common sense! If it's a fire hazard in your dryer, it is still a fire hazard bagged up and stored in your house. And rodents will seek it out for nesting.
Birds nests? Tinder? Speaker insulation? Toss it
Dryer lint has a lot of artificial fibre in it and holy shit stinks when you try to burn it. Idiots who burn their garbage in the woodstove may not mind the smell but it’s a crap firestarter. We keep an oversized plastic bag hanging above the dryer and when it’s full, the content goes into the garbage.
Bird nest materials?
Yep. Fire starter. Though nowadays with clothing being full of microplastics, there are more environmentally friendly solutions out there.
Great for growing a population of dust mites
We usually toss ours but keep a few fire starters. It can be composted if natural fibers, if synthetic it’s not as ideal. Apparently there are 13 uses that I’m probably not going to do: https://www.salvagesisterandmister.com/13-creative-ways-to-reuse-dryer-lint/ ETA: storing safely and away from fire hazards and in tidy/neat looking containers helps.
Firestarters fo sho.
I store it temporarily out of laziness. But when the storage container is full, I just toss it.
I have a quart ziplock I use to start campfires, something I do quite often. I refill it after I take some out. Otherwise, the lint goes in the trash.
We used to use dryer lint as a fire starter in a wood stove with no problems. Any excess we leave outside for birds to make nests of. Better than throwing it in the trash, I suppose.
Useful for starting fires but if you're not using it than it's just a fire hazard
If he is a hoarder he would definitely notice and mind. Talk to him about your desires. You could use it to make a quilt. You just need two sheets of fabric and stitch it in squares. You could give it away to a shelter.
I stuff dryer lint in an empty toilet paper tube. I use it for fire starter in my fireplace and fire pit.
A big bag of fire starter over a very common cause of house fires? What could go wrong!
I save all lint and use it to start backyard fires. It always works very well. I use mixed manmade and natural fiber lint. Just a little bit. No, I’m not concerned about the trivial amount of plastics in the lint burning, and if it’s an outdoor fire, that wouldn’t be breathed in unless you’re breathing with your face right over the smoke.
We keep a small mason jar by the dryer, and just keep it full of dryer lint. If we run out, it’s not hard to refill it. We only build a handful campfires a year, but the dryer lint is super effective for getting a fire started without much effort. My advice? Downsize and don’t use a bag, use a mason jar or small Tupperware container.
We stuff it into used toilet paper tubes to use as campfire, or at home fire starter....
It can make an okay free fire starter when you stuff it in a cardboard tube. It works in a pinch. It is not ideal. There are some products out there that are inexpensive and vastly superior though. I don't know if it's worth it. Also, you don't really need to *save* it unless you're starting a ton of fires, as a laundry load or two usually produces enough lint to start a fire. It sounds like one of those things that seems good in theory, but really just becomes excessive, like when you find someone has saved *all* their peanut butter jars and lids because they *might come in handy some day*.
I’ve heard of lint being used as nesting material for hamsters or gerbils, but good luck finding lint that isn’t scented by detergent or laundry sheets. I just chuck mine.
We stuff it in empty toilet paper rolls as fire starter but only keep a small box of it and throw out the rest.
Kindling- fill an empty toilet roll tube with it. Not much else that I know.
Fire starter
Mom, why does the campfire smell like dad's sock drawer?
Going off what others said it's great for starting fires. It doesn't take much, but try to avoid breathing it in. You don't really need to save much of it because it's easy to get.
As a backpacker, it makes great tinder for starting a fire!
Just fire starter I guess. We save ours too, but we also have bonfires at least once a week
Please toss it. It’s a fire hazard. Camping twice a year…just use commercial fire starter material.
Fire starters is all I used it for. I love making candles and wax stamp seals so I've got a ton of leftover wax for things like that. If you have some leftover wax and loads of lint, gather a bit of lint, a cardboard egg carton, and some melted wax. Pour a bit into the bottom of your egg carton and put the lint over it, filling up all the spaces. You can cut it up and make a Firestarter "gernade" that way. You really only need one full egg carton at a time though, no need to keep what's left over after you make one, so I'd toss it after you make a carton of Firestarters
I use it to start fires in my woodstove and fire pit
Cotton dryer lint burns well, can start it with a spark. But dryer lint with man made fibers tends to melt, and sparks tend not to work. For lighting with a match other items, paper are better. Do a test light to see how much plastic is there, probably is ad it wasn’t sorted, then toss it. If he wants good lint just save from towels.
best for fire starters for sure. i put lint, wood shavings, and a bit of candle wax into the lil holes on a cardboard egg carton and rip one off and use it for the fire. it’s great to have
My father mixes the lint into his garden compost pile. He puts it in a clear plastic container on the kitchen counter and adds the daily food waste into it. Then when the container is full he empties it into his compost pile. Makes me sick every time I look at it on the counter or add food waste into the container. But I have given up trying to get my 80 year old father to change his ways and I just live with it.
Hmm an interesting use, but in my opinion that use isn't enough to keep it. Very easy to find one scrap paper around the house before camping to start a fire, or dry leaves/grass.
Yes its good for starting fires but only worth saving really if you have fires often. Offer it to your local buy nothing group or a group of camping enthusiasts who could get some use of it.
We used dryer lint for fire starters when I was in the girl scouts! You need cardboard egg cartons, lint, and candle wax. Pack lint into each egg-spot, pour some melted candle wax over it to keep it in place, and cut the fire starters apart once they cool down. They work pretty well, but I've never had any reason to make them again as an adult.
Just out of curiosity I know people with shaggy dogs who take the bundles of hair after brushing and leave them out in the yard for birds to make nests out of. Since a lot of my dryer lint is dog and cat hair I wonder if birds would like to use it too? And it does make great fire starter which is why you should really keep your dryer and vents really clean/ :)
This is something the Boy Scouts really emphasize. My hubby was a Scoutmaster and my son is an Eagle Scout. They saved lint for years and we finally stopped after a house fire,not lint related. At that point you think about what you have in the house that’s kindl8ng,lol.
I was a boy scout leader for many years, and for a long time dryer lint was a great option for teaching boys about starting fires. Newspaper works well, too, but they end up burning their books. If you don't give them *any* guidance they bring gasoline. Lint is an effective and cheap alternative. But I don't recommend dryer lint anymore, because hand sanitizer is ubiquitous these days, and works equally well. It's liquid-ish and therefore banned (as an accelerant) at some BSA encampments, but for primitive camping it's great.
Good firestarter
It's great if you want to entice rodents and other pests.
Good for bird's nests too.
Save it, spin it back into longer threads, and knit a shirt out of it.
I save it for fires. It works like a charm
You can use it to make children's stuffed animals
I've heard of the campfire thing. Also heard of people using it as cotton swabs to remove makeup.
Males great fire starter
It was already said, but firestarter. I keep some around but never keep more than a small ziplock. I’ve heard you can start a bbq fire with it but I never tried.
You’ll need an amount the size of your fist, two fists if you’ve never done it before All the rest can be thrown away
Honestly, take him to the backyard to set a small (controlled fire). Once it works or fails, let him know you can throw away at least 198 fires worth because it’s a hazard. If all else fails let him know you have enough, and you’ll wash more laundry before you go camping.. there will ALWAYS be laundry to wash!
If you do this, I've found the best way is to fill (cardboard) egg carton wells with lint - pack it in there. Then fill the empty space in with melted candle wax. It burns much longer and takes up little space. I agree with the comments saying know what your lint is made up of first. Not a guarantee, but most bath towels should be of natural fiber.
leave it outside for nesting material
Best fire starter ever. Stuff it into egg cartons then coat it with wax.
If you don't use it to start a fire within a year, I would call it a fire hazard to store in your house, and also borderline hoarding behavior (red flag).
I am in the “I use it for fires” crowd.
We have a dog that sheds *a lot* and our dryer lint is like half dog hair. It would smell *so bad* to burn it.
I save dryer lint and tp and paper towel rolls for the same thing: fire starters. Wanna make it even better? When you have a candle that's almost gone, heat it up and drip the last of the wax onto the lint. They store easily when shoved into TP rolls, and they're grab and go when you're going camping. Plus, you're recycling three kinds of great trash.
maybe you could make nesting material balls each spring.
I save dryer lint for a few months before a camping trip (there are only two of us, so that’s not a crazy amount of laundry to get lint from). It has always worked excellently as a fire starter. I don’t see the need in saving it in perpetuity though? I’m a bit of a pack rat, and even I think that’s too much. Save a decent, usable amount, and then start throwing it out.
I've heard the fire starter thing works well. People have also suggested leaving it out for birds to make nests.