How to Make Lint Fire Starters - Just In Time For Camping!

You already know I collect lint, despite how insane it feels to do so. I posted here about 10 uses for dryer lint.
Here's what I did with mine - make fire starters.  ... and just in time for camping season! :)  This frugal tip uses up three throw-away items: dryer lint, egg cartons and old candles / wax.

How to make lint fire starters:

1. Pack lint into paper egg carton. (not styrofoam). 
2. Drip candle wax (or Paraffin Wax) over until saturated and completely covered. It looks like lava when you're done.
3. To Use: rip off 1-4 pieces, light, and place in your fire place. The more 'starters' you use, the faster your fire should start. My friend (whose fingers are showcased in this lovely photo) uses 4 in her fire pit. 

Here's the finished, though unseparated, product. Not pretty, but it is free, frugal and apparently works well. I plan to use them in 2 weeks on our first camping trip of the year. 

I think I may separate mine ahead of time and store them that way. Last thing I imagine I'd want to do on a dreary camping morning is tear apart egg cartons with tired hands when all I want is a fire and a coffee. ... but maybe that's just me ;) 

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Free Toys! - Reuse, Craft, Invent

Do you have popcorn kernels, empty cereal boxes, packing foam or garbage? Then you have the makings for some fantastic free toys! Here are some we've made  - and they've sure gotten alot of  mileage too!

Ever notice kids seem to prefer playing with real things instead of actual toys? Give them a door, a box, an old cellular phone, a computer keyboard, even an old toaster (cord cut off, of course), and they're elated for hours!


Store with 'Real Groceries'
Use your empty grocery packaging as store items. This provides all kinds of opportunity for them to feel grown-up, role play, practice sharing, relationship building, counting, math, ... I'm sure the list goes on.

We had a blast with this store!

Doll Bed 


Cut packing foam into useable shapes. I used this piece as a bed for our doll house.

Then we wrapped it up in a colorful scarf, and voila! A doll bed!  (or mini teddy  bed in this case ...)

Tractor Trailer

With scissors and a pipe cleaner, we've also transformed a cheerios box into a trailer for my son's John Deere Tractor. He played with it for days, giving rides to various teddies and toys.

Indoor Sandbox

And, popcorn in a tray works wonderfully too as an indoor sandbox. Just pour some popcorn kernels into a cookie sheet, add some favorite backhoes, loaders and dump trucks, and you've got yourself a great new game. Hours of fun!






I'd love to hear & see your great ideas for making free games and toys in your home. Link up so I can come and see them!

Free Tissue Paper

Never buy tissue paper again!  Wrap gifts and use it in crafts for free!

Where can you get free tissue paper?

1) from gifts you and your family receive. Be gentle with it, and you can reuse the tissue paper (and gift bag).

2) Christmas oranges.  I removed the tissue from our box of oranges, gently flattened them, and now have a pretty stack of tissue paper in my craft box.

Uses for Tissue Paper:

1. Gift wrap
2. Crafts
• stained glass window

• paper bag pinata
• lollipop angel

• papel cordado (like a paper snowflake idea)
• candy gift bowl
• tissue dyed easter eggs
• tissue flowers for hair
• tissue flower for vase
3. Packing Tissue - if mailing a package, for instance, use tissue paper as packing paper.
4. Shoe shaper - apparently if you're worried about shoes losing their shape in between wearings, you can stuff tissue paper in the toe so it will keep its shape. (like shoe stores do).
5. Scrapbooking Paper
6. Decoupage Bottles & Vases

Wow. Who knew tissue paper was so useful? Hello craft time, Hello free scrapbooking stuff.

Re-Use In The Kitchen

3 meals a day, snacks, desserts, prep, cleaning ... I spend alot of time in the kitchen. I think it's also the area where I waste the most. Food, paper, plastic ...

I got pretty excited though, when I started to see some things I could re-use.

Aluminum Foil                   
Crunch up leftover foil into a ball and use to make taco bowls. Even better, after you've made the taco bowls, keep the ball for next time!

• Wipe and re-use. Yes, I'm serious. Wrap other foods with it. You've wiped it ... it's okay. Just wouldn't re-use something that was used for raw meat.
• Crafts. I wiped and re-used foil to make a star topper for our tree. The kids love it. They can make their own ornaments. If they're too young to cut and wrap foil around a cardboard tree, let them glue colorful shapes to it.

Cereal Bags

• I learned this one from my mother-in-law. She used a cereal box to separate hamburger patties. Brilliant. I never thought of it as free wax paper before! Now I do. Great for wax paper needs - unbaked cookies, freezer wrap ... I just wouldn't use it in the oven or microwave :)

Boxes
-Kleenex, Mac & Cheese, all kinds of boxes can be cut and used to sort and separate.  

• Utensil drawer - sort your cutlery or cram it behind your cutlery tray to prevent it from sliding around.
• Movie Drawer - Our movie drawer opens just enough that it's impractical to store movies in the back 1/3 of the drawer. I use a pepsi box to fill that space so that my movies don't slide around, and I don't have to fuss with unreachables.

• Kids' store - since infancy, they prefer boxes to real toys, don't they? Weirdos.  ... just kidding! :)  My kids love their store full of egg cartons, margarine boxes, milk cartons, etc. We line them up on a bookshelf and shop with baskets and cloth bags just like grown-ups!

Hope you find these tips helpful. I sure do!


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