Sometimes it bothers me to have to throw things away. I look at my potato peelings and think, "There's got to be something useful I could do with this. If only I had goats or chickens or a compost pile!" (Alas for suburbia.) I get the same feeling about dryer lint. As a matter of fact, I did a Google search on spinning the stuff into yarn... just to see. If you own an ultra-efficient new dryer, you may not have quickly accumulating quantities of lint, but you should still have enough to potentially save your life. Imagine yourself stuck out in the cold and wet. You're hungry and trying to get a fire started... dryer lint to the rescue!
Making dryer lint fire-starters has to be one of the most frugal DIY prepping projects ever. Free lint, free toilet paper tubes, almost free wax or petroleum jelly--the exact supplies depend on the method you're using. Basically, you either pack a toilet paper tube with lint and seal the ends with wax, or you roll petroleum jelly and lint into little balls.
Check out these tips and follow the links to the complete instructions. This is a quick project, but if you don't have time at the moment, at least stick some lint in a Ziploc baggy and pop it in your pack. If you end up needing to start a fire before you get around to this project, you will sure be glad you have such flammable, dry tinder.
"Using only household items you can make a 1 oz waterproof fire-starter that burns for 15 minutes."
"While any kind of dryer lint will work, lint from polyester or nylon
blends do smell and produce excess smoke. It's best to use lint
collected from cotton, wool, or linen fabrics. I prefer using lint
collected from our towels and wool blankets."
"Petroleum jelly can be a fuel extender for many different materials
including cotton balls, cattail down, milkweed down, dried grasses, etc…
I always carry a tube of CARMEX Lip balm in my pack for this reason.
CARMEX is a petroleum based lip balm and can be mixed with a variety of
tinder to make excellent fire starters." (The comments on this page are also very informative.)
Combine some of these with a Blast Match and/or some waterproof matches, and you're ready to go!
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