My parents had this happen, and they were told to stop using all bleach-based or sterilizing cleaners in their house. Wood ash is especially valuable as a toilet cleaner, not only because it polishes the bowl, but also because it won’t harm septic systems.īleach-based toilet cleaners will kill the natural bacteria that keep a rural septic system, causing them to back up and potentially fail. When we run out of ashes, we stop at cracker barrel, and they will let us have some of theirs.” Natural Toilet Cleaner Usually, it only takes a few feet of rolling to get us out if the situation. My husband will put the truck in granny gear, and I walk beside the drive tires and throw a handful of ashes under the tires. We use them if we are stuck on an icy patch after waiting for wrecks to be cleared. They have gotten us out of trouble several times. We always carry a tin of wood ashes with us. The actual minerals in the ash also help with traction, just like sand but more effective. The spots where the ash hits melt in seconds into tiny pockets, creating a sandpaper-like surface on otherwise slick ice. Since wood ash is a natural ice melter, it can quickly create traction on slippery roads. This suggestion was submitted by a reader, and I have since tried it, and yes, it does work! I now carry a coffee can full of wood ashes in the trunk of my car, and it’s gotten me out of many a slippery situation. At least with wood ash, you don’t have to worry about it being toxic to kids and pets, as some walkway salts are. Winter is a messy time, one way or another. Salt that’s tracked in will damage floors, while wood ash tracked in can just be swept up later without issue. Chemical de-icing salt really isn’t that different, and it often gets tracked into the house too. We use it as ice melt on our front walkway, and once the ice has melted, we sweep it to the sides, so we don’t track it in the house. Be careful using it near your front door though tracking wood ash into the house makes a big mess. The natural minerals in wood ash work the same way as salt does to melt ice on driveways and walkways. Probably one of the most practical uses for wood ash is to use it slowly over the course of the winter as ice melt. Most of these work just as well in any household, whether you’re in an apartment in the city or way out in a rural community. I’ll walk you through how you’d use wood ash to solve each of these common everyday household problems.Įven if you don’t have a “homestead” or a back garden, there are plenty of ways to use wood ashes around the house, indoors, and out. Some of the most common modern ways to use wood ashes include: (Or, you can just scroll down and read them all.) Primitive and Survival Uses for Wood AshĬlick on any of those links, and it’ll jump you to the right place in the article.There are a lot of uses for ash, so I’ve broken them down into convenient categories for you: Wood ash is little more than the remaining minerals after burning wood, and fireplace ashes contain calcium and all manner of other things that can be handy around the house, if used properly. That’s way too much for any single-use, so we’ve had to find creative ways to use wood ash, when it would otherwise be a waste product. That means we have around 30-40 gallons of wood ash in the spring. Still, cold Vermont winters mean that we burn roughly 4 cords of hardwood each year, or 6 to 8 cords of softwood which has a lower BTU.Ī cord of hardwood produces roughly 5-8 gallons of wood ash, or about 20 to 25 pounds of ashes per cord. To save on wood (and work), we only heat our house to around 62 degrees day and night. Our homestead is relatively small by modern standards (~1200 sq feet), and the walls are nearly a foot thick and super-insulated. If you’re heating with wood, there’s always plenty of wood ash to go around, and you may find yourself wondering what to do with fireplace ashes. Historically, wood ash was an asset, and there are still plenty of creative ways to use wood ash in your modern home, garden, and even your kitchen! Wood ash from your fireplace, woodstove, or outdoor boiler may seem like a waste product, but there are a surprising number of uses for wood ash.
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