Sticks / Kindling Storage

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mminor

Member
Sep 11, 2015
142
Long Island NY
Hello,

I have a pile of sticks which will be used to start fires in the winter. Right now it's an ugly pile in my tiny backyard.

Can you please post pictures or ideas of ways to store these things outdoors in an organized fashion? I do not have an unlimited supply so these have to last for some time. I've seen the cinder blocks and 2x4's contraption and am hoping for some better ideas from the super creative folks on hearth.com.

Picture of my eye-soar pile attached.

Thanks,
Matt

IMG_1955_0.jpg
 
I store the kindling in a few different size equipment shipping containers I got from work. There wood boxes, one is large is 36" x 36" x 16" deep. The one I keep on the deck just outside the stove room is 24" x 16" x 16" deep. The tops are open, but there on a covered deck. If I didn't come up with these free boxes I would look at a couple of those large plastic storage containers at Walmart.

My kindling is kiln dried 2X house framing lumber. I hack it up with a hatchet into the smallest slivers I can make. I use 2-3 pieces with a fire starter.

I think that pile of sticks should work fine, just keep it dry.
 
Get some plywood or disassemble some pallets and build a box.
 
Those sticks may work ok.
However, fire catches quicker on wood with rough edges, than on wood that is round.
In other words, if you got some big pine, and split it down to a one inch size, where all the edges were sharp. it would light up better than those sticks with the round edges.
 
If you plan on burning 24/7, you got a few years worth of kindling there. build a rack, or box, or get a few galv. trash cans ans stack the sticks in any of the aforementioned.
 
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2 large plastic bins.
 
Feel free to come pick up sticks in my woods. I think I could heat 10 homes each winter with them all...or 3 nice bonfires. :)

Build a pressure treated box from 2 x 4's. Get the seconds that have blemishes for usually 50-75% off at any home or lumber store.
 
mminor,.......I picked up a couple of new garbage cans......works well so far....rn
 
Good deal. I have a garbage can full of construction cut-offs and one full of raw flooring scraps. Both make great kindling and balky fire starters. I take a hatchet to the cut-offs to bring then down from 2x4 or 2x6 to 2x1 or 2x2s.
 
I use trash cans with holes in the bottom (IE cracked and gonna throw them out). I don't bother to cover, because the cracks will let them drain, eventually.

I also have a few (read 5-6, maybe more ;em ) milk crates that I keep splitter trash, bark, etc in for a quick grab when the weather gets nasty. Stack them on top of the wood piles here and there, and top cover for winter... an easy grab when reloading the house in winter,

I keep this inside in a plastic tote, near the stoves, and refill as needed.

Dix has a problem, lol !! :p
 
I have a small pallet that we stack the kindling on. Not very pretty, but it works.
 
For my kindling, I'm currently using banana boxes saved from when Costco uses them to box our groceries. They're very thick cardboard that holds up well, and they stack decently, too. I keep my kindling in the garage.
 
Hello.

I am the Original Poster. Thanks so much to everyone's suggestions and creativity - I really appreciate it!

Matt
 
I am a kindling maniac and have lots, and lots more, of pine kindling, in my woodshed and stashed under the porch with the big roof. It is real dry.
But as dakotasdad said, if you use Supercedars you hardly need kindling, those things are great.
 
I am a kindling maniac and have lots, and lots more, of pine kindling, in my woodshed and stashed under the porch with the big roof. It is real dry.
But as dakotasdad said, if you use Supercedars you hardly need kindling, those things are great.

Me too . . . I have a kindling box I made out of wood in the garage that often gets filled with wood scraps from various home improvement projects . . . or I'll fill it with actual kindling.

In one of my storage sheds I have a stash of kindling I have been working on for the past five or six years . . .

And in my stacks in the woodshed I stash kindling in the ends and sometimes throughout the stack . . . and occasionally I'll put a few slabs in the stack which I can split up into kindling at some point during the winter.
 
I am the original poster and wanted to share my conclusion (pictures attached).

I ended up using apple crates from Home Depot at $10 a crate. They look nice in the backyard (wife's approval), they're easy to move around (handles), they're stackable, they get good air flow, they allow water to drain (slats in bottom), and they can be used for other storage once the sticks are burned.

The only crappy part was placing all the sticks in the crates - ha!

Thanks again for everyone's help!

Matt

IMG_20160729_200307.jpg IMG_20160729_200258.jpg IMG_1955_0.jpg
 
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Elegant solution, mminor! When the crates get old & start to deteriorate, even they become kindling. You get an A+

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