to prime the flue, light a tea candle and place it under the draw for about half an hour (this isn't always necessary since the stove is in the middle of the house, only if it's really cold) Like another commenter, I have a wood-burning stove in my house - which is made of cob, so the walls can suck up a lot of heat, but those little stoves are amazingly efficient! It's a bit of a different technique from an open hearth, but some of the same tips might come in handy: We're re-running it because it's fireplace weather. This article originally appeared on January 25, 2016. Similar to the vodka, a thorough vinegar wipe-down will reduce pesky stink.ĭo you lean logs upright, in a criss-cross stack, or upside-down with the kindling on top? Share your fire-starting tips in the comments! Another natural odor-remover? Vinegar, of course. Alternatively, you can put the alcohol into a spray bottle and spritz it over your furniture. Just pour a little onto a washcloth, then wipe it over the affected area. Yup, wiping things down with vodka can help get odors out. However, this method shouldn’t be used on wool or silk.įor things that can’t be thrown in the wash or into a plastic bag, fear not! If odor is lingering on your furniture, just turn to the bar cart. You can either soak items in a plastic garbage bag with 1/2 cup of baking soda-tying it shut, shaking it up, and letting it sit overnight, or you can simply put a few tablespoons of baking soda into your washing machine’s fabric softener tray to remove odors from laundry. The combination of UV rays and fresh air will do the fabric wonders.Īnother plan of attack is to employ one of the most potent deodorizers of all: baking soda. The first method, that might not be doable for larger items or in the winter, is to leave your garments or fabric-covered items out in the sun for 2-3 days. There are a few sure-fire (ha!( ways to get smoke smell out of clothes, furniture, and more. Another possible problem is that your fireplace needs to be cleaned, in which case you'll want to call a professional. If the flue is open, then the smoke means you’re using wet firewood, which will not only hold up a fire from blazing but will also fill your house with smoke. Jump back up to step two and prime it before starting afresh. Is your flue open? If not, that’s your answer and you should open it immediately (and any windows in the room to get the smoke out ASAP). Secondly, it won’t create a lasting fire, since the gas will just burn off, leaving you back at square one. Why not splash a little gasoline on the logs to get this thing really going?ĭANGER! Never use gas on an indoor fire! True, it will get the flames going super fast, but it will burn so fast and so big you might lose control-something you do not want to toy with indoors. At this point, I’ll also add a few more balls of newspaper in the crevices to help them catch. Once the fire has settled in and isn’t blazing anymore, carefully add fresh logs to the top of the fire and move them around until they have enough air to catch.
Adding heavy wood to an already burning fire will cut off its air supply, possibly smothering those flames you've worked so hard to get going. Only add more wood when the fire has started to burn down. Step Six: Troubleshoot Why not just add tons of wood all at once, instead of tending to the fire constantly? (And if that doesn't work, leave the damper open for about a half hour, letting some of the warm air in the room do the trick for you.) Repeat this until you feel the flow of air reversing, as the warm air starts getting sucked up the chimney. To do so, roll up a piece of newspaper into a stick shape, light one end of it with a match, and hold it way up towards the open damper. Priming the flue really just means replacing the heavy cold air in your chimney with lighter warm air before starting a fire-which is too suddenly hot to ease the cold air out-and is especially important if your chimney is built on the outside of the house.
Now it's time to prime the flue so that you don't end up with a house full of smoke. Before building your fire, shovel out the ashes into a metal bucket.* It is imperative that you keep ash in a metal container, and outside and away from anything that can burn easily, because even if a fire has stopped burning for weeks, the ash might still be flammable and can catch back on fire if given any fuel. And while this looks super impressive for you, it doesn't help you get a fire started. If you make a ton of fires, your fireplace is probably full of ash.