Have you ever made these easy DIY egg carton fire starters before? If not, you should! These are perfect for any home with a fireplace, either indoors or outdoors. They make amazing gifts as well. 

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I love these easy DIY egg carton fire starters because they are so simple to make, and practically free! It is so easy to repurpose things we would normally throw away to use in making the fire starters.

I am all about free, low-cost, and repurposing, as well as cutting down on waste. It is a total win-win for me. 

Easy DIY Egg Carton Fire Starter Supplies

Egg cartons, I have to buy mine because I’m constantly making these as gifts and giving them away. 

Wax, use remnants from candles, crayons, or melt your own wax. 

Flammable, dryer lint, shredded paper, newspaper, broken pasta, or any combination to fill the egg carton. 

Cookie sheet and parchment paper for easy cleanup. 

Matches or candle wicks 

Easy DIY Egg Carton Fire Starter Directions

I always start my easy DIY egg carton fire starters with the cookie sheet and parchment paper. Line the cookie sheet and place the egg cartons on top. Some of the wax may leak through the egg carton. The cookie sheet and parchment paper make for super easy cleanup if that happens by containing the mess. 

Next I melt the wax. If you are using new wax or leftover crayons, you’ll want this butter melter for the project. Place the melter in a pan with hot water and let the wax slowly melt. Never place wax directly over the heat. 

The double boiler method also works, where you put a mixing bowl over a pan of boiling water and let the steam heat up the wax. 

If you are using remnants from an old candle, place the jar inside the pan of hot water and let it slowly melt. 

Fill the egg cartons

Stuff your egg cartons with the flammable. I save dryer lint and keep it in a Ziplock bag on the dryer for this exact reason! Or when it is time to empty my shredder, grab a handful of it instead of throwing it away. I’m a mix and match kind of person when it comes to the flammable. Use whatever you have on hand, or a combination. I prefer a combination.

Old broken pasta is also perfect for this. Everybody has remnants in the bottom of a box that are broken and never used. Dry pasta makes an excellent firestarter, and can even be used as an ultra-long match if needed.

Give the pasta a try one of these days and see what happens! Go into your kitchen and light a spaghetti noodle on fire. Do it safely, over an empty sink, with the water running. But seriously, give it a try and see how flammable it is. 

Any combination of these ultra-flammable items will work perfectly instead of throwing them away! Start saving them and you’ll have more than you need in no time at all, and it was all free. 

Time to add the wax! 

Now it is time to pour the wax into the egg carton. As I said earlier, some of it will leak through the carton. This is totally normal, and nothing to worry about. Just make sure it is easy to clean up the potential mess. 

Let the wax cool and solidify, and you’re done! 

Now that you know how easy it is, go eat some eggs for breakfast and start the load of laundry you’ve been putting off! 

Notes

If you would like to add a candle wick or match into each pod, it is really easy to do. With the candle wicks, I start with that before stuffing the egg carton pods with my flammable. Then place the flammable around the wick. 

If using a match, place it strike-end up in the middle of each egg carton pod as the wax is starting to solidify. That way the match does not fall down into the pod. 

If you are giving these as a gift, I would definitely make it a point to add in a match or candle wick. That way even a novice fire-starter doesn’t have an issue getting it going. I make candles all the time, so I always have wicks on hand, and partial pieces I’ve cut off when making them. This again will cut down on waste, and I love that. But the candle wicks or matches are completely optional. If you don’t have them, don’t worry about it. 

Discussion

Have you ever made these easy DIY egg carton fire starters before? Tell me about your experience in the comments! For more survival posts, click here. 

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Surviving civil unrest and staying safe. What is civil unrest and how do we keep ourselves safe during it? Civil unrest has become a big problem around the country right now. A lot of very unhappy people are becoming vocal about their unhappiness. The problem is when that anger or unhappiness will boil over into full blown riots. 

Riots lead to property damage, assaults, arson, and so much more. It is not a remotely safe situation to be in! 

The biggest issue right now that I’m seeing is the mob mentality. A person is intelligent. People are stupid, and in a large group things can easily turn dangerous. The larger the group, the easier it is to become dangerous because there is an aspect of anonymity based just on the size of a group. Rational thinking goes out the window. 

Here are my tips if you find yourself in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

Stay informed

We live in an age when we have these magical little devices in our pockets that tell us basically everything. Apps and alerts are a wonderful thing, pay attention to them. Don’t ignore the buzz of your phone telling you that something is happening. This isn’t a time when any of us can afford to ignore those news notifications. 

Many groups will also post on social media about their activities. You can use this information to know where not to be until it is over. But be aware that these groups do move and can do so quickly. Or multiple people will start a bunch of small groups and they all merge into one big group. 

A police scanner app can be extremely helpful as well. Most of them are free, and some have a paid version with different features. Research the features and determine if it is worth paying for. Some are worth it and some are not. 

Blend in

If you happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, do whatever you can to blend in! If people are carrying signs, you carry a sign. Chant right along with them, show whatever emotion the crowd is showing. If they are laying down to block traffic, do it. 

The goal is to blend in long enough to make it to the edge of the crowd. Do not remain in the middle of it all! If you are on the “wrong” side of something and don’t blend in, it can easily turn you into a giant target. Think about my earlier example of people laying down in the street to block traffic in their protest. How obvious will you be standing up in the middle? Don’t do that. Work your way to the edge of the mob and escape. Get out! 

Remember fire drills in school? Where the teachers just kept us all moving toward the doors. No matter what happened we kept moving in the tedious and boring line, and we all had the same bored expression on our faces as we shuffled out the door. Think of that as you’re trying to blend into this kind of situation! 

Use Situational Awareness

Using situational awareness techniques can help you assess a situation quickly and react to it accordingly. If you are not practicing situational awareness, please go read that post and start yesterday! The brain is the single biggest muscle in your body. Use it! Train your brain, as well as your kids. Using situational awareness is actually a really good way to teach kids without scaring them. 

Have a Plan

Just like having a fire safety plan, it is important to have a plan regarding where to go once you escape the mob as it becomes dangerous. In a large group it is very easy to become separated from others in your group. 

Making phone calls may not be an option in such a crowd. Cell reception may be disrupted, or it could even be an issue of hearing. Having a plan ahead of time to meet the rest of your family or friends is vital. 

If you find yourself stuck in the middle of a bad situation, know alternative routes to get out as well. Last night protestors blocked an entire freeway entrance in my town. If you were trying to get through that, would you know detours? If not, it is time to learn! 

Go Home

Go home and stay at home. Home is a safe place that we all know well. It’s the home court advantage for perimeter defense. As of right now the riots haven’t made it into neighborhoods for me yet. Home is a pretty safe place to be currently. If that is the case for you, stay there. 

If home becomes unsafe for you, you need to have a plan on when and how to get out, as well as where to go. Many preppers that I know have a designated place to meet and stay if they are forced to leave their homes for any reason. 

A friend of mine has a plan to go to his dad’s house if things get bad. Dad lives out in the middle of nowhere and has space, as well as preps for his family. Everybody in the family knows to meet at dad’s house. There is also a code word sent in a call or text, just in case someone missed the memo that it was time to head to dad’s house. 

Notes

Surviving civil unrest and staying safe. Hopefully you do not get caught up in an unsafe situation due to the high levels of civil unrest that are going on right now. Are you taking any extra steps to stay safe? Tell me about it in the comments! Read more tips on prepping.