Joan Wilen and Lydia Wilen
Joan Wilen and Lydia Wilen are folk-remedy experts and home tipsters based in New York City. They have spent decades collecting “cures from the cupboard” and are authors of several books, including Secret Food Cures.
A wood burning fireplace is a common feature in many homes. Even in newer homes an old fashioned wood burning fireplace is feature to enjoy during cool autumn and winter nights. What do you do though when you’ve never built a fire before? Or when you find out that you don’t have any firewood, or are running out of it?
In this excerpt from the book Household Magic by Joan and Lydia Wilen the authors give their tips on how to use a wood burning fireplace, add some scents, and keep it looking its best.
Comedian Ellen DeGeneres once said, “Go to bed in your fireplace—you’ll sleep like a log.” Although you shouldn’t take Ellen’s advice literally, you may want to follow through with some helpful hints to make your fireplace cleaner, prettier, safer and more efficient.
If you want to light your fire but have no firewood (and it’s too cold to go out and get some), finish reading your daily newspaper.
Then tightly roll up a couple of the plain (not colored) papers, and tie them securely with twine or wire. Use the paper-rolls in place of real or fake logs.
CAUTION: NEVER burn colored newspapers or magazines in the fireplace. The inks and dyes used to make them contain lead—and that lead can be inhaled. This can be very dangerous, especially for children and pets.
By opening the window that is closest to the fireplace, the fire will use oxygen from outside, instead of taking it from inside the rest of the house. You only need to open the window an inch or even less.
◆ Spread the rinds from an orange or lemon on paper towels, and let them dry out overnight.
DID YOU KNOW?
If you use a salt-substitute product called Nu-Salt —which contains potassium chloride instead of regular salt’s sodium chloride—your fire’s flames will be a beautiful, romantic, mood-setting combination of pink and lavender
When the rinds are thoroughly dry, toss them on the fire to create a lovely citrus aroma.
◆ If you are not into a citrus scent, you could instead toss in a few pinecones for a more woodsy fragrance.
Grate Idea!
If your fireplace has grates instead of andirons, you may be able to reduce the amount of smoke the fire emits—just place a brick under each leg of the grate.
◆ Before lighting the fire, toss a handful of plain table salt on the logs (real, fake or made from newspaper). The salt will help to loosen soot from the chimney, and it will also give the fire a bright, yellow flame.
◆ If you don’t eat a lot of potatoes, make a deal with a restaurant that serves french fries, and have them save the potato peels for you.
Put the peels on paper towel, and let them dry overnight. When the peels are dry, you can burn them in your fireplace. They burn with a gusto that sends the soot up and out of the chimney.
◆ If you’re a tea drinker, tear open steeped, moist tea bags and sprinkle the tea leaves over the sooty fireplace remains. If you’re a coffee drinker, you can use moist coffee grounds on the soot.
The tea leaves and coffee grounds help prevent the ash particles from flying up into the air when you clean up the soot.
Soot Smell Absorber
After you’ve cleaned the ashes from the fireplace, fill a pan or a paper plate with baking soda and place it in the fireplace. Leave it for a day or so, and it will absorb the smell of soot.
Use a wet sponge to rub on some wood ashes. Then use a clean sponge to rinse off the glass… along with the dirt.
If you can regularly clean the soot marks off the hearth (the area surrounding the fireplace), the soot won’t become ingrained and hard to clean off.
For light soot marks, dust them away with a vacuum cleaner attachment or a brush. For soot stains that can’t be removed that way, try a gum eraser (available at office- and artsupply stores), or scrub them with a stiff brush and plain water.
For stains that don’t scrub off that way, wet a sponge or brush with distilled white vinegar and go at it. Then, rinse the spot well with plain water.
Discover more household tips with your own copy of Household Magic from Bottomlineinc.com.
