Are you going camping and want to know what to put in your fire starter kit? I recently tested a series of household items to find out the best thing to use as tinder to start a fire. This post will give you an overview of different household items to use to start a fire, as well as which ones work the best. 🙂

Need help starting a fire? Check out my free digital download on How to Start a Fire:

What I Tested

After doing some research into what other people suggest as household items to use to start a fire, here are the items I ultimately tested:

• Cotton balls
• Cotton balls soaked in petroleum jelly
• Cotton balls soaked in alcohol
• Tampon
• Newspaper tied into a knot
• Dryer lint in a toilet paper roll (not shown in video below because it was kind of a dud)
• Dryer sheets (see my not on this below)
• Potato Chips

The Results

Here’s how it went:

Please note: the dryer sheet DIDN’T work, and in fact I found out afterwards that my friend actually meant sheets of dryer LINT. Oops!

Ultimately, the best household items to use to start a fire were cotton balls soaked in petroleum jelly and cotton balls soaked in rubbing alcohol. Personally, I recommend the petroleum jelly because it’s less messy and troublesome to take on the road, but you do you. 🙂

Are there any other household items that you use to start a fire while camping? Leave me a comment below and let me know! – Lindsay