If you’re a fireplace lover you probably have a secret place where you dump your fireplace ashes when you clean out the fireplace.

Since a cord of firewood produces about 50 pounds of ash, it can add up rather quickly.

Since ashe came from trees, it is carbon neutral to the environment so why not use this free by-product of keeping warm to eliminate some of the other things that may not be so environmentally friendly? Here is a list of uses for fireplace ash;

1. When it snows, keep a box in the trunk of the car. Fireplace ask is great for giving you enough traction to get out of the snow when you’re stuck.
2. Did your pet come out on the stinking end of a skuink encounter? Rub a nice handful into scruffy’s coat to neutralize the smell.
3. Mix with water into a paste to make a fabulous metal polish. No more masks and harsh chemicals!
4. Use ash on a damp towel to clean your stove or fireplace doors.
5. You can make your own organic soaps! Soak ashes in warm water to make lye. Mix with lard and boil to make soap. Salt makes it harden as it cools. niiiice.
6. lay a perrimeter of ash around your garden to keep out slugs and snails.
7. Ash makes a great deicer that will not harm your lawn.
8. Mix ash with your compost to make it super-enriched.
9. 1 tbsp of ash per 1,000 galons of water in your pond will control algae.
10. ROSES LOVE FIREPLACE ASHE! I hope I am not giving away a secret but my old friend Alice Parks in Montreat had the most beautiful roses. I would tend her fireplaces annually and she would show me her roses and tell me about how the fireplace ashes did wonders for them.
11. Sprinkle ashes on your lawn as a natural fertilizer for your soil.

Have some other great uses for ashes? Registered users can leave new ideas as a comment.