As focus continues to turn towards leading healthier lives and decreasing our carbon footprint, learning to refurbish, repurpose, and reuse is at the forefront of our minds.  The challenge is how to increase the value of our resources and decrease the amount we throw away.

As we become more efficient, we are starting to look toward the less obvious materials in our lives and evaluate how we can maximize our use of them.  An example of these lesser-known reuses is firewood ash.  Fireplaces have continued to be a prime way to save on expenses during the winter, but what about making use of the ash?  Interestingly, wood ash works beautifully as a glass cleaner and metal polisher.  Sound impossible?  Let’s discuss.

Chemical compounds and cleaners certainly can remove grit, grime, and grease from our windows, fireplace glass, and metals, but at what cost?  As we spray these chemicals, the fumes are inhaled and can cause serious damage to our lungs.  These sprays and cleaners can also leave a film and a residue that may not be visible to the eye, but can make its way into our water, onto our skin, and continue to be present long after its original use.

Wood ash works as a very fine polishing compound.  The grit in a well-burned ash is so fine that it buffs and shines your surface without causing scratches or damage.  The greatest benefit to using wood ash is that it is extremely water soluble and just washes away.   Fireplace glass, oven glass, stainless steel appliances, shower/bath glass complete with lime scales, stainless steel kitchen sinks, or anything that can acquire grease, film, deposits, or grime can effectively be cleaned and polished with a wood ash mixture.

The easiest way to utilize your ash is collect it in a container, pick out any chunks or pieces of wood that are not completely burned, and ensure it is the soft, fluffy, well-burnt ash.  You’ll need three rags, one damp with water, one for rinsing with water, and one for buffing and drying.

  1. Take your damp rag, and dab into the ash.  This will create a paste, and you can begin to shine your surface.

  2. Once you get your entire surface scrubbed, take your second rag or towel and a fresh bowl or bucket of water and wash down your surface.  This may take a couple of rinses to remove all the ash, but it will not require any other solution, as the ash washes away simply by applying the water.

  3. Finally, take your last rag, and dry and buff your surface, and Voile!  A shiny, buffed surface free of scratches or scuffs.  Take a deep breath!  Your lungs are not burning from harsh chemicals.  Pat yourself on the back!  You have just maximized your resources and created value out of that which would have been previously considered unusable.

Impossible-to-remove fingerprints?  Gone!

Using your fireplace ash is a really effective way to clean multiple surfaces with one easy solution and you’ll be taking advantage of a readily available resource.  Be cautious when storing your ash and ensure that your embers are completely cool by allowing the ashes to sit for a few days to weeks before placing them in a storage bin.  Take advantage of your wood-burning fireplace not only to keep you warm in the winter, but to give you a repurposed, reliable cleaning solution to last all year.