Clean out your dryer vents

[u/Kitso_258]

If your living situation allows you to have your own dedicated washer/dryer within your home-space, clean out your dryer vent. Unscrew the lint trap holder and vaccuum out the stuff stuck to the sides. You can get a lint duct brush and mostly clean the ducts yourself, or if it's bad/out of reach, hire a professional. This is especially important if you've got pets - my dryer was FULL of pet hair.

Why is this important? Several reasons:

1, new appliances are in short supply right now. Take care of the one you've got.
2, new appliances cost money, see above.
3, it'll increase the efficiency of your dryer and use less electricity.

But the most important reason is that this is a HUGE fire risk. Lint = tinder, and all it takes is one spark in the wrong place to cause the lint to combust. And by spark, as everyone else has pointed out, it could just be the dryer heating element doing it's thing.

Little things like this... make our lives just a little bit better and safer.

Edit: Didn't expect this to blow up. If you wish to save the lint for future fire starter, then save away. My household produces SO MUCH of the crap that I don't ever worry about saving it for the long term...

[u/l_one]

Do we have a wiki somewhere of a list of things like this - simple low-hanging fruit completely relevant to prepping (and just being frugal) but often overlooked for not being 'sexy' like having an armory?

[u/mlmcw → u/l_one]

This is a fantastic idea.

[u/Kitso_258 → u/l_one]

We do have a wiki here. I add to it as I have free time... which is rare these day.

Prepping isn't sexy. It's a smart, balanced way of life. Sometimes, it means getting knee deep in... dryer lint.