The Budget-Friendly DIY Firewood Storage That Uses Only Two Items

Firewood should almost always be stored outside to keep pests and mildew out of the house, but you also need to keep it off the ground so it stays dry. Unfortunately, commercial firewood racks can be rather pricey. But if you have access to a couple of very basic building materials, you can make your own sturdy firewood rack, capable of holding several dozen logs at once. All you need is a cinderblock and either two 1x4 beams or one 2x4 beam sawed in half. It's also wise to place the entire structure on a wooden pallet, to ensure a little more stability over uneven ground.

Wood-burning stoves and fireplaces have risen in popularity in recent years, for a number of reasons. The rising costs of oil, gas, and electricity can make heating our homes exorbitantly expensive, and a few logs on the fire are much cheaper than a winter's worth of utility bills. Also, in areas of the country with warmer weather and milder winters overall, there may only be a few nights out of the year when the temperature dips low enough to warrant bundling up; and bundling up in front of the living room fireplace is much cozier than hovering over a heating vent in the bathroom.

Place your pallet on the ground, and lay the cinderblock on top of it with one of the open sides facing upward. Take your beams and place one in each of the open cinderblock holes, with the bottoms wedged into the center of the block and the tops angling outward in a V-shape. That's all there is to it. Stack your wood with the newest logs on the bottom and the oldest on the top so they will be sure to be used first, and don't pack things too tightly. Air should be able to move freely around the logs.

Best practices state that you should store your firewood a few feet from your home's exterior — at least 3 to 5 feet if you're short on space. But obviously, it's also important to keep it protected from inclement weather. If you have a detached structure in your yard with a large overhang or open-air roof, this would be ideal, but simple waterproof tarps work well too. However, when covering your wood with a tarp, only cover the tops of the pile to keep precipitation off as much as possible while still allowing moisture to escape, air to flow freely, and sunlight to dry the wood.