Tiny Living is all about the intentionality of time and space, living off-grid, self-reliant lifestyles, and freedom. So how does one live this way and store a bunch of firewood for their Dwarf Tiny Wood Stove?
Here's the good news; It's easily doable! My family and I have lived mobile and tiny for years and we've found clever ways to store our firewood and other fuels in a variety of situations and spaces.
I break down firewood storage solutions into three categories:
- Outdoor
- Mobile
- Indoor
Let's take a more in-depth look at each of these places and storage solutions for each.
Outdoor Firewood Storage for Tiny Living
We live on 5 acres in North Idaho. A few years ago we built a Tiny Home on the property and installed a 5KW Dwarf Tiny Wood Stove inside as our sole source of heat for the winter.
In my post about firewood preparation and chopping, I explained a bit more about our property and the heat values we get from the trees that fall on our acreage. We also burn about a cord of wood every winter and I built a woodshed to hold that much wood.
Storage Solution #1: Woodshed
When I built the shed that holds our solar panel inverter, battery bank, and other tools, I added an outside wood storage are on the back. It's an open air space so the wood doesn't rot or mold, and provides a good place for it to cure before burning.
I cut my pieces into 8" - 10" lengths and stack them two rows deep in this wood shed. Since this shed is close to the house, it is our primary area that we use for our winter firewood.
But, it isn't our only area.
Storage Solution #2: The Modular Wood Cache
Since a lot of the wood we burn comes from trees that have fallen on the property in windstorms, it's important that we season the wood before burning it.
A freshly fallen tree can be up to 50% water weight. When burned, that water turns into steam and makes a smoldering messy fire. Ideally, the wood moisture content is somewhere between 15% - 20%. The most accurate way to measure the moisture content of wood is with a moisture meter. So I make modular firewood caches for the wood that we don't plan to use right away.
Making a Modular Firewood Cache
The base. of the cache is a repurposed pallet. That means I can pick it up with the forks of a tractor and move it around on the homestead as I see fit. The sides are cut from cow fencing to match the dimensions of the pallet. They are wired together and then nailed down to the pallet with electrical staples.
Once the cache is ready, I stock it with logs that fit the full length of the pallet. Wet wood is harder to cut and split so I just leave it in larger chunks until it has fully cured.
Once a pallet cache is full with a nice slope above the top of the cow fence, I throw a tarp over the top and fasten it down.
Another pro tip is to position the caches so that they face the north. That will give the stockpile the maximum amount of sun to cure the wood.
I usually keep wood like this for a year before processing it for burning. Plus these caches act as a backup wood source should we burn more than we anticipate in the winter.
Storage Solution #3: Mobile Wood Storage
We renovated and lived in a 1960s Airstream trailer for 4 years. We put a 4KW Dwarf Tiny Wood Stove in the trailer as our source of heat. We also had to devise good ways of storing our firewood while on the road.
Places to Store and Transport Wood
When we lived on the road, we had a Ford F250 with a topper. The bed of the truck was a great place to keep our wood out of the elements.
If we were parked somewhere for a while, we would also stow wood up under the Airstream.
The most useful tool we had for moving the firewood and keeping it contained was to have a set of two firewood totes. Each tote holds about 2 days worth of wood so we could have up to 4 days of heat with us at all times.
Other mobile spaces are in the belly of your bus, under bed storage in a van.
Storage Solution #4: Indoor Drawers
In the Airstream, we had a drawer that held all of our kindling, fire-starting material, and lighters.
When we bought our property in North Idaho and built our Tiny House, we took that same idea from the Airstream and added a drawer in our tiny house that holds all of the same things plus a day or two of cut wood.
Storage Solution #5: Crates and Indoor Racks
It is nice to have little spaces for different fuel sources. In our tiny house, we repurposed two vintage vegetable crates as wood storage. In one, we stock all of our kindling for fire starting. In the other, we put the pressed energy logs that we use for longer overnight burns.
Storage Solution #6: Dwarf Stove Firewood Storage Stand
As I said at the beginning, tiny living is about being intentional. One of the simplest ways to use a tiny space for firewood is to stow it under the woodstove. The footprint of the stove doesn't change, it simply moves up in the space and firewood can go directly under the stove.
We plan to put a firewood storage stand under our stove in the tiny house just to maximize the amount of wood we can keep indoors as possible. Plus it's very convenient when stoking the fire.
Look at Your Space
I've given you my ideas for how I store firewood here. Your tiny living space will probably be able to use some of these ideas but there may be more based on your particular situation. Look at the unused little corner, empty a junk drawer and start putting it to good use, dedicate a place under your woodstove to firewood.
There are endless possibilities.