Woodworkers like ourselves produce mass amounts of the stuff from milling reclaimed wood into decking and flooring. Maybe you also embraced woodworking as a hobby or you tend to come across significant amounts of sawdust you don’t know what to do with it? Let’s discuss the many uses of sawdust! 

Be it in the garden or for practical and decorative purposes, there is a lot you can do with sawdust! After reading this article you will never want to throw it away or turn a blind eye on what you can see laying around.

A bit of advice first:

Not all sawdust can be used in your home or garden. Indeed, some can potentially be toxic! You will want to avoid wood chips from particle boards or cut up wood pallets for example. As a matter of fact, every piece of wood that was subjected to any chemical treatment should be avoided. 

Home decor

Indoor plants that like dry soils are going to look  stunning when topped with sawdust.This is particularly true with cactus. Additionally it will look like you have created your own little Sahara! 

It’s Pets time!

As a litter mix for cats or bedding for rabbits or other guinea pigs, sawdust is great to care for your furry ones. In the litter case, it can even be a biodegradable replacement for conventional litter.

If you have chickens it will also be part of your dust bath project.

Say goodbye to weeds!

One of the best uses for sawdust is to lay some in your garden to prevent weeds. This is especially true if what you are planting enjoy acidic soils because sawdust actually acidify the soils 

In other words, it is a great solution for mulching but with a little bit of precautions.

Compost mix

Compost feed is divided into two categories: green and brown (see table below). Sawdust falls within the second category. As for everything in composting, the byproduct of wood is to be mixed in the right amounts to keep a good proportion of every nutrient. Indeed, sawdust would add acidity to the soil by consuming the nitrogen from the “green” material.

Muddy & icy floors

Be it that you experience snow and ice episodes, or that areas become too muddy, sawdust will be a great savior to avoid slippery floors during winter months! 

When it comes to preventing icy floors, sawdust is also way more ecological than salt. And we love to care for our planet don’t we? 

Fire Starters

Mix sawdust with wax and you will have made yourself very efficient fire starters! When the time comes to gather friends around a barbecue, you will want to have these smart briquettes around.