There's an art to burning a wood stove in a modern home and not making a mess. Most people don't use the ash tray systems that come with these modern catalyzed

There's an art to burning a wood stove in a modern home and not making a mess. Most people don't use the ash tray systems that come with these modern catalyzed wood stoves they don't know how to use them and they don't care even if they're taught because it's a slight inconvenience. I treat Ash in my wood burning stove as being a harmful carcinogen. There's also an art to starting a fire without getting a backdraft and getting smoke in your home. A few tips would be to make sure you're burning good quality wood that's been properly seasoned, seasoning firewood is also an art. When you need to empty the ash into the tray burn the fire at hotter than normal to deplete all of the carbon so all you have to deal with is small particles of Ash. Keep the fire going in place the depleted Ash in the tray to cool don't try to move hot ash it would just become a cloud in the air. Set your furnace to run the fan for several hours after you empty the tray. I'm not joking on this one I've been doing it for the last five years wear some sort of facial covering a mask a bandana whatever over your mouth.