Personally i keep a small bin of kindling by the side of the fire.i usually store kindling wood in the shed and split it a small bin at q time
I split up a load from my kiln dried wood purchased wood when I need some 'garage time' throughout the year. Storing it in B&Q £1 buckets, old vegetable crates or even washing baskets (kid you not,
these are a cheap storage solution!).
It's a placebo but makes me think I'm making the wood I've paid real money for go further...!
when it gets cold here, before I light the fire I light a candle in the fireplace (probably work for a woodburner too) which pushes the cold air up the chimney, really helps when starting the fire.
I moved over to a small old fashioned oil lamp and often light it when I am not using the fire to stop the cold air coming down the chimney - doesnt take much heat to just keep out the cold sinking air..
When I'm lighting I'll usually have my 'kindling build' for the actual fire, with a fire lighter in it, then I'll roll up a bunch of paper on top. The paper goes up quickly - the WHOOOSH of flame clearing the chimney 'cold plug' (ours has never been that bad for it) and heats the flue, I find the platform of kindling I've built will light better - providing I've built it so the ash/leftovers of the paper doesn't smother it.
Still working my way through some pallet wood and the 4x IKEA wardrobes I split up. Mixing them in with proper logs to keep it fairly clean and only tend to use the Ikea when it's lit and burning well rather than overloading it with chemicals... Dread to think what is in them.
Still getting a sore throat and occasionally smelling a hint of smoke a few days later, so I got my very bright flashlight and had a look at the back of the stove only to immediately find it leaking from several points.
Looks like I’m shopping for a new wood burner tomorrow or Saturday.
If it's leaking could it be damaged fire bricks? Could be worth looking for replacements to keep it going over the cold weather and then plan to change it when you don't need it...
We used to get real trees, always chopped it up for the fire.
Yup. Well we buy potted, our last tree cost £45 in 2020 and the top/crown hadn't grown this autumn so think the long summer had really hurt it. Replaced it this time, a £72 Nordmann and hope to get 5-6 years out of that too... Cut up the old one, very sappy still so will need to season a while.
Pics of the visit to the farm Xmas Eve, some windfall ash and what I think is beech blocked up. Beech closest to the camera too rotten and really a waste of fuel so stacked that up for the rents to use if it'll dry out. Used my worx battery for the smaller stuff - works great, although not that powerful and bogs down easily when on thicker things. But I got it to save wasting fuel with the real saw on the small stuff.
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It was forecast -2 with a -8 freezing fog. But no fog when I got there, this pic around 11am and not even any frost on the ground the sun felt glorious! Sheltered from the wind and pushing a few loads up the field warmed up nicely!
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Could probably burn these as have been down over a year and undercover since the summer, but will air them out for end of winter if needed else stored for next autumn.
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Then split up some of the conifer rounds I've had sat most of the summer in my woodstore. Burns well, but
found some friends roaming around the house afterwards when I'd stacked a bunch next to the fire... Ooops! So now keeping outside in the cold only bringing in when needed to burn!
) to dry out 
