Do you have a coal bunker?

[Bellyblueboy]

I now live in a house with an open fire. It’s lovely, but I only light a fire a couple of times a month in the winter months - and of course the very day over Christmas!

Coal storage is a pain in the ass though, and coal bunkers are huge and ugly.

for those of you who only occasionally need coal, where do you store it? I don’t have a garage!

I keep my coal in the pig sty 😆. That might be a bit niche

🤣 while there is a joke there about my housekeeping skills, unfortunately I don’t have a pig sty☺️

How much coal do you reckon you get through per year?

I would wonder about a round plastic compost bin? They have a door at the bottom to scoop stuff out but are a bit smaller?

Why don't you get something like this.

Probably about five big bags a year.

logs too - but I had decorative storage for them beside the fire. The coal isn’t as aesthetically pleasing!

We have a coal bunker in the garden but we use the fire a lot. Its not pretty but holds 5 bags worth (our monthly order over winter).

I bought a metal bin to keep it in outside. Stores around 50kg. I buy it in 25kg bags. Fill up the little bin in the house a couple times a month and just buy more when I need to.

What size is the bin in the house? I keep a coal scuttle full by the fire, but it really only lasts a day.

maybe I should get a large metal bin and keep it in the utility room.

We have a plastic coal bunker in the passage at the side going to the back garden. It held coal for many years- and just logs for the past 7/8 years.

It held a good few 50kg sacks of coal (maybe 4/5? Or more?) and now holds about 8 sacks of logs.

When I first moved into my house, there was still a hatch at the side for the coal delivery to be poured straight into. It was draughty and a bit of a security risk though, so had to be blocked up.

We had a coal shed but knocked it down about 50 years ago.

We had a coal scuttle for indoors coal.

How much coal do you actually need? I just kept it in the bag it was in in the shed. A bag was enough to last me the winter and the scuttle was enough to last me one day.

How about something like this?

Best garden storage benches 2024 (moderngardensmagazine.co.uk)

A garden bench storage thing.

In my last house (built in the 40s) we had a coal shed. We would get a large load of wood and stack it in the shed along with loads of coal.

We had a beautiful open fire in our lounge, and there was nothing nicer on a cold sunday afternoon to watch a movie and light the fire.

It might be too large for your needs, but we have a smart bunker, and it's honestly brilliant. Not beautiful, I admit, but so easy to fill a coal scuttle at the pull of a lever. I just screen it with some pots.

The house I grew up in, 1970's, detached had a metal coal bunker in the garden.

Ohhh, this takes me back.

My late Dmum & Ddad house had a huge stone built coal bunker with heavy, sloping wooden doors on the top. My Ddad built it when they bought the house (new in the early 50's) and I vividly remember the coalman making deliveries (about 10 hundredweight at a time). They had coal fired CH so used a fair bit of coal.
After they moved over to gas CH (late 70's) my Ddad took the doors off and converted it to a lovely raised flower planter and it was still in use like that when we sold the house 3yrs ago.