I usually clean the wood stove here. Just shovel it out into metal pails, take the ashes outside and dump them on the ground away from the house. Some of them I put where the chickens can use to dust in, or scatter on the ground on what used to be the garden.We're at 32° now, feels like 28°. Hubby has still not fired up the wood stove. Maybe he gets tired of cleaning it. I offered to buy him a special vacuum for it, but he didn't want one.