If you think that the only use for used coffee grounds is enhancing your compost heap, think again. Start considering coffee grounds as your go-to pot scrubber, odor eliminator, and gentle kitchen counter cleaner. Got a beauty issue? Coffee grounds make a great skin exfoliator and hair mask. Got a garden? Keep your acid-loving hydrangeas and azaleas happy with a liberal sprinkle around the base of the shrub. Or use grounds to deter cats from turning your flower beds into a litter box.
The list goes on and on. Check out these creative ideas before you even think about dumping coffee grounds in the garbage.
As a natural beauty product
Coffee grounds make a great exfoliant. Invigorate your morning shower by mixing grounds with coconut oil (or water) and using the solution as an all-over body exfoliant. The grounds do not dissolve in water, which makes them great at scrubbing away dead skin cells.
Keep the mixture on your skin for 5 minutes for natural skin tightening!
Wet hair and massage 1/3 cup of coffee grounds onto your wet scalp before you shampoo. Coffee grounds will strip hair product build-up from your tresses, and make your hair softer and shinier.
Chopping up onions and garlic for pizza night left a lingering odor on your hands? Neutralize the odor by scrubbing gently with wet coffee grounds.
Keep your kitchen sparkling
Consider coffee grounds as an alternative to baking soda for absorbing odors. Stash a small open container in your freezer and refrigerator.
Toss some grounds in the bottom of your kitchen trash bag to banish stinky garbage smells.
Dried food on kitchen counters or stove resisting cleanup? Sprinkle on coffee grounds and scrub with a cloth. Grounds are a gentle abrasive.
Put their scouring power to work scrubbing pots and pans.
Help your garden grow
Add them to your compost.
Combine with straw, brown grass clippings or dead leaves and spread around plants such as azaleas, rhododendrons, hydrangeas, camellias, and roses. Your acid-loving shrubs will thrive.
Sprinkle around the perimeter of the garden to fight off slugs and snails.
Warn cats away from using your garden soil as a litter box by mixing coffee grounds with chopped orange peel and sprinkling around.
Scatter around ant hills or ant trails where you want to discourage ants.
Attract the worms you love (they’re great for compost and garden soil) by mixing coffee grounds into the soil.
Assisting with household chores
Combine an equal amount of coffee grounds and olive oil to mask scratches on furniture. Douse a cotton swab with the mixture, apply to furniture and wipe off excess.
Make a roach trap. Line the inside neck of a jar with double-sided tape and fill with coffee grounds. Or simply fill a jar with water and coffee grounds. The cockroaches are attracted to the coffee and drown in the trap.
Make cleaning a wood-burning fireplace a breeze by scattering coffee grounds on the ashes. Their weight will hold down ash clouds and make shoveling out the fireplace easier and much more pleasant.
OMG!! I would never have guessed coffee grounds could be used for so much more besides well besides making coffee! LOL. I will definitely be trying some if not all of these suggestions. Thanks for the tips!
Omg thank so much i will never throw out my coffee grounds again
I ‘m definetly using it for my plants compose and on my Skin and in my kitchen etc. etc. etc.