Most people toss out used coffee grounds after making their morning cup of coffee, but what you might not know is that these grounds can actually be useful in many ways. You can repurpose them to do things like composting or cleaning, which can help reduce waste in your home.
Get ready to make your daily coffee routine more sustainable with these 12 tips. Discover how old coffee grounds can be valuable in your everyday life.
1. Use it as packing material. It can cushion breakable, valuable items when you’re storing them or when you’re moving.
2. Put it in under kitty litter. Since cats like depth, it can add some depth to the litter box, meaning you’ll need to use less litter.
3. Loosely stuff it into empty toilet paper rolls or cut up paper towel rolls to make kindling or fire starters.
4. Make more paper. The video below shows how easy it is if you have the right tools. (Tip: In the video they use paper towels in the process, which would get thrown away after. Try using an old cotton scarf in place of the paper towels that can be washed and reused.)
5. Stuff it in an opaque vase to keep silk flower arrangements in place.
6. Donate it to an animal shelter where they can use it for bedding or litter, but call first to make sure they need it.
7. Use as filler for gift bags.
8. Use it as a layer of mulch under fill dirt, compost or other mulch. This works best with plain white paper or newspaper. Colored paper or paper that’s glossy won’t break down as easily.
9. Make paper clay. This video below demonstrates how to make DIY shredded paper clay that can be hand molded or used in molds.
10. If you don’t want to do anything with it, offer it on Freecycle or a Facebook neighborhood swap site. There may be others who may want it for any of the above reasons.
Coffee filters …. Who knew! And you can buy 1,000 at the Dollar Tree for almost nothing even the large ones.
Cover bowls or dishes when cooking in the microwave. Coffee filters make excellent covers.
Clean windows, mirrors, and chrome… Coffee filters are lint-free so they’ll leave windows sparkling.
Protect China by separating your good dishes with a coffee filter between each dish.
Filter broken cork from wine. If you break the cork when opening a wine bottle, filter the wine through a coffee filter.
Protect a cast-iron skillet. Place a coffee filter in the skillet to absorb moisture and prevent rust.
Apply shoe polish. Ball up a lint-free coffee filter.
Recycle frying oil. After frying, strain oil through a sieve lined with a coffee filter.
Weigh chopped foods. Place chopped ingredients in a coffee filter on a kitchen scale.
Hold tacos. Coffee filters make convenient wrappers for messy foods.
Stop the soil from leaking out of a plant pot. Line a plant pot with a coffee filter to prevent the soil from going through the drainage holes.
11.. Prevent a Popsicle from dripping. Poke one or two holes as needed in a coffee filter.
Do you think we used expensive strips to wax eyebrows? Use strips of coffee filters..
Put a few in a plate and put your fried bacon, French fries, chicken fingers, etc on them. It soaks out all the grease.
Keep in the bathroom. They make great “razor nick fixers.”
As a sewing backing. Use a filter as an easy-to-tear backing for embroidering or appliqueing soft fabrics.
Put baking soda into a coffee filter and insert into shoes or a closet to absorb or prevent odors.
Use them to strain soup stock and to tie fresh herbs in to put in soups and stews.
Use a coffee filter to prevent spilling when you add fluids to your car.
Use them as a spoon rest while cooking and clean up small counter spills.
Can use to hold dry ingredients when baking or when cutting a piece of fruit or veggies.. Saves on having extra bowls to wash.
Use them to wrap Christmas ornaments for storage.
Use them to remove fingernail polish when out of cotton balls.
Use them to sprout seeds.. Simply dampen the coffee filter, place seeds inside, fold it and place it into a plastic baggie until they sprout.
Use coffee filters as blotting paper for pressed flowers. Place the flowers between two coffee filters and put the coffee filters in phone book..
Use as a disposable “snack bowl” for popcorn, chips, etc.
Not just for coffee–
Mws R Writings 