If you are a serious coffee drinker, you might be throwing away a large amount of used coffee grounds without a second thought in your mind, but did you know that spent coffee actually has a ton of practical uses?
As a matter of fact, since spent coffee grounds actually represent a pollution hazard, many environmentally conscious coffee shop owners are giving away their used grounds for free in order to encourage customers to recycle them!
So, before you get rid of your next batch, discover five clever ways to repurpose your used coffee grounds.
1. Reuse Coffee Grounds to Neutralize Odors in the Fridge
Coffee is known for its wonderful aroma. Well, those aroma-producing oils are left over in the used grounds after the brewing process. This is why many people use spent coffee grounds as natural air fresheners.
What’s more, coffee naturally absorbs odor, which makes it the perfect deodorizer for your fridge and freezer.
DIY Refrigerator Deodorizer
- Dry your used coffee grounds by baking them in the oven at low temperature for about 25 minutes in order to remove all moisture from the grounds
- Place the dried used coffee grounds in a glass jar
- Cover the jar with a cheesecloth
- Put the jar at the back of the fridge and enjoy an odor-free appliance!
Bonus Tip: Fresh coffee beans are as odor absorbent as used ones. So, if you store your coffee in the fridge, make sure it’s in a sealed container to avoid your next cup of coffee tasting like last night’s leftovers.
2. Use Spent Coffee Grounds as Bait
If fishing is your thing, bass and trout actually love the scent of coffee!
Some avid anglers swear by coffee-flavoured worms and claim that mixing a cup of used coffee grounds in with your bait will attract more fish.
Coffee aroma is seemingly such a great way to attract fish, that fishing lure manufacturers have actually come up with tubes that contain coffee grounds.
3. Reuse Coffee Grounds for DIY Beauty Treatments
This one may not be for everyone, but using spent coffee grounds for DIY beauty treatments is actually becoming a growing trend.
Coffee grounds are rich in antioxidants, they make wonderful exfoliants and the caffeine in them can help stimulate circulation, thus temporarily revealing healthier looking skin. Used coffee grounds have so many skin-friendly nutrients that people have started using them in their daily beauty routines!
Common Homemade Beauty Treatments Made With Used Coffee Grounds
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Body scrubs: Body scrubs made with coffee grounds are deemed to be very beneficial for skin health, including temporarily reducing the appearance of cellulite.
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Facial scrubs and masks: The antibacterial properties and nutrients contained in spent coffee grounds are used to treat acne and reduce the look of fine lines.
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Hair and scalp treatments: Homemade coffee treatments are used to remove dead skin cells on the scalp and stimulate hair growth.
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Under eye masks: A spent grounds paste can be made to reduce dark circles under the eyes.
4. Clean Your Fireplace With Used Coffee Grounds
If you have a wood burning fireplace, you know how messy a job cleaning it can be, with more fine ash particles going into the air than in your dustpan or shovel.
To avoid that dreaded cloud of dust, simply sprinkle used coffee grounds onto the cooled-down ashes before you start the job. The used grounds will weigh down the ashes, making the whole process a whole lot easier.
5. Use Spent Coffee Grounds to Make DIY Centerpieces
Once dried, used coffee grounds look exactly like dirt. For this reason, more and more people are using spent coffee grounds to make DIY centerpiece decorations.
Simple DIY Centerpieces Made Of Used Coffee Grounds
- Place your coffee grounds in a glass jar or vase.
- Cover them with pebbles, rocks or seashells
- Decorate with artificial flowers or plants of your choice
And voilà! You will have a unique, real-looking artificial centerpiece in no time. As a bonus, because coffee is rich in scented oils and odor-absorbing properties, your centerpiece will also double as a natural air freshener!
Spent coffee grounds can be used in a variety of ways around your home or garden. In addition to the ones mentioned above, spent coffee grounds are also used as organic fertilizer, compost activator, eco-friendly pest repellant, as a natural wood stain and even to scrub dirty dishes!
So, the next time you brew yourself a cup, consider saving your used grounds!
