Coffee is an elixir that most would swear makes up 50% of their body composition. And there’s no doubt that we consume and throw a lot of it away. But hold your filters! Used coffee grounds have a higher purpose, so read on.
#1. Make soap
If you’re a man’s man, or just someone who doesn’t like the scent of herbal soap, then make your own coffee soap. It’s exfoliating, naturally-scented, and deodorizing. It’ll energize your morning showers, and up your chances of scoring with fellow coffee lovers.
#2. Make lovely candles
As with the soap, melting the wax off unscented candles and mixing it with coffee grounds can be one way to get that homemade coffee scent you desperately want. While you’re at it, you can experiment with adding other ingredients such as vanilla to make for an even more delicious aroma.
#3. Exfoliate your skin
The benefits of used coffee grounds for skin exfoliation — with or without the soap — are two-fold. Firstly, the abrasiveness of the coffee grounds will help rub off dead skin. Secondly, using it as a homemade express face mask will reduce eye puffiness, dark circles, and give you an energy boost all in one go.
#4. Scrub off cooking grease
Sticky pans and pots lined with hard-headed kitchen residue are both jobs for used coffee grounds. Utilizing its abrasive nature, you can scrub off stubborn grease layers. Be aware of using it on teflon pans, however, as you may scratch off the teflon itself. Combine with baking soda for absolute scrubbing effectiveness!
#5. Dye paper and wood
It’s an old trick that you might remember from childhood — mix coffee grounds with water to make a murky brown color, then dip crumpled paper in it and let it dry to create the effect of antiquity. It works best with freshly-brewed coffee, although used coffee grounds are the next-best thing. The same can be done for wood, by scrubbing panels in moist coffee grounds.
#6. Deodorize your surroundings
Coffee is a natural deodorizer, absorbing foul odors and replacing them with its own delicious roasted aroma. Stuff a stocking or an empty tea bag with coffee grounds and put the bag in the fridge, freezer, the closet, the bathroom, or anywhere else that stinks.
#7. Keep ants at bay
For reasons not yet entirely understood, ants tend to stay away from used coffee grounds. Apparently, the mild acidity of coffee grounds is also useful in deterring slugs, but it’s unproven. Try it out, and see if sprinkling coffee grounds around your plants and ant hot-spots has any effect on the little critters.
#8. Fiddle with your garden’s pH
If you have hydrangeas growing in your garden, add coffee grounds to the soil to turn your pretty flowers blue, instead of the usual pink. Coffee is slightly acidic with a pH of around 5, which allows hydrangeas to absorb natural aluminium in the soil, giving them a bluish hue.
#9. Make excellent fertilizer
Nitrogen, while usually detrimental to us humans in high dosages, is a very important nutrient for plants. Animal waste has concentrated amounts of urea — a nitrogen-containing compound — which is why dung is a great fertilizer. Using coffee grounds have all the goodness with the added benefit of a lovely aroma.
#10. Absorb the odors of garlic and onions
Thanks to its strong aroma and deodorizing effect, scrubbing your hands with used coffee grounds after chopping up pungent foods such as onions, garlic, and fish, can help remove the odor. Besides that, coffee grounds can also help you smooth out calluses.
#11. Attract fertilizing worms
Whether it’s the fact that coffee grounds cultivate edible bacteria for worms, or that worms like nitrogen, coffee grounds are an excellent source of feed for vermi-cultures. Worms process and enrich gardening soil, helping the distribution of nutrients throughout, while also keeping the soil nice and loose.
#12. Repel pets from your plants
While we all love our dogs and cats, there are moments when we wish they weren’t so cute so we could be genuinely mad at them. Distribute coffee grounds and citrus peel around your flower and plant beds to prevent pets from making mischief. The smell is strong and unpleasant enough to ward off animals with heightened senses, canines and felines included.
#13. Clean up ashes
Because used coffee grounds are damp and easily clump, distributing them over the ashes of a dead fire can help you clean your fireplace without summoning mighty clouds of grey smoke. Lightly distribute your damp grounds over and around the ash, and slowly sweep to mix the two. When you’ve cleaned up, add the mixture to your garden!
#14. Take a sniff as an olfactory cleanser
A quick way to cleanse your olfactory palate when sorting through aromas and perfumes is a whiff of coffee. While snorting definitely isn’t recommended, coffee’s strong aroma will instantly clear away other fruity or musky smells, allowing you to smell the nuances between different perfumes that much better.