After my coffee pot stops brewing in the morning, I haul the dripping grounds over to my kitchen waste basket and dump them…I’ve been doing it for years.
But now, with the internet providing access to more information than you can ever take in, I’ve found a number of uses for coffee and coffee grounds that allows me to get “extra mileage” out of my purchase.
Some of these uses may seem a little unorthodox and make you wonder why you even drink the stuff but if it works and is also environmentally responsible, why not go for it?
Here are just a few of the reuse options for coffee and coffee grounds that I found interesting and have actually tried:
1) Baking soda isn’t the only thing that eliminates refrigerator odor. Next time try dry coffee grounds. Not only does it make your refrigerator smell better, it makes you want to drink another cup. I had actually forgotten about this related tip but when I moved a few years ago from a rental home into a new home I purchased, the movers put a sock with coffee grounds in it into my refrigerator. The guy at the moving company said they do it all the time to keep any odor out of refrigerators and freezers they move. I imaging this would also work well if you needed to move a washer so you wouldn’t get that musty smell.
2) When I’m cooking, I constantly get garlic and onion smell on my hands that seems to last for days no matter how many times you wash them. I had tried lemon juice and touching stainless steel that are supposed to work on eliminating those odors but I did read that rubbing coffee grounds on your hands works better. I tried it the last time I prepared a meal and you know what?…it did work.
3) Spring will be here before you know it and used coffee grounds can be a gardener’s best friend. They make a great fertilizer for your plants and also provide a great defense against ants and any unwanted visitors to your garden like the neighborhood cat.
4) Try using brewed coffee in some of your dishes as that “secret” ingredient. I’m a big fan of my crock pot and use it all the time for making roasts, pork tenderloins, stews and chili. Just about every time I use my crock pot I add about 1 cup of leftover brewed morning coffee to the crock pot. You will be surprised at the depth of flavor it adds to slowly roasting meats and it provides that little extra something to the seasons spicing up my chili.
5) Used coffee grounds, when combined with a little dish detergent, makes a great natural, mildly acidic cleanser for countertops, sinks and other areas of your kitchen. It smells good while you’re cleaning with it and the grounds get into those areas you’d otherwise move over the top of with a sponge or cloth.
Tagged with: coffee grounds • old coffee grounds • uses for coffee grounds • using coffee grounds • what to use coffee grounds for
Filed under: Worth a Look
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