By Healthy Hueman: Ashley D
If you are a coffee drinker like me, chances are you have a lot of unbrewed coffee grounds in the pantry. Before you get too hasty and decide to throw them out I must let you know there are so many incredible uses for unbrewed coffee grounds in the garden, around the house, and in the kitchen. And if you’re not a coffee drinker but what to give these uses a try, fret not, many coffee shops have an abundance of coffee grounds that they are willing to give away.
Ground coffee is what brewed coffee is made of. It’s made up of ground coffee beans, much like flour is made of wheat, and maize is made of corn. Ground coffee performs one very vital function in our daily routine: it provides us the hit of caffeine we require to get moving in the morning or to manage our way during the midday slowdown.
Unbrewed coffee grounds have plenty of practical uses you may not even know about or thought to consider. One major benefit of subbing coffee grounds in these areas is that it’s 100% natural. Let’s cover the uses for unbrewed coffee grounds.
Uses For Unbrewed Coffee Grounds in the Home
1. Scour Pots and Pans
The grainy texture of unbrewed coffee grounds is just coarse enough to clean stuck-on food off the bottoms of pots and pans without harming the surfaces. Use a few drops of dish soap, a good handful of unbrewed coffee grounds, and a scouring pad to get your cookware looking brand-new.
2. Drain cleaner
Is your drain beginning to leave an odor or is it in need of a clean after serval uses? It’s easy to fix with the help of unbrewed coffee grounds. Pour them down the drain and follow up with a kettle full of boiling water to help remove odors.
3. Repel ants
Ants are greatly sensitive to caffeine. This safe element distracts the worker ants because they lose their scent traces. Leave unbrewed coffee grounds where the ants are and they will bring them home and consume them. This process takes a few weeks to notice, but after a while, you’ll see a reduction in the ant population.
4. Remove Fleas
There are various flea-removal products on the market, but several carry harsh elements and can create undesired side effects.
Fortunately, like ants, fleas don’t appear to fancy coffee, and you may want to consider unbrewed coffee grounds as a natural remedy. Smoothly rub the unbrewed grounds everywhere on your pet’s fur after shampooing. Then rinse them off and allow your pet to dry as usual.
5. Trap Roaches
Finding a natural method to repel roaches can be challenging. Fill a can or jar with an inch or two of moistened coffee grounds, then line the container’s neck with extra-sticky double-sided tape. The scent will draw cockroaches in and the tape will trap them.
6. Odor Eliminator
Unbrewed coffee grounds can help absorb and reduce odors from your refrigerator, tight spaces, closet, gym bag, or smelly shoes. Just fill socks or pantyhose with unbrewed coffee grounds and tie them off to make portable air fresheners. Using them as a hand scrub can also help remove lingering smells from onion or garlic. See a DIY video toon how to use unbrewed coffee as an air freshener below:
7. Make Candles
If you enjoy candlemaking, you’ll love using coffee grounds as an ingredient. Fill a bowl with coffee grounds and place tea lights on top! The heat of the candle will warm the coffee beans and you can enjoy a lovely aroma throughout the room.
8. Clean Your Fireplace
Cleaning ashes from a wood-burning fireplace can be an incredibly messy task. By scattering unbrewed coffee grounds over the ashes, you can weigh them down and prevent smoke clouds from forming. This not only makes the ashes easier to remove, but it also keeps dust from escaping and traveling to other parts of the room.
9. Pincushion filler
For the avid sewer create yourself a pincushion with coffee grounds. It’ll make your sewing kit smell amazing, keep hands protected, and they’ll also keep the pins from rusting.
10. Sand Icy Paths
You can use coffee grounds for traction during the winter months. While coffee grounds won’t actually melt the ice like salt, they will add traction like sand.
11. Fertilizer
Plants take nutrients out of the soil, but unbrewed coffee grounds on top of garden beds (or turning it into the soil), replenishes their stores of nitrogen, potassium, and magnesium, helping to keep your plants healthy and happy.
12. Improve Flower Bloom
Coffee grounds are highly acidic, so spread them generously over the flower beds of acid loving plants, such as azaleas, rhododendrons, and Hydrangeas, for amazing bloom
13. Attracting Worms
Worms help give your soil and plants nutrients and the tunnels they create when they slither along will help to aerate the soil which will allow roots to grow. They’re big fans of coffee so adding coffee grounds to your garden flowerbeds will help attract them.
14. Gardners Soap
Make your own gardener’s soap by melting a bar of glycerin soap and stirring in 1/3 cup of coffee grounds. Pour it back into a soap mold, let it set, then use to scrub and exfoliate dirty hands after a productive gardening session
15. Cat Repellent
Cats seem to be bothered by the smell of coffee. You can spread unbrewed coffee ground throughout the garden to keep cats away from areas you’d like to protect. Mix your grounds with orange peels to give it that extra cat-repelling effect.
16. Wood stain
Unbrewed ground coffee makes a great stain for wood. It’s natural and easy to apply. It’s a simple way for anyone to enhance the beauty of wood with a warm, caramel tone. (You’ll need to brew it though to create the stain) See DIY video below.
Uses For Unbrewed Coffee Grounds On Your Body
17. Exfoliating Scrub
There are many benefits of exfoliating regularly. Remove any dead skin off your body and face with this recipe: one part brown sugar and one part olive or coconut oil mixed with two parts unbrewed coffee grounds.
18. Cellulite
You may have seen cellulite-reducing products in beauty shops that include caffeine, which is said to be helpful in encouraging it to disappear. Using the recipe above to can also use ground coffee to treat the appearance of cellulite.
19. Natural Hair Dye
If you’ve ever spilled coffee on a white shirt, you know that it can leave a stain. Coffee grounds can be used to dye just about anything. Simply wet them and use them to dye paper or fabric or darken brunette hair.
20. Remove Scalp Build Up and Promote Hair Growth
Exfoliating your scalp with coffee grounds can help remove buildup and dead skin cells. Exfoliating your scalp with used coffee grounds can help remove dead skin cells and product buildup and may even speed up hair growth.
21. Treat Under-Eye Circles
Many things can contribute to the development of dark circles and puffiness under the eyes, including fragile blood vessels, poor circulation, and inadequate skin quality. Caffeine has anti-inflammatory properties and stimulates blood circulation around the eyes, which can help reduce the appearance of dark circles and swelling. See a video on how to use unbrewed coffee ground to treat under-eye dark circles below.
22. Treat Cold Sores
Coffee is great for getting rid of cold sores. Just dab the cold sore with wet unbrewed coffee grounds, let sit for a few minutes and rinse. The pain will disappear in a day or so and so will the sore.
23. Acne Treatment
Coffee’s natural astringent and antioxidant properties make it a great DIY mask treatment, especially for those with acne-prone skin. Just mix your coffee grounds with enough milk to make a paste, then apply it and let it sit for about 20 minutes. Rub the mixture gently for about a minute before rinsing clean.
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