7 Simple Ways to Reuse Coffee Grounds at Home

If you are a regular coffee drinker, you will go through hundreds of pounds if not more of coffee grounds every year most of which end up in the trash and finally in the landfills. And in the landfills, it produces lots of methane gas which means you will be contributing more to climate change than you think

But, this does not mean you should cut down on your coffee consumption because you only need to find the best way to reuse coffee grounds to ensure you contribute less to ruining the environment.

And the good news is that there are countless ways that you can reuse spent coffee grounds. From gardening to beauty boost and household cleaning, you can easily put coffee grounds into better use instead of dumping them into the trashcan.

Best Ways to Reuse Coffee Grounds

Coffee has many health benefits, but what many drinkers might not know is that the grounds they discard after every brew also have some benefits and various uses in and around the home. Here is how to reuse coffee grounds.

1. Grow a Garden

One of the best ways to utilize coffee grounds is growing a garden. It is quite common to see people dump used coffee grounds in their garden which is not just a way to dispose them of as it also aids in keeping your plants healthy.

Most garden soils tend to be acidic and will also not contain a lot of nutrients that are required for the optimal growth of plants. Hence, as the plants grow, they will absorb the little nutrient available and hence leaving your soil depleted. And while you can use fertilizers to restore the nutrients, most fertilizer also has adverse effects on the soil in the long run.

Coffee grounds will contain essential nutrients like iron, potassium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, chromium and nitrogen all of which are required for healthy plant growth. Hence, adding the coffee grounds to your garden's soil can help restore these essential nutrients.

By adding coffee grounds to the soil or mixing them into your compost bin, they will also help absorb any heavy metals which can lead to soil contamination. Better yet, the coffee grounds will also attract warms which come with many benefits for your garden.

2. Bug Repellent

That strong scent of coffee that you always look forward to might smell amazing to you but for bugs, it is super annoying which means that they will want to keep away from it as much as possible. What this means is that coffee grounds are an excellent bug repellent.

By sprinkling used coffee grounds around plants, you can easily keep ants, slugs, and snails away as they hate the smell and the texture can also be irritating for them. Also, soaking the coffee grounds in water overnight can help you make a foliar spray that you can then use to repel insects like caterpillars thanks to the antimicrobial properties.

While there is no concrete evidence to back it up, there is also a claim that mixing coffee grounds with dry orange peels can also keep small mammals like cats away. Hence, if you have pesky cats that are always ruining your house, coffee grounds can come to your rescue.

3. Beauty Boost

For individuals that are always looking for natural beauty solutions, used coffee grounds are one of them. Before you throw out your spent grounds, you should know that they can provide a beauty boost as they are handy for a variety of things such as body scrub, hair shine, and odor neutralization.

Face and Body Scrub

Instead of spending a small fortune on a store-bought exfoliator, you should try using coffee grounds to scrub your face and body as they do an equally good if not a better job. The coarse particles make coffee an effective but still gentle scrub. And to make your coffee grounds scrub you will only need to add them to coconut oil or water and use the mixture for scrubbing

Hair Shine

A shiny hair is not only pleasant to the eye but it is also healthier. Giving yours that amazing sheen does not require expensive products because coffee grounds can still do the job, and you will only need to rub them in your final rinse before cleaning them out with cold water.

Hand Odor Neutralization

If you have a nasty odor in your hands from cooking with garlic or onions that does not seem to go away even when you wash them with liquid soap, coffee grounds can be very useful. All you need to do is wet the hands and rub them with a small amount of coffee grounds before rinsing with cold water.

4. Making Coffee Candle and Soap

For the DIYers, this will be a more interesting way to reuse coffee grounds. Candles and soaps made with coffee grounds will be perfect for those that enjoy the smell of coffee as they will always get it when using either of the two products.

Making both candles and soap with coffee grounds is also quite easy as you will only need to mix them in with the other ingredients and will not need you to add anything extra or prepare them in any special way.

Soap made with coffee grounds will provide a gritty texture given the natural texture of the grounds and this makes it perfect for scrubbing. And you will also end up with a larger and more long-lasting soap with an amazing scent.

5. Refrigerator Deodorizer

All those different foods that go in and out of your refrigerator will always leave a combination of all kinds of scents. But, the good news is that you do not need to spend any cash to remove these bad scents as coffee grounds will get the job done.

The used coffee grounds contain significant quantities of nitrogen that combines with carbon to eliminate smells. In short, coffee grounds are an excellent smell absorber and will easily get rid of any nasty smells in your fridge.

Here you will only need to pour the coffee grounds in a small bowl or open container and place them in the refrigerator. Leave them in there to absorb the smell and make sure you change them after every few weeks. And what is even better is that the grounds you remove from the refrigerator can still be used in your garden.

6. Household Cleaner

Given that coffee grounds have an abrasive texture, they will be great for cleaning up your house, and this is more so when dealing with surfaces that require a lot of scrubbing such as those with heavy buildups.

And because these grounds also have antiviral and antibacterial properties, you can also use them to sanitize the surfaces but if they are sensitive areas, you will still need to use other sanitizers as coffee grounds are not potent enough.

You can use coffee grounds to remove build up in sinks, grills and even to polish your cookware. But, you need to be keen when using them as they can cause brown stains when used on porous materials.

7. Fix Up Furniture

All those nasty scratches on your furniture can make it look older than it is and they are just annoying to look at. But, before you decide to throw them out or call in a carpenter for restoration, you should try using coffee grounds as they can also help you fix them up.

To fix the scuffed and scratched surfaces, you should mix coffee ground with water to make a thick paste. You should then rub the thick paste into the scratches using a cotton swab and allow it to sit for at least 5 minutes before wiping with a clean cotton rag.

While this paste might not get rid of the scratches completely, it should help buff and conceal them by dying the wood dark brown.

Conclusion

Anyone that drinks coffee a lot will go through lots of coffee grounds every year. And instead of throwing out these coffee grounds and contributing to climate change, you should try to reuse them.

There are countless ways of reusing coffee grounds from growing a garden to beauty boost and even fixing scratches and scuffs on your furniture.

If you are looking for the best ways to reuse coffee grounds, you can be sure that there is at least one on our list that will work for you. Hence, all you need to do now is to choose what will work best for you.

Sources

1. 7 Ways to Reuse Your Coffee Grounds for National Coffee Day - Bustle
2. 16 Creative Ways to Use Old Coffee Grounds - Healthline
3. 15 Ways to Reuse Coffee Ground at Home - Money Crashers