Joe-to-Grow

You just brewed your favorite cup o’ joe, but wait! Don’t throw the used grounds in the trash! Here are some ways to re-use them:

Food For Plants

Acid-loving plants, such as rosebushes, azaleas, rhododendrons, evergreens, and camellias, will appreciate your used coffee grounds for their natural acidity and the nutrients they’ll add to the soil.

Insect Repellent

Sprinkle used grounds around places where you don’t want ants, or on the ant piles themselves. Used grounds are also said to repel snails and slugs.

Deodorizer

Dry the coffee grounds on a cookie sheet and keep them in a bowl in the fridge or freezer to get rid of stale smells and other unwanted odors. You can also rub the grounds on your hands to remove unpleasant food prep smells.

Dust Inhibitor

Before you clean your fireplace, sprinkle with wet, used coffee grounds and let them sink in a bit. It will help set the ash dust and make it easier to clean the fireplace, you won’t see clouds of ashes in the room anymore.

Dye

Simply soak coffee grounds in hot water for five to ten minutes. You’ll have a brown dye ready for action! You can dip Easter eggs, T-shirts or any cloth. You can even soak paper and then let it dry into parchment paper for fun projects.

Touch-up scratches in the furniture

Steep the old coffee grounds in hot water and then use a cotton swab to mask any scratches and unwanted blemishes on brown-colored furniture.