I love coffee. It has been a major part of my everyday life since my teens, when I started taking on a bit more in life than I could chew. That hasn’t changed as a mother. I used to toss out my coffee grounds into the trash, but it felt so wasteful.
When I started gardening I discovered that I could use coffee grounds in my garden. Eventually, I started to search out other uses for coffee grounds.
Amazing Uses for Coffee Grounds
The first thing I learned to do with coffee grounds is to use them in the garden. Coffee grounds can be added to your compost for a thriving garden or used directly to build up your garden soil. If you don’t go through a lot of coffee grounds yourself you can stop by your local Starbucks and see if they have any available.
Starbucks is well known for giving the used grounds for free to gardeners. Many small local coffee shops will be more than happy to share the used grounds with you as well.
Coffee grounds make a great deodorizer. Drying the grounds and placing at the bottom of your trash can you can use them to make pouches in muslin bags, or small bowls around your home to help control odors in your home.
Adding a bit baking soda will boost the deodorizing effect of coffee grounds. If using as a deodorizer you want to be sure to dry the grounds first to avoid them molding while they do their job deodorizing your home.
Coffee grounds make a great addition to your child’s sensory play. You can dry the grounds to use as play dirt for a sensory bin or use to make fun things like this coffee salt dough. The grounds add color, fragrance, and texture to this classic salt dough making it nice sensory activity.
Homemade body products are a great way to use up coffee grounds. Even used coffee grounds still have a lot of the beneficial coffee essential oil and caffeine left in them. Place on parchment paper on a cookie sheet to dry and use to make your own body products. Great options include:
Tips for collecting and storing coffee grounds
Use a french press for the easiest to collect coffee grounds. A french press is an eco-friendly coffee maker option and is great because you do not need to do any extra work to separate your grounds for use.
Stop by your local coffee shop and ask about used coffee grounds.
Use a reusable coffee filter for easy-to-retrieve coffee grounds.
Toss the paper filter with your coffee grounds directly into your compost.
Open up coffee pods to save the grounds inside.
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