DIY ideas are always fun to get involved with, and your used coffee grounds can be a great addition to helping you around the home. Before you throw them away, save your grounds and see what benefits they can bring, from helping with cleaning to even being used for cooking up food. Here’s some of the best ways you can put your used grounds to use around your home.
Oil absorber
If you’ve ever been cooking and spilled some oil on the counter or floor, you’ll know how difficult it can be to clean without ruining your cloths. Used coffee grounds are an effective way to counter this without forcing you to buy a new cloth set. Apply a generous amount to the spilled oil and leave it to absorb into the grounds. Much like salt, the grounds take in the oil, limiting the spread and making it much easier to clean without drenching your cloths in oil.
Shoe odour remover
The more you wear shoes, the worse they end up smelling. Cleaning shoes, especially inside, is never an easy job, but your used grounds can help. Because the grounds absorb moisture, they are ideal to use as an odour remover. Take a palmful of grounds and place them in an unsealed small plastic bag or container. Use this inside the shoe to give the grounds time to remove any odour while you’re not wearing them, and repeat if needed.
Meat flavouring
Making food can sometimes seem repetitive, so mixing it up and trying something new can open the door to new favourites at tea-time. Your coffee grounds don’t just make a good brew, they can add some extra flavour to any meat you’re cooking too. You can easily make a meat rub mix, adaptable to exactly how you like it. Use 4 tablespoons of grounds mixed in with 2 teaspoons of salt, a tablespoon of paprika (or any substitute) and 2 optional teaspoons of chilli flakes, if you want to add some extra spice. Mix the combination up, and apply as a dry rub or spread some ketchup or barbeque sauce across the meat and apply the rub. This flavour hack works especially well for meals in a slow cooker, so the flavours really seep into the meat.
Pot and pan scour
Burnt food can leave some tricky-to-remove stains & build-ups on your pots and pans, with traditional scour pads not being abrasive enough to really make a difference. Your coffee grounds can be used in combination to help boost the scouring effect and remove the stains and build-ups, leaving you with a well cleaned set. Spread a palmful of your used grounds onto the pot or pan you’re cleaning, and use a slightly damp scouring pad to rub across the whole surface. You can add extra grounds if there’s some tougher spots, and once you’re done rinse the grounds off to leave you with an effectively cleaned pot or pan.
Fireplace cleaner
More traditional fireplaces tend to leave ash after use, which can be a dread to clean, especially if there’s carpet around it. Coffee grounds are a perfect counter for the messy ash, clumping it together to avoid leaving you with a bigger job than when you started. Sprinkle a good amount of grounds around the fireplace where the ash is located, making sure to move it a little to capture it all. Leave it for around 5-10 minutes and sweep into a dustpan. You’ll instantly notice the reduction in ash left afterward thanks to the grounds minimising the tiny ash particles being able to remain, and you’ll have avoided creating a mess in your carpet too.
