In our kitchen, we re-use just about everything. Glass jars, egg-shells, food scraps, tin cans, and…coffee grounds. The reason I do it now, in a pre-SHTF world, is to save money, and save trips to the store, and to reduce the waste that goes into landfills.
In an SHTF situation, the reason we’d re-use everything, of course, is because we wouldn’t be able to go to the store. Stores would likely be closed, and travel would be dangerous.
At that point, everything that we already have would be come extremely precious. Our garbage would turn to gold. Including, yes, used coffee grounds.
So let me share 10 brilliant uses for leftover coffee grounds.
1.) Use them in compost. Long-term survival means growing your own crops, and crops will use up the nutrition in the ground every growing season, which means you’re going to need to learn to make your own compost. Compost needs a mixture of browns and greens to be effective. Some people use a ratio of 50 percent browns to greens. I like 75 percent brown, 25 percent green. Oddly, coffee grounds count as greens, even though they’re brown. That’s because coffee comes from beans, which are, of course, plants.
You can also toss in the coffee filters right into the compost, as long as they are unbleached filters.
2.) Use coffee grounds directly on plants to amend soil – but only SOME plants. Coffee grounds are slightly acidic. Some plants, like blueberries, azaleas, hydrangeas, holly, and gardenia, love and require soil that is slight acidic. Other plants need soil that is alkaline – lower in acid. Do not put coffee grounds directly on the soil around tomato plants, they don’t like it. Tomato plants do love ground up eggshells, though – that’s a subject for another post!
In compost, the acid in coffee grounds will break down, and the coffee grounds won’t make the compost too acidic. It’s just when putting the coffee grounds directly on soil that you need to be careful.
3.) Coffe grounds remove Odors. Place a bowl of coffee grounds in your refrigerator to absorb odors, just like baking soda does.
4.) Coffee Grounds For Cleaning. Coffee grounds are naturally abrasive. You can sprinkle them directly on pots and pans to scrub them, or you can mix them with a little dish soap, and scrub away.
5.) Neutralize cooking odors after handling onion and garlic. After you have chopped up strong-smelling foods like onions, garlic and radishes, you can take some used coffee grounds, and give your hands a good scrubbing with them.
6.) Use on icy steps and walkways. Gritty coffee can help break down the ice, and also make it less slippery just like sand does.
7.) Rub coffee grounds on meat to tenderize it. No, I’m not crazy. Well, okay, the jury’s still out on that, and you definitely should not ask any family members to weigh in on this subject, but yes, rubbing coffee grounds on meat will help tenderize it and give it a unique flavor.
8.) Make a face scrub with used coffee grounds. Combine the coffee grounds with coconut oil and either brown sugar or Himalayan sea salt. Start out with a small amount, so you can see how your skin reacts to the mixture. Mix the ingredients until you have achieved the desired thickness. Scrub a small area of your face and then rinse off. Your skin will, of course, be red from rubbing, but the redness should dissipate quickly. If your skin stays irritated, then coffee face scrubs aren’t for you. If the redness fades quickly, then congratulations, you have found a new DIY skin cleanser! In an SHTF scenario, dashing out to the drugstore won’t be an option. And a little bit of coffee grounds goes a long way, so if you’ve stockpiled coffee, you’ll have coffee grounds around for years.
9.) Coffee ground scalp scrub. Use coffee grounds to scrub your scalp. Our scalps produce oil, which tends to hold on to odor. When you scrub your scalp with coffee grounds, the grounds remove the odor and also act as a natural deodorant. Can also be helpful in removing dandruff flakes.
10.) Attract worms to your garden. Worms are priceless for aerating your garden soil. Worms, like humans, love coffee. Well, coffee grounds. So far I have never seen any worms at my local coffee shop, sitting there sipping tiny cups of cappuccino and…where was I again? Ah yes. Mixing coffee grounds into your garden soil will help attract worms, just remember not to put coffee grounds too close to plants that prefer alkaline soil.
And, there you have it – 10 brilliant uses for left-over coffee grounds!