Save Old Coffee Grounds for Three Brilliant Reasons
1 Material
5 Minutes
Easy
My hubby is really into freshly ground coffee (not me, I could happily drink instant coffee), so we just got a fancy espresso maker. Every morning he makes coffee and I watch as he tosses his used coffee grounds into the trash. I've heard that there are plenty of uses for old coffee grounds, so the other day, I finally decided to save them before my hubby could get to them. After a little experimenting, here are the three best uses I found!
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Step 1: Remove Your Coffee Grounds from the Machine
I began by removing my husband's coffee grounds from the machine. Whether you have a K-Cup, Nespresso pod, or something else, you can just open it up and empty it out.
I wasn't planning on reusing my coffee grounds right away, so I put some aside and let them dry. To do this, I spread them out on and left the shopping bag they were in open, to give them some air and keep them from getting moldy.
Coffee grounds are very acidic and are a great fertilizer for my strawberries, or other acid loving plants like azaleas, rhododendrons, blueberries, heathers, holly, gardenias, and begonias (just to name a few).
I planted a bunch of strawberry plants and they haven't been germinating as well as I had hoped. I was told the reason might be a lack of acid in the soil. After I added garden grounds, they finally started growing, and even flowering! I'm expecting a nice bunch of strawberries shortly, thanks to hubby's morning cup of Joe.
After cutting up onions or garlic, I always have that musty smell lingering on my fingertips for hours. I found that rubbing my hands with coffee grounds made the smell vanish completely and left my finger tips smelling nice and fresh!
Now, I always keep some coffee grounds near the sink and use them to wash the bad smell away. Make sure to take just a tiny amount, to protect your sink pipes from clogging up. You can also scrub your hands with grounds over a garbage and dump the excess in there before washing them off.
There are few things as sad as walking through your garden and spotting nibbles taken here and there. Slugs! I've been fighting the slugs off my petunias for some time, but nothing seems to work very well. When I heard that coffee grounds could shoo them off, I was over the moon!
I sprinkle liberal handfuls of grounds all over my garden every day, and so far, the slugs don't seem inclined to turn my flower beds into a buffet.
So, which trick are you going to use? Enjoy your morning cup, then let me know what works for you!
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2 of 53 comments
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I have been doing these things for years. They really do work. Thanks for posting.
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You can rub your hands on your stainless faucet and it will take off a lot of smells.It works for onions, garlic even tuna! I don't know how I know this, I just do. Lol!
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