Don't just toss the coffee grounds!

[ekmallette]

There are a lot of ways to make use of them...here are a few...

1. Soften and add shine to hair. When washing your hair, rub coffee grounds through wet hair and rinse. For brown hair, coffee grounds add highlights.
2. Use coffee grounds as an exfoliant for skin. Pat on skin, massage over skin, rinse.
3. Add coffee grounds to your skin mask beauty routine.
4. Make homemade tattoos (temporary) with henna and coffee grounds.
5. Fertilize plants. Old coffee grounds are nutrient-rich for plants that thrive in an acidic soil.
6. Add used coffee grounds to the pots of indoor plants.
7. Work used coffee grounds into your garden soil before seed planting. After your plants start to emerge, work in coffee grounds near the plants. Used coffee grounds are said to repel snails and slugs as well as adding nutrients to the soil.
8. Increase your carrot and radish harvest by mixing seeds with dry coffee grounds before planting the seeds.
9. Use coffee grounds to repel ants.
10. Keep cats from using your garden as a kitty box by spreading used coffee grounds and orange peels throughout flower beds.
11. Deodorize a freezer. Place a bowl with used coffee grounds in the freezer to remove unwanted odors. Add a few drops of vanilla to coffee grounds.
12. Rub coffee grounds on hands to get rid of smells from chopping or cutting up pungent foods.
13. Make a used coffee grounds sachet. Fill old nylons or cheescloth with dry used coffee grounds. Hang in closets to absorb odors.
14. When you need an abrasive cleaner, coffee grounds can be used. Be careful of any surfaces that might stain.
15. Remove furniture scratches with wet coffee grounds.
16. Got a fireplace? Sprinkle wet coffee grounds over the ashes to keep from becoming engulfed in the plume of dust ashes create when you need to remove them.
17. Dye fabric, paper or Easter eggs. Simply add used coffee grounds to warm water and let sit a bit to create a dye.
18. After you give your dog a bath, rub coffee grounds through the coat of your pet. Coffee grounds are said to repel fleas.
19. Keep bait worms alive by mixing coffee grounds into the soil before you add worms.
20. Grow mushrooms on old coffee grounds.

[Greenbean]

This is all great info, thank you!

I am a regular composter, and my compost pile really noms up all those used grounds. They are a GREAT source of nitrogen, and, since most of the acids in the original grounds got drunk up in my coffee cup, are actually Ph-neutral (or very close to!). Spent coffee grounds and tea leaves make very good compost!

[Andy]

We put them around plants after a recommendation on here, but it has had mixed success, I'd say some snails are like some people, cant do without their daily cuppa!

[Ricardo]

There are some great tips there, and I love coffee. I think the most surprising was the one about growing mushrooms on coffee grounds.

I'd like to try that. I assume that you'd have to have a very controlled environment in terms of light, temperature and humidity, right? :confused1:

[Greenbean]

I found what look like good, clear instructions on growing oyster mushrooms in coffee grounds, here:

oyster mushroom@Everything2.com

It sounds like the container is kept dark by keeping the lid on (not air-tight, just secure), and that keeping the right humidity level and temperature is a matter of trial an error. The article gives a couple of temp ranges depending on your mushroom strain, but suggests simply keeping the container in different places.

It sounds like it's a pretty forgiving organism - it won't just all die if you're reasonable; you can experiment with the variables to see what makes them really thrive.