For Aussies, coffee is a way of life. Your local barista knows you by name, and knows exactly how you like your perfectly blended, overpriced Flat White – it’s a guarantee. We talk about how Aussies don’t do crappy or even average coffees and take a little delight in the decline of the big American coffee chains like Starbucks.
At home, many of us have our own machine and it’s safe to say the beans will have come from remote third-world countries, where plantations are inaccessible by roads and grown at the perfect altitude. It’s embedded in our culture: we breathe, dream and love coffee!
But as you can imagine there is much more to coffee! As cleaning people, Electrodry has done some research and found a few uses for coffee beans around the house and garden. Here are our top 5 uses for coffee grounds:
Quick Summary – Coffee Ground Hacks
- Odours: Absorb smells from shoes, loos + hands; use dry in jars or old stockings.
- Garden: Repel slugs/snails; attract worms; boost compost with nitrogen + magnesium.
- Scrub: Clean pans, grills + tiles; gentle abrasive—spot-test to avoid stains.
- Wood: DIY stain for furniture; soak grounds, apply in coats, dry to darken scratches.
- Fireplace: Sprinkle damp grounds to weigh down ash + dust before cleaning.
Love clever cleaning? Explore more cleaning tips on the Electrodry blog.
1. Air Freshener
Coffee grounds are great at absorbing foul-smelling odours. Sprinkle some in hubby’s shoes, have a pot in the loo, or grab a pinch to remove smells from dirty hands. And to top it off, your new perfect homemade air freshener is ground beans inside a pair of your old stockings.
2. Veggie Garden
If you love your veggie garden and like to keep it all-natural, your old ground-up coffee beans are the perfect partner. Their bitterness and strong aroma will keep away snails and slugs while attracting worms which will work the soil and make it more fertile. Added to the compost heap the grounds will boost nitrogen & magnesium levels helping you create the perfect fertilizer.
3. Pots, Pans, And Grills
Coffee grounds can also be used to scrub dirt and grime. It’s abrasive but not harsh, making it safe to use. It can be used on pots and pans or to cleanse away tough dirt from tiles and kitchen counters. Keep in mind that coffee grounds can potentially stain some surfaces so test it first on an inconspicuous spot.
4. Wood Stain
Go all natural! Coffee grounds can be used as an alternative to expensive wood stain solutions. Cover up scratches on your wooden furniture by staining the scratched area with a homemade coffee ground stain mixture. Soak the ground beans in hot water and use a cloth to apply several coasts. When dried you will find the colour a few shades darker.
If refinishing your wood floor is what you’re after, you can either sand and polish your floors or restore them without sanding and building in coffee-toned stains.
5. Fireplace Cleaner
Cleaning the fireplace is a horrid task but your love of coffee will help. Sprinkling your fireplace with damp coffee grounds to weigh down all the dust and ash will prevent it from spreading. Thank heaven for the latte – how easy is that!
NB: Coffee makes for an amazing deodoriser and can do an excellent job of staining timber, but it can easily stain carpet and upholstery, so please take when using it around the house.
