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Besides using it as a fertilizer, how else can I reuse my coffee grounds?

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13 Answers 13

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cooking wise, they're so bitter/burnt. The water already took the good flavor out of them and left the crap behind.

From the previous answers, it seems that using coffee as an abrasive or any other way will require a clean up after using the grinds, which in my opinion makes them useless.

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An actual culinary application for used grounds: http://www.instructables.com/id/Gourmet-mushrooms-in-an-old-coffee-cup/

Grow mushrooms in them.

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Kills ants...dump them on the ant colony and they will die.

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  • My understanding is that coffee grounds are a natural ant repellent, not a pesticide.
    – Nick
    Jul 19, 2010 at 13:16
  • Repellent as pesticide, that made me laugh.
    – QueueHammer
    Aug 27, 2010 at 13:00
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    Well it does not kill them, so no +1 for you, but otherwise that's what my mother did.
    – Camilo Martin
    Jan 11, 2012 at 6:37
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Great body scrub!)

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  • 7
    And your geek husband/wife will think you are SO sexy. No, really, they will.
    – JustRightMenus
    Jul 19, 2010 at 13:11
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You can put it in a small dish inside your refrigerator. It will kill bad smalls and leaves a nice coffee smell. Note: Baking powder also works fine but without leaving any smell.

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Put it in your ashtray and it will eliminate the smell.

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A friend of mine (who lived in a van) always used it as a replacement for soap when washing hands. Seemed to work quite well :)

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  • a homebrewed GoJoJoe?
    – mfg
    Aug 9, 2010 at 15:34
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For those who collect kitchen scraps for composting, used coffee grounds are a great deodorizer for your compost pail, especially in large quantities (like if you do a batch of cold brew).

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It's supposed to keep cats from crapping in your yard. Just toss it on the ground and apparantly they'll take their business elsewhere.

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    My cat seems to like the smell of coffee. He hasn't attempted to do his business in it, mind you, but I'm skeptical of it working as a repellent.
    – Aaronut
    Jul 19, 2010 at 13:45
  • Well, it could simply be one of those old wives' tales, I guess. My mother in law was the one suggesting this, so who knows... :P
    – Ruben Steins
    Jul 20, 2010 at 6:42
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It's an abrasive. As long as you don't mind the coffee smell/stain, you can use it to clean and polish surfaces.

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    That's a bit of a paradox surely? "you don't mind the coffee smell/stain, you can use it to clean"
    – Rowland Shaw
    Jul 19, 2010 at 11:18
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    You can use it e.g. to remove crud and irregularities from stainless steel surfaces. The coffee can then be washed off with some water.
    – drxzcl
    Jul 19, 2010 at 14:07
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I myself use it as a universal scrub. Coffee grounds are much softer than the mineral abrasive or crushed apricot seed scrubs, and (unlike the latter two) it does not cause skin irritation, at least for me.

I typically wash it to remove tiny particles (so that it does not stain the tub so much) and then soak it in diluted hydrogen peroxide in a refrigerator until I need it.

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One thing you could reuse coffee grinds is as a roach deterrent, Roaches hate coffee grinds and if you take your coffee grinds and place them in areas you see roaches congregate..they will find another place, It even can get rid of them all together. Reason I know this is I am anti pesticide and herbicide. There are so many natural alternatives to bug spray..and coffee grinds is one of them !! I think re-brewing coffee grinds is not a good idea, as the coffee produced will be of very poor quality

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A friend flushed them in the sink, he said that it cleans the pipes. But then I don't really know if it's true except his sink never got stuck. But that's not a proof!

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    My apartment lease has a clause warning that against dumping coffee grounds down the drain and that they will charge us if our coffee grounds plug anything up.
    – Shannon Severance
    Jul 19, 2010 at 15:34
  • @Shannon, well I don't know what list is shortest, all the things you can dump in the drain, or all the things you can't dump. In both cases I wouldn't sign the lease :)
    – HeDinges
    Jul 19, 2010 at 15:38
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    Coffee grounds clogged up a sink at work, so I'd say its probably a bad idea.
    – derobert
    Jul 19, 2010 at 16:05
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    It's a very, very bad idea to flush them down the sink. If you do that or try to get yam skins trough the food disposal, get a wet / dry vac, open the drain below the sink and use duct tape to connect the vacuum to the drain pipe and suck it out. I know from personal experience -- both the yam peals and the coffee grinds.
    – Adam S
    Feb 3, 2011 at 3:53

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