There are TONS of Creative Uses For Coffee Grounds!

If you are looking for some good ideas to reuse your old coffee grounds, then pour yourself a cup and dig in. I’ve assembled a ton of creative uses for coffee grind that should keep your trash can free of spent grind for a long time to come. Please read on.

The thing is, most people simply throw away old coffee grind after brewing a pot in the morning. There are, however, lots of different things you can do with those used grounds if you care to go through the effort. The grind, itself, is usually very rich in nutrients and if you buy better coffee it’s usually organic and fresh too.

The most common uses tend to be in the gardening space, including composting and creating soil amendments for plants and vegetables. Some people even drop it on their lawn just to keep cats away.

For the adventurous types, you can use old coffee grind in the bathroom. Many people use coffee grounds as an exfoliate and scrub for the face or skin in general. The gritty nature of grounds helps to clean while also imparting all the good oils into one’s skin. This certainly isn’t for everyone but some people really think it helps with skin health.

Different Ways to Reuse Coffee Grounds

In the following video a number of good uses for old, used coffee grind are detailed. If you prefer to watch and listen rather than read, go ahead and give the vid a gander. There are some interesting ideas presented.

I, for one, love the idea of using coffee grounds on the lawn to keep cats away. I’m always having trouble with keeping cats away from bare patches in my grass. I like to strip poor patches up and amend the soil before placing new seed on the spot. Unfortunately, many cats see this as a perfect litter box. The grind sprinkled on top acts as a deterrent and, as a result, my bare patches are repaired a lot faster and more completely, as they aren’t bothered as frequently by meandering felines from the neighborhood.

coffee grounds for grass

This is also particularly interesting for people who get coffee, but never drink it. After a while the coffee beans start tasting pretty old so you could easily crush your beans and use them for other purposes. Fortunately, we’ve covered grinding coffee beans without a coffee grinder if you find yourself in this circumstance.

Before we start going into this topic, at length, let me first summarize the most common uses for coffee grounds. Then we will explore each use at length.

The Best Uses for Coffee Grounds, After Making Coffee of Course

different ways to recycle spent coffee grind
Can you reuse coffee grounds? We get this question hundreds of times a day – it’s more common than you might think. Considering the vast majority of the adult population makes coffee in the home at least once a week, you can imagine how much spent grind is wasted every day. There are actually a lot of different ways to reuse old coffee and recycle the grind that would otherwise go into the trash. Here is a summary of the most common things to do with old grind.

  • You can use coffee grounds as fertilizer for plants in the garden.
  • You can use coffee grounds for soil amendments.
  • You can use coffee grind to make compost.
  • You can use coffee grounds for face cleaning and scrubs.
  • You can eat coffee beans in moderation – coffee grind is fine too, but probably not as satisfying. Is it safe to drink coffee grounds?
  • You can use coffee grounds for broader skin care. How to make coffee soap.
  • You can use coffee grounds for hair care.
  • You can make a DIY coffee candle to make your room smell like coffee. How to make a coffee bean candle.
  • You can use coffee grounds as an exfoliant.
  • You can use coffee grounds for pest control.
  • You can feed your worms coffee grounds.
  • You can stain wood and/or paper with wet coffee grounds.

Things You Shouldn’t do With Coffee Grind

can you put coffee grounds down the drain
It’s easy to focus on what can be done with coffee grounds that have been used, but what about those things that you shouldn’t do? Here are a few things that you may be tempted to do when looking to recycle spent grind, but probably shouldn’t.

  • Can you put coffee grounds down the drain
  • Can coffee grounds go down the drain
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  • Coffee grounds down the drain
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  • Smoking coffee grounds
  • Are coffee grounds good for sink drains
  • Use ground coffee as instant
  • Use coffee grounds more than once

What are Coffee Grounds Anyway and Why are They Worth Reusing?

coffee grind candle to repel insects
Ever drink to the bottom of your cup and fit a bit of grit down there? Maybe it’s a bit dusty looking? You are looking at coffee grinds in coffee and it’s not what you want.

If you never actually make coffee yourself, then you should know that all coffee is made from crushed coffee beans in one way or another. The vast majority of brewing techniques filter the grind so it doesn’t get in your cup, but some methods will always leave a bit of residue in there that you probably don’t want to drink – moka pots being the main one that comes to mind.

coffee grind in cup

Obviously, the main thing you use coffee grind for is to make coffee, but there are lots of cool things to do with coffee grind after you brew your pot… and if you have old expired coffee beans you can still grind it and use it dry in many different ways around the house.

In some of the applications noted on this page, wet grounds are best for alternative uses, but in some cases drying your spent grounds is best. If you are wondering how to dry out coffee grounds, then just lay them out thinly on a paper towel in a sunny spot. They’ll dry out long before they start growing bacteria.

Are Coffee Grounds Good For Plants?

Are Coffee Grounds Good For Plants
Your leftover coffee grounds can be put to really good use outside in your yard or garden. There is a ton to say about this topic, too:

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Can you Really Make a Coffee Ground Scrub at Home?

diy coffee grounds scrub
There are so many coffee grounds beauty tips out there that an entire (and long) post could be written about them. Here are a bunch of topics that fall under this general category:

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  • is coffee good for your skin
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  • what does caffeine do for your hair
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Can you Repel Bugs or Animals with Coffee Grind?

  • coffee grounds for ants
  • coffee grounds repel cats
  • coffee grounds repel insects
  • coffee grounds repel rabbits
  • coffee grounds to repel slugs
  • does coffee grind deter cats
  • are coffee grounds bad for dogs

Brian Mounts

Head blogger, editor, and owner of "Top Off My Coffee", a website that has been educating readers about coffee brewing techniques and equipment since 2012.

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