What To Do With Coffee Grounds? Amazing Hacks For Your Home!

If you want to know what to do with coffee grounds this article has some amazing hacks for your garden and money saving beauty scrubs.

When you have finished reading this article you will no longer need to buy expensive garden fertilizer or the basic beauty scrubs.

Keep reading for the details.

What To Do With Coffee Grounds

You’ll never be short of what to do with coffee grounds once you have finished reading this article; there are more uses than you can imagine, and perhaps you even have your own unique ideas and uses.

At Latte Love Brew, we encourage you to join in and share with us your own fantastic ways of using your used coffee grounds and helping to reduce household waste.

The most popular use for spent coffee grounds is in the garden for jazzing up your compost, soil and even growing mushrooms!

Let’s start with what to do with coffee grounds in your garden!

Read: Can you reuse coffee grounds in French press?

What To Do With Coffee Grounds In The Garden

There are multiple uses for old coffee grounds in your garden, which is one of my favorite uses for them.

Add It To Your Compost Pile

Spent grounds contain nitrogen, calcium, phosphorus, potassium and many more nutrients, making it a great addition to your compost.

The coffee grounds will also help with water retention. It is suggested that you don’t use more than 20% coffee in your compost mix.

Even though 40% mix produces the least amount of greenhouse gasses, more than 20% can turn your soil acidic.

Add Them To Your Worm Farm

All gardens need a worm farm of some kind. Your worm farm can be run in conjunction with your compost pile. In my opinion, a separate mini worm farm is essential.

Worms are life which is exactly what every thriving garden and farm needs.

Your worms will eat your coffee grounds and poop them out, helping you to create high-quality new soil full of nutrients.

Use Them To Repel Pests And Insects

You can use your coffee waste and use it to keep pests like snails and slugs away from your plants and veggies.

You can also manage beetles, fruit flies, mosquitoes and ants. In my own experience, fresh coffee grounds work best for this with Italian roast being better.

Sprinkle them around your plants and vegetables where you see pests and create a barrier that they hate to crawl over.

Use It As A Garden Fertilizer

If and when your soil is lacking nutrients, you can help to kick-start it by liberally spreading your old dried coffee ground liberally around your garden and on your potted plants.

It is best to spread it and then lightly rake in your old coffee beans too. It’s organic material that will help add nutrients and help your soil to retain moisture.

The nutrients in your used coffee grounds are great for plant growth.

Read: Can you use coffee grounds twice?

Make A Liquid Fertilizer

Brew a second cup of coffee or a carafe of coffee with your spent coffee grounds. Make as much as you need, even a few liters.

Save it and let it cool down. Sprinkle your cool rebrewed coffee on your plants in your garden and house, even your lawn.

As a bonus, you can still use the grounds and get a thirsty use from them by using them in your worm farm or compost pile.

How To Use Coffee Grounds As Fertilizer

Using coffee grounds as a fertilizer brings you more than one option: you have multiple options.

As a keen organic urban farmer, it’s all about the quality of your soil and what you put into it to ensure that there is plenty of life, insects, worms, microbiome, bacteria and so on.

Coffee grounds are a great and popular option as they tick all the right boxes.

• Full of nutrients.
• Contains nitrogen.
• Helps to retain moisture.

The neat slow release of nitrogen over time is what I love!

There are a few ways of using coffee grounds as fertilizer, but don’t use too much as you don’t want to spoil the soil pH.

The way that works best is to use a combination of all methods or to cycle through the methods.

The methods are:

• Brew coffee to make a liquid fertilizer.
• Add them to your compost pile to create quality new soil.
• Add them to your worm farm to create fresh new high quality soil.
• Sprinkle them and mix lightly into your top soil.

Whichever method you use, it is important not to over do it as coffee is acidic, and you don’t want to upset the soil pH. You must maintain an alkaline soil.

What To Do With Coffee Grounds For Plants

For house plants, the best way that I find is to remove your plant from the pot temporarily and mix the coffee grounds into the soil. This is something to do just for the first time to get a good distribution through the soil.

Subsequent additions of coffee grounds can be added every second or third day to avoid acidification of your soil.

If you are concerned about acidification of your soil, add a sprinkle of bicarbonate of soda.

Use the same technique with your garden plants and vegetables.

You can also rebrew your used coffee grounds and use them as a liquid fertilizer when it cools down. This is good for getting nitrogen deep into your soil.

Read: Can you reuse coffee grounds?

How To Reuse Coffee Grounds For Skin

Thrifty ladies don’t need to spend a wack of their income on expensive skin and body scrubs as you can upcycle your used coffee grounds for a natural chemical-free beauty treatment.

A Natural Body Exfoliating Scrub

Making a natural exfoliation is easy, and helps to make your skin softer, silkier and brighter by removing dead skin cells.

What you need:

• ½ cup of used coffee grounds.
• ¼ cup of coconut oil.
• ¼ cup of brown sugar.

Mix your ingredients well until you have a fine paste and rub it over your skin when it is ready.

Rinse well when you are finished.

An Eye Remedy

If you have dark circles under your eyes, you can use coffee grounds to help reduce their appearance.

Simply mix coffee grounds with water and rub under your eyes. Leave it there for 10 to 15 minutes and rinse well with warm water.

Stimulating Hair Growth

You used coffee grounds can be used as a stimulating hair scrub to help remove the dead skill cells in your scalp and remove the build up of hair care products.

The caffeine is also good at stimulating circulation and when used two or three times per week may help to stimulate the growth of both new hair and skin cells.

As A Hair Dye

If you want a natural chemical free and healthier hair dye. While it may not be the first thing that you think about, and you are limited by the color, it is on the plus side 100% natural.

Add two or three tablespoons of coffee grounds to half a cup of coffee. Rinse and lather your hair with it and let your coffee mixture sit in your hair for about an hour and rinse well.

Frequently Asked Questions About What To Do With Coffee Grounds

What Can You Do With Ground Coffee?

There is a lot that you can do with your ground coffee other than simply throwing it out.

• 1. Jazz up your potting soil by mixing in some used coffee grounds.
• 2. Use it as a skin or hair exfoliant.
• 3. Add it to your compost pile.
• 4. Use it to repel garden pests like snails.
• 5. Use it as an anti-cellulite.
• 6. Fix scratched furniture.
• 7. Use it to absorb odors.

Is It Good To Sprinkle Coffee Grounds On Your Garden?

Yes, coffee, even used coffee grounds still have nutrients and nitrogen as well as other compounds that are great for using in your garden and will help your plants and flowers to grow.

Can You Pour Coffee Grounds Down The Sink?

No, unfortunately ground coffee is not water-soluble, which means that instead of it breaking down in water it will clump somewhere and cause a blockage. Dispose of your spent coffee grounds by upcycling them and using them for baking goods like cookies, cake, biscuits or whatever you wish. At the very least, jazz up your soil or compost pile.

Do House Plants Like Coffee Grounds?

Yes, old coffee grounds and fresh coffee grounds are both good for using as a plant fertilizer. As your spent coffee grounds slowly decompose, they will release nitrogen into your soil.

Do Coffee Grounds Repel Insects?

Yes, coffee grounds can act as an effect insect repellent. In my experience the most effective is Fresh coffee Italian roasted coffee grounds, particularly for ants.

For insects that fly, you need to burn your coffee grounds and let the aroma release.

Do Coffee Grounds Clean Pipes?

No. It is an age-old myth, and a nasty myth at that which says that coffee grounds clean pipes. Quite the opposite, putting coffee grounds in your pipes will eventually block your pipes.

Don’t do it!

Can You Use Coffee Grounds Instead Of Instant Coffee In Baking?

Yes, ground coffee is fantastic for cookies, scones, muffins, cakes and a lot more. The use of coffee grounds works better when you don’t want to add a great deal of moisture to your dough.

How Long Can Coffee Grounds Sit In Water?

How long coffee grounds can sit in water depends on a number of factors, namely the grind size and the water temperature. A very large grind size and low water temperature of 1 degree Celsius, 34F means your brew time can be 36 hours and longer.

A very fine grind size of 200 microns and a hot water temperature of 205F (96C) and your coffee can only stay in your coffee for a matter of seconds, typically 25 seconds like an espresso.

Final Thoughts – What To Do With Coffee Grounds

If you have read this far you have some great ideas for what to do with coffee grounds and do your part to reduce household waste, and above all, give life to your garden by not using chemical fertilizers.

If you have some amazing uses for used coffee grounds let us know, we’ll happily expand on this article!

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Derek Marshall

Derek Marshall, a certified barista by the Specialty Coffee Association possesses over two decades of experience in specialty coffee shops. He holds professional certifications for coffee brewing and barista skills. Derek is also an author with authoritative books covering various coffee topics including specialty coffee, sustainability and coffee, coffee brewing, coffee recipes, coffee cocktails and books focusing on Brazilian coffee, Vietnamese coffee, Indonesian coffee and Malaysian coffee. As a barista for over two decades, Derek Marshall has worked in specialty coffee shops across the United Kingdom, Spain, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Vietnam. His expertise extends to the distinct coffee cultures, specialty beverages, and brewing techniques of each nation. Functioning as a coffee consultant, Derek charges US$50 per hour. To learn more about Derek Marshall and Latte Love Brew, visit his About Me Page. For coffee inquiries, contact him at +34-639-410-375 or Derek@LatteLoveBrew.com, mentioning your name and location