Never, Ever Throw Your Coffee Grounds in the Bin

We all love a hearty brew, but what to do with those used coffee grounds after you’ve sipped your punchy double espresso? Don’t throw them out for starters. There are so many better ways to use them, from bug control to beauty treatments. Here are some of the best ways to use coffee grounds rather than tossing them in the bin.

Banish bad smells

Firstly, coffee grounds are top nosh at deodorising nasty smells. It’s why coffee beans are often used to sniff in-between testing perfumes, to cleanse the palate if you will. I pop my used coffee grounds into a bowl and keep them in the fridge until I have enough for the garden or my face (more on that in a bit). It keeps the fridge smelling nice, especially if you’ve got a lot of leftovers, meat and cheese in there.

Ward off snails

Coffee gives me SO much satisfaction here. I absolutely love my garden and so do the bloody snails, especially after it rains. I prefer to limit the use of chemicals as much as possible. Used coffee grounds are a great way of deterring snails from attacking your plants. They hate the taste. I scatter the coffee grounds around my herbs and at the base of the dwarf orange trees and it works a treat.

Scrub ya face

This is my favourite way to use up coffee grounds because it’s a win-win: you get a free face scrub out of it, and you’re not washing who-knows-what-chemicals down the sink from some of those commercial beauty products. All you need to do is add a little olive oil or coconut oil to your used coffee grounds, enough to make a paste and slather it all over your face. It seriously removes dead skin and gives a nice glow. It’s also great to use on your hands and feet, or all over your body really. But it can get messy and slippery, so if you’re using the scrub in the shower be careful. You will need a decent facial cleanser afterwards because the oil tends to cling to the skin.

Time for another coffee, yeah?