A good freshly ground coffee every morning, the smell of coffee that fills the house, a big warm cup… How many secrets does your cup of coffee hold that you still don’t know about? If you love coffee, you surely enjoy its aroma and flavour every morning, but what do you do with the grounds after preparing it? Most people throw them away without realising that they are wasting a natural resource with many benefits, from melting ice to improving your skin… Coffee grounds can be our best ally at home and we are going to tell you below how to get the most out of your breakfast without even realising it!
How to prepare coffee grounds?
Before we tell you what we can use them for, we are going to explain how to store them once you have consumed them, because, as you know, coffee gets wet, and storing it wet would only generate mold and humidity. So, once you have had your coffee, store the grounds in a clean, dry container, spread the grounds out over the container (but put absorbent paper underneath) and place it somewhere well ventilated so that it can dry naturally. Once they are completely dry, you can store them in any jar that allows you to keep them close for use.
A natural de-icer
What? Coffee instead of salt? That’s right, when temperatures drop and the streets freeze, we usually resort to salt to melt it, but this method can damage the soil, plants and even our shoes! This is where coffee grounds come into play, because with their grainy texture they are an alternative to melt ice without causing collateral damage and in a natural way! You only need to spread coffee grounds on the frozen surfaces and in a short time you will see how it thaws.
Fertilizer for our plants:
Also, if you didn’t know that coffee had more uses than drinking it, here we are going to tell you all the ones we can think of.
Coffee grounds contain nutrients such as nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus, essential for plants. So, mixing it with the soil or using it as fertilizer can improve the quality of the soil as well as develop your crops better!
A natural repellent
Also? Yes, also! The ants or slugs that we usually have in our garden disappear immediately when we spread coffee grounds around our plants, and without the need for chemical products that can damage our plants or affect our pets.
A homemade exfoliant
The applications of coffee in beauty are numerous, our favorite, without a doubt, is the exfoliant. Mix coffee with a little coconut oil and sugar and you will be able to create an exfoliant with which to eliminate dead skin cells, as well as improve blood circulation. The best thing is that it will work for both the face and the body because the texture is not aggressive.
And what about our hair?
Well, that’s fine too. You can create a homemade scrub by mixing coffee with your hair mask or shampoo. This boosts the antioxidant effects and gives your hair shine (it could even make it grow faster). The most important thing is that you don’t overuse this method and do it once every two weeks. Our advice is to be prepared because you’ll have to wash your hair a couple more times to get all the coffee out. But the result leaves your hair feeling fresh and your roots soft. 100% recommended!
To improve our face…
Well, that’s right! If you put cold bags with coffee under your eyes, you may reduce the inflammation of your dark circles thanks to the caffeine.
As you can see, coffee is more than just a resource and has more than one application. A simple cup of coffee will help you improve your home and your body, and without generating waste!