Old coffee beans can be a pain to deal with in your home. You can’t make coffee with them, and the beans seem to take up unnecessary space. However, you might not want to throw these objects away. Is there anything you can do with old coffee beans? Can you give these old beans new life?
There are so many things you can do with old coffee beans! Read on to learn more about a few of the things you can do with them. It might seem like you can’t use them anymore, but there are so many things in store for old coffee beans! Let’s dive right in.
In This Guide...
Make a Cleaner
One of the first things you can do with old coffee beans is make a cleaner for your living space. To do this, you will need to grind the beans up. This state makes the coffee abrasive and able to deal with impossible-to-remove stains on hard surfaces. Coffee grounds are even known to have antiviral properties.
To make a cleaner, you will need to:
- Grind your beans into an abrasive consistency
- Put ⅔ teaspoon into a bowl
- Add warm water until there is an even ratio
- Mix the concoction until well-combined
- Scoop up the mixture with a scrubbing towel
From here, you can utilize the mixture to clean various surfaces. Try to use a cleaning vessel that isn’t porous for the best results.
The homemade coffee ground cleaner works well on counters, grills, and cookware. Avoid putting the mixture on porous surfaces, as coffee grounds can leave a stain if they get caught. You’ll find it easier to get your home squeaky clean with a cleaner made from old coffee beans.
Mix Up a Skin Scrub
There’s another scrub you can make with old coffee beans - one for your skin. Coffee grounds serve as an excellent exfoliant for the skin. It also has antioxidant properties that help your skin flourish, even in the worst conditions.
To make the skin scrub, you will need to:
- Grind your coffee beans
- Mix the grounds with coconut oil for the body
- Add the ground to honey for the lips
- Put the mixture in resealable containers for storage
This skin scrub can be kept for a long time in the fridge.
To use the scrub, all you need to do is rub it on the affected body parts in the shower or the sink. Then, all you need to do is rinse it off. You can safely exfoliate your skin a couple of times a week with old coffee beans. The best part about this mixture is that it takes seconds to create and costs much less than brand-name exfoliants.
Fertilize a Garden
Another thing you can do with old coffee beans is fertilizing a garden. Plants need all the nourishment they can get. Coffee beans are a source of many beneficial nutrients, such as nitrogen, iron, and phosphorus. They even attract worms to the area, which helps keep the soil packed with healthy supplements for the greenery.
To fertilize a garden with old coffee beans, you will need to:
- Grind your beans
- Sprinkle them in the soil around your plants
- Pack the grounds in, gently
- Water and care for the soil as normal
From this point, the coffee grounds will naturally mix with the soil.
Homemade fertilizer is yet another cheap replacement for an item that would otherwise be costly. Rather than spending money on expensive fertilizer, you use old coffee grounds to fulfill the same purpose. For once payment, you’ll get multiple uses out of your coffee beans.
Create a Bug Repellent with Coffee!
Not only does coffee work as a fertilizer, but it’s also an excellent repellent. Caffeine and dipertenes that reside inside coffee beans are toxic to insects. They keep away bugs like fruit flies, mosquitoes, and even ants. Some report that coffee grounds are ideal for keeping creatures like rabbits away.
To use coffee grounds as a repellent, you will need to:
- Grind your beans
- Pour grounds in a bowl
- Set the bowl outside by where you want to keep bugs away
- Alternatively, sprinkle them on your plants
Bugs should stay away from the areas where you place the coffee grounds.
Coffee grounds are an effective way to keep pests away from your yard, garden, or the outside of your home. They’re also non-toxic and better for the environment than repellents with chemicals packed inside. Use old coffee beans to form a natural way to keep your pests in check.
Clean Pots and Pans
We talked about cleaning hard surfaces earlier, but you can also put old coffee beans to work cleaning hard stains on pots and pans. Although they’re not as strong as products like steel wool, coffee grounds can make a difference on cookware that feels impossible to clean after you cook with it.
To make a cleaner, you will need to:
- Grind your beans
- Put ⅔ teaspoon into a bowl
- Add warm water
- Mix the concoction
- Scoop up the mixture with a scrubbing towel
This process is the same as making a traditional cleaner.
If you feel like this mixture isn’t getting the job done, add more grounds to the combination to add a rougher consistency to your cleaner. Then, scrub at the dishes to get rid of unwanted grime forever.
Form a Tasty Chocolate Snack
Maybe you don’t have a garden, a pest problem, or a need to exfoliate your skin. If none of these sound appealing to you, you can use your old coffee beans to make a tasty snack that will hold well over time. This snack is especially good for those with a sweet tooth who need a caffeine boost throughout the day.
To make a delicious snack, you will need to:
- Spread your coffee beans out on a tray
- Melt chocolate in a bowl
- Pour the chocolate over the beans
- Let the chocolate harden
Once the chocolate is hard, you can pick the beans up and put them in a container for storage.
The combination of chocolate and coffee beans makes for an energizing snack for anyone. If you utilize dark chocolate, you’ll get many antioxidants to help your skin and overall well-being.
Dye a T-Shirt
Tye-dye is becoming a popular technique today. Everyone dyes products with colorful stains, from hoodies to pairs of sweatpants. Coffee can make for a unique stain. It turns blank clothes into classy neutral masterpieces, fit for any occasion. They’ll also smell good at the end of the process if you’re a big fan of coffee.
To make a dye, you will need to:
- Grind your beans
- Soak the beans in warm water
- Drain the grounds from the beans
From here, proceed to tie-dye as you would with a traditional dye.
The longer you let the grounds soak, the darker a dye you’ll get. Ensure you dye with cheap products at first to master the process before you try to dye something expensive.
Grow Fungi
Coffee grounds provide fertile soil for fungi to grow. If you pick the right ones, you can have this ingredient available for your recipes at any given moment. Mushrooms are known for being impossible to grow. Coffee grounds are the perfect platform for them because they’re filled with nutrients that provide mushrooms with everything they need to thrive.
To grow fungi with coffee beans, you will need to:
- Moisten 5.5 pounds of grounds
- Add a pound of mushroom spore and sawdust
- Put the mixture in a filter patch grow bag
- Cut air holes
- Spray with water once a day
- Move to light after two to four weeks
- Harvest capped mushrooms
You can find more detailed instructions for this process here.
Mushrooms are a convenient ingredient to have on hand whenever you need them. Although they can be impossible to grow, coffee beans will help improve the process and increase your odds of ending up with mushrooms.
Add Them to Compost
Compost is a unique concoction made out of decomposing food, materials, and other items. Old coffee beans can make a beneficial addition to any compost bin thanks to the many nutrients that exist inside them. The mixture of coffee grounds with discarded pieces from your kitchen can make the compost richer than before.
To make compost with your coffee beans, you will need to:
- Grind the beans
- Add the grounds to your food waste
- Allow the compost to sit
Eventually, the grounds will combine with the compost.
Once your compost has sat for a substantial time, you can add it to your garden or yard. This new mixture is filled with nutrients from the food waste and the old coffee beans. Your greenery will love you.
Produce Decorations
If you don’t want to make a cleaning product or exfoliant out of your coffee beans, you can always put them to work as decorations in your home. If you have a boho or modern aesthetic, coffee beans can serve as the ideal complement for the color scheme of your living space. There are a few ways you can use old coffee beans as decorations.
Some examples of decorations you could make with old coffee beans include:
- A picture frame
- A vase for fake flowers
- A candle holder
These can sit around your home, wherever they will best decorate your home.
If you’re crafty and you have time on your hands, making decorations with old coffee beans can be a fun thing to do with this material. Depending on how many old coffee beans you have, you can add a new theme to your home with this material.
Take Control of Odors
If you’ve ever noticed an odor in your house that won’t go away, you need an odor neutralizer to fix the scent of your home. Coffee beans contain nitrogen. When this chemical is combined with carbon in the air, it works to absorb the odors and get rid of them forever. Coffee grounds are a simple way to get rid of nasty stenches in your house.
To take care of odors, you should grind your beans and put them in items such as:
- A sock
- A bowl
- Pantyhose
You should seal the top of the vessel you put the coffee grounds inside.
Once you’ve put the grounds inside a vessel, you can put them wherever the odor might be. This could be your gym bag, your fridge, or a sock drawer. The choice is yours.
Stimulate Hair Growth
Everyone wants more hair - especially as you age. Old coffee beans can be turned into an exfoliant to get rid of dead skin and other build-ups that sit on your scalp. With this material removed, your hair will have a better chance of growing. Caffeine can help stimulate your hair into action, providing a faster and thicker growth process on top of your head.
To stimulate hair growth with old coffee beans, you will need to:
- Grind coffee beans
- Shower like normal
- Rub coffee grounds into your scalp
- Let the grounds sit for a few minutes
- Shampoo and wash as normal
You can do this a couple of times a week for the best results.
Old coffee grounds are an excellent way to treat your hair. Coffee grounds are much more affordable than expensive hair care products, so they’re worth a shot if you need to improve the thickness of your hair. It’s simple to try.
Conclusion
It’s easy to throw old coffee beans out when you’re done with them, but there are other uses for these old materials besides the garbage. You can make a fertilizer, create an exfoliant, and even create decorations out of them. There’s a wide-open world of opportunity for old coffee beans.
We hope this information was helpful! Although you can throw away old beans, it can be more useful to find another home. We hope you’ll give at least one of these methods a try to see if it will work in your life!
More Reading:
Looking for more ideas on what to do with old coffee? Check out some of our favorite resources!
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/uses-for-coffee-grounds#TOC_TITLE_HDR_6
https://coffeeaffection.com/clever-uses-for-old-coffee-beans/