Coffee is a popular beverage consumed all over the world. People usually discard the grounds left behind after it’s brewed, but you may reconsider throwing them out after reading this article. Coffee grounds have many practical uses around the home and garden and can even help spruce up your beauty routine. If you don’t make a lot of coffee at home, most coffee shops have an abundance of coffee grounds that they are willing to give away. Below are 5 creative uses for used coffee grounds.

1. Fertilize Your Garden

Most soil does not contain the essential nutrients needed for optimal plant growth.

Also, as plants grow, they absorb nutrients from the soil, ultimately leaving it depleted.

Thus, most gardens need to be fertilized to ensure that plants have the nourishment they need to survive.

Coffee grounds contain several key minerals for plant growth — nitrogen, calcium, potassium, iron, phosphorus, magnesium and chromium

They may also help absorb heavy metals that can contaminate soil

What’s more, coffee grounds help attract worms, which are great for your garden.

To use coffee grounds as fertilizer, simply sprinkle them onto your plants’ soil.

2. Repel Insects and Pests

Certain compounds found in coffee, such as caffeine and diterpenes, can be highly toxic to insects

Because of this, you can use coffee grounds to repel bugs.

They are effective at deterring mosquitos, fruit flies and beetles, and they may help keep other pests away too

To use coffee grounds as an insect and pest repellent, simply set out bowls of grounds or sprinkle them around outdoor seating areas.

You can also keep pests out of your garden by scattering coffee grounds around your plants. They help create a barrier that slugs and snails do not like to crawl over.

3. Neutralize Odors

Coffee grounds contain nitrogen, which helps eliminate a foul-smelling sulfur gas from the air when it’s combined with carbon.

In other words, coffee grounds can help absorb and eliminate odours.

You can place a bowl of coffee grounds in your fridge or freezer to neutralize odours from spoiled or fragrant foods.

You can also fill old socks or pantyhose with coffee grounds and tie them off to make portable air fresheners.

Place these in your shoes, gym bag, bedroom drawers, under your car seat, or else that may need some deodorizing.

You can even keep coffee grounds by the sink and use them to scrub your hands after chopping garlic or onions. The grounds will help remove the smell from your hands.

4. Exfoliate Your Skin

The coarse particles in coffee grounds work as an exfoliating agent to help remove dirt and dead cells from the skin.

Simply mix coffee grounds with a little bit of water or coconut oil and scrub them with your hands directly onto your face and body.

Coffee grounds can also be mixed with a small amount of honey and used as an exfoliating lip scrub.

What’s more, the caffeine in coffee grounds has potent antioxidant properties that can help protect the skin from sun damage.

It can also increase blood flow, which aids in overall skin health.

5. Tenderize Meat

Meat contains muscle fibres and proteins that can give it a tough consistency.

Tenderizing meat helps break them down, resulting in a softer texture.

Salt, enzymes and acids are three natural types of meat tenderizers. Coffee contains natural acids and enzymes, making it especially effective at tenderizing meat.

The acidic nature of coffee can also help enhance the flavour of the meat.

Simply add used coffee grounds to your favourite dry-rub recipe and apply the rub to the meat two hours before cooking.

The grounds will get cooked onto the meat and form a dark, crispy crust.

Alternatively, you can rebrew used grounds to make coffee, allow it to cool and use it to marinate meat in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours before cooking.