There are many surprising ways to reuse coffee grounds. We have gathered up a few ideas for all those pots of coffee you drink every day. Save those grounds and do some of these cool things with them:

 Around the House

Cleaning Out the Fireplace

For those of you lucky enough to have a wood-burning fireplace, here is an idea for you. Just sprinkle some used coffee grounds over the ashes to prevent soot from billowing up when shoveling out the ash. It will make this process a whole lot messy.

Absorb Stinky Food Odors

You know how baking soda works to absorb odors in the refrigerator? Well, coffee grounds work the same way. They are both hygroscopic. That's just the fancy name for absorbing odors. It's also one of the reasons you shouldn't store your coffee in the refrigerator, but that's another blog. If you want your old coffee grounds to do this job, then go ahead and put them in there.

DIY Candles, Anyone?

Do you love the smell of coffee? Turn those old grounds into do-it-yourself candles.  For this fun up-cycling project you will need: a small paper coffee cup, paper towels, about a cup of wax candle remnants, a wick, scissors, a small sauce pan for melting the wax, a small metal or glass mixing bowl, and of course some used coffee grounds. Here are the instructions on how to make your own candle.

Dying to Use Coffee

Since it's Spring, here's something you might want to do with your old grounds. Re-wet them and use them to dye eggs a beautiful natural coffee color. You can also use this natural dye to color everything from paper to fabric. Just test out the water to coffee ground ratio to get your color just right.

In the Garden

Fertilizer

If you have acid-loving plants in your landscape like azaleas, hydrangeas, rhododendrons, camellias, and roses this will be beneficial. Mix the old grounds with dead grass clippings, brown leaves, or dry straw to neutralize some of the acidity, then spread them around your plants. This isn't a complete fertilizer for encouraging blooms and such. For that, you'll need to add lime or wood ash for it to do the trick.

A Pest Repellent

Tired of bugs eating your prize hostas? Sprinkle used coffee grounds around your plants to protect them against destructive garden pests like ants, snails, and slugs.

Compost

If you don't have time to use your old coffee grounds right away, then throw them into the compost. Coffee grounds make excellent “green” matter as they are rich in nitrogen. Also, beneficial worms may be attracted to your compost with the addition of old coffee. Just don't add too many. You might throw off the green to brown matter balance of your compost.

Health and Beauty

Exfoliate Your Skin...

Old coffee grounds make an excellent exfoliating body scrub. Just mix them with a little warm water or some coconut oil and spread liberally all over your body before showering to remove all that dead skin.

...and Your Face

Just as it works as a body scrub, coffee makes an excellent facial.  Mix two tablespoons of used coffee grounds with an equal amount of organic cocoa powder.  Add three tablespoons of whole milk or heavy cream and top it off with a heaping tablespoon of honey for the perfect all-natural alpha-hydroxy and antioxidant facial. This sounds almost good enough to eat!

Perk Up Your Hair

If your hair has styling product build-up or residue, it's probably in need of a good cleansing. Using old coffee grounds give your hair lift and restore its natural healthy shine. Before you shampoo, massage a handful of grounds into your wet hair and scalp. This helps break apart the product residue, but it’s also gentle enough that it won’t damage your locks.

Hopefully, you found out some new things that you'd want to use your old coffee grounds with. These are just a few of the many other ways you can use them. If any of this seems like too much work for you, then just throw them away. We won't look.