Fight Odors with Coffee

Just Another Reason Coffee Is Amazing

Coffee is undeniably the greatest and most versatile food product in existence. It’s gotten to the point where we not only make drinks with it, but socks as well. Don’t believe me? Google “kickstarted coffee socks” and you’ll see what I mean. Now, you might be asking yourself “why socks?” Apart from the obvious answer of “why not?” I thought it might be a good idea to bring you up to speed on the odor-eating properties of ground coffee.

Similar to baking soda, coffee grounds work wonders at absorbing odors, and while I personally would never have thought to use them in socks to keep my feet from smelling, here are a few other practical applications of coffee as an odor eater.

Using Coffee as an Odor Eater

1. Like to cook with garlic, or onions? How about fish? Well, if you hate the way your hands smell afterwards, try rubbing them in some ground coffee. Rinse off coffee when you’re done and be amazed!
2. Maybe your feet smell, maybe you play sports, maybe your co-workers ridiculed you for wearing socks with boat shoes. Whatever the cause might be, smelly shoes are bad news. But don’t fret, stuff a sock with some ground coffee, tie it off, and stuff it into your shoes. Leave it overnight and you should be good to go.
3. This one probably comes as no surprise, but you can leave an open can/glass/jar of ground coffee in your fridge to eliminate smells the same way you’d leave a box of baking soda in there. Okay, so admittedly that probably doesn’t sound very exciting, but, you could also put some in your car! The possibilities are endless!

So, what to do with the grounds when you’re done with them? Well, how about turning them into something more fragrant? Did you know that you can add coffee grounds to soil to alter its acidity? Next time you’re trying to grow some flowers that prefer slightly lower pH (like roses), try adding a few grounds to the soil. You can compost any extra grounds.

Have you discovered any other uses for left over grounds? Please share below!