10 Surprising Household Uses For Coffee Filters: Put Those No Longer Needed Filters To Good Use!
Hey all, if your single cup coffeemaker has changed your game a little and habits, but in the case of upgrading from a traditional drip model, you may be left with a collection of basket-style coffee filters that won’t work with your new pod brewer (with a few exceptions, such as the Ninja or the Cuisinart DCC-3000)
If you’re anything like me, you’re probably wondering “What do I do now with all these coffee filters?” I mean, they are el-cheapo and you get like a gajillion in a pack so you may have barely put a dent in them. Well, the good news is that there are so many different things you can do with them!
This piece will talk about some ways I have found and some other creative household uses for coffee filters you may not have considered short of giving them away or sending them to the recycle bin.
1. Use as a colander or sieve filter
I have one of those small deep fryers and periodically I have to do the not-so-fun task of de-gunking it. Fun, fun. The best way I’ve found to make this easier is to grab one of those wire mesh sieves you’d use for draining and rinsing, and set it atop a large plastic container.
I lay a coffee filter into the sieve and slowly pour the fryer oil from the inner chamber into the filter/sieve. It’s like an all-day project because it takes time for the oil to go through the coffee filter but it does great for collecting those particles of gunk and separating them from the oil.. I keep doing this until all the oil in the chamber has been filtered out. Lucky for me this is a little deep fryer.
But don’t just stop there, you can use them in other cooking techniques too that involve straining and draining.
2. Use them to drain foods after cooking
As long as we’re on the subject of deep frying, a few coffee filters splayed out make a great place to rest food when removing it from the fryer basket or skillet. Coffee filters are highly absorbent and great to wick away all the excess oil or grease. A hack that can come in handy if you’re short on paper towels!
3. Use coffee filters for cleaning
Normally I like to use microfiber cloths for dusting windows, mirrors or computer screens, but in a pinch, a coffee filter will do the job well. I mist them gently with my favorite cleaner (Endust All-Purpose spray
4. Use to line flower pots before planting
If you’re a gardener you can use coffee filters to help your plants drainage. Place one filter in the bottom of an empty pot before planting so that when you water it it will go through but bits of the soil will remain intact.
5. Use to protect your dinnerware when stacking plates, saucers, etc.
A few coffee filters spread out in between dinner plates will help protect them as you are stacking them in the cupboard or china cabinet and minimize potential of scratching. This could also work for coffee mugs too if you stack two at a time in the place you store them. This would also be a good way to protect dinnerware and dishware if you are packing them too.
6. Use them as dryer sheets
A little squirt of fabric softener on a coffee filter and distributed can be great to toss in the dryer for making your clothes smell nice and fresh!
7. Snowflake crafts for the kids
This would be a great boredom-buster during the wintertime! Coffee filters are perfect for making the classic snowflake designs – being round all the way and crinkly. Just follow the normal steps of folding them in half, thirds and fourths and using scissors to cut notches and patterns into them and then unfolding them out to reveal pretty patterns.
8. Use them to protect small fragile objects for packing or gifting
If you sell stuff online that is fargile by nature (like made of porcelain or glass) save your coffee filters and use them to wrap around the object before packing! A lot cheaper than packing peanuts too!
9. Make homemade sachets
Put a little filler substrate in the middle of the filter and add your favorite fragrance oil to it; then gather up the outside areas together. Twist it around to secure it. You can use a decorative ribbon or strands of raffia to give it a little outer appeal. Place them in whatever location you want to give a nice clean fragrance to, like inside clothing drawers, bathroom cabinets, etc. As a special note you could also decorate the outside of the filters; maybe draw something cute on them with a Sharpie pen or something?
10. Dye them and make pretty flowers for adornment
If you love working with paper you could come up with some really cool designs, and don’t forget that you could probably make other designs with the filters, maybe make flowers or paper bouquets? Don’t just stop at white you could use some food coloring
You can use your coffee filter bouquets as a table centerpiece for entertaining or just general pretty-ing up your living space.
Of course there are other ideas too…Can you think of any more? What do you do with your coffee filters that you no longer need for their original purpose?
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