Don't Toss Out Used Coffee Grounds When You Could Use Them To Keep Cooking Odors At Bay

No matter how good a housekeeper you are, your kitchen will develop smells at some point that you'll want to get rid of. Whether that's scorched onions or pasta water that boiled over and hit the burner, cooking smells can get out of hand quickly and make your whole home smell unpleasant. There are plenty of ways to clean up spills and messes that will cut down on odors eventually, and some are more complicated and costly than others. You may not need to put as much time or effort into deodorizing as you think, especially if you have coffee in the house.

We've shared tips for using coffee grounds before, and this is one of the best ones. Coffee grounds make an extremely effective natural deodorizer. You don't need to waste coffee that you would otherwise drink, either. Used coffee grounds work just as well as fresh ones, so you get double the benefit from them.

If you want to use coffee grounds for a specific mess or as a general deodorizer, make sure they are dry. Wet coffee grounds aren't going to be effective, but they're easy enough to dry out. Take the used grounds and layer them on a sheet pan. Then put them in a 250-degree oven until they're dry. Keep an eye on them so they don't burn. After that, put a spoonful or two in a bowl or jar near the source of the smell. That's all it takes.

Lots of things can help your kitchen smell nice, but coffee works remarkably well. People who have tried it have verified that some of the worst odors can be taken out of a room after just an hour or so of exposure to loose coffee grounds in a bowl.

You can, of course, brew a pot of coffee to fill your home with an aroma that may be more pleasant than cooking or musty smells. That is less about removing the odor than adding another one. The dried grounds contain nitrogen thanks to the caffeine content, and that is the key to their deodorizing power. Nitrogen reacts with sulfur, which is in a lot of unpleasant-smelling compounds, and neutralizes those smells. Because the coffee grounds are porous, they're able to draw a lot of those volatile-smelling compounds inside to trap them.

You probably already know that most odor filters contain carbon. Products meant to reduce the smell of cigarette smoke, and even insoles for your shoes, often contain carbon. Most of those filters have to add a nitrogen-rich ingredient to them to boost the odor-controlling power. Coffee naturally contains caffeine, which is what makes it such a good deodorizer. It's even been proposed as an odor-controlling tool for sewage, which is a tall order.

Next time you enjoy a cup of coffee, keep the grounds around. You can use them in the kitchen or in the bathroom. You can even use them to deodorize your garage. How many other products in your house can do double duty like that?