6 Useful Ways To Use Coffee Filters by Kristopher Loosemore

My usual coffee consumption doesn't usually consist of using coffee filters. I mostly use pour-over systems or french presses. But I have noticed that a majority of people use a regular drip coffee machine. You only need two things: good, filtered water (or tap water, like most normal people) and coffee filters.

Both of these things are cheap, and since coffee is a huge expense to some peoples' monthly grocery bill, it's nice that you don't have to worry about paying a premium for anything else. When you buy coffee filters for your drip coffee machine, they come in a big bag with anywhere between 100-200 coffee filters in it. That is enough for roughly six months worth of filling your coffee pot with coffee!

Best of all, coffee filters cost less than a penny each! Coffee filters are so cheap that I usually keep a bag around for many other reasons, as well. Here are my top six uses for coffee filters in daily life:

1. Odor Control

Getting home from a big hike is one of the most satisfying feelings, especially after taking off your shoes. Grabbing a beer from the fridge and sitting down on the couch to relax, you notice that your shoes have stunk up your living room! How do you fix this?

In my recent post about 5 Clever Ways To Use Leftover Coffee, I mentioned how your leftover coffee beans could be dried and used as a deodorizer. Just dry your coffee out after your morning cup of coffee and stick it at the back of your fridge in a small bowl.

This technique can be used in many different ways, including deodorizing your shoes! Just put some leftover coffee beans in a coffee filter and close it with a rubber band or string. The coffee filter contains the coffee beans into a nice little pocket of odor control. Shove it down into your shoe, and the coffee will soak up your nasty feet funk!

You don't have to use coffee grounds. Another easily-accessible deodorizer is baking soda. Just replace the coffee grounds with baking soda, and it works just as well!

2. Make Tea Bags

My favorite way to use coffee filters is to make my tea bags from loose-leaf tea. I am not a fan of the packaged tea in the stores since it can contain extra added sugars. You can buy small individual tea bags from specialty shops, but they are usually costly and time-consuming.

A great way to get around this is to use coffee filters. Just cut the coffee filters into four pieces and put a little scoop of tea in the center of each. Bunch up all the corners into a small pocket and tie up all the openings. Voila! Homemade tea bag.

3. Bouquet of Spices

Making a bouquet of spices is an incredibly useful technique for infusing different flavors into soups, stews, sauces, and broths. If you have ever made a soup or broth before, you know that they sometimes require whole spices and herbs. Using whole spices and herbs imparts much more flavor than pre-ground spices. So why doesn't everyone use this technique?

It can be incredibly annoying trying to fish out whole leaves, branches, or bark out of your soup. Sometimes, it's impossible to get everything. You also don't want to be eating a bowl of soup and bite into an over-powering, super pungent black peppercorn.

That's why I wrap all my whole herbs and spices in a coffee filter and tie it shut. Containing everything makes all the herbs and spices still able to impart tons of flavor and still be easy to take out when you're ready to eat!

4. Snack Bowls for the Movies

As a kid, my mom used to buy a big bucket of popcorn every time we would go to the movies. Buying a big jug of popcorn was way cheaper to feed three hungry little boys, but instead of having four hands grabbing into the tub all the time, she would grab fistfuls of paper napkins and give all of us our lap-full of popcorn.

Later on in life, I figured out that coffee filters work much better than a wad of paper towels, especially since coffee filters are already bowl-shaped! Just make sure to use a few at a time, so any grease from the popcorn doesn't soak through to your clothes.

5. Laundry Sheets

Using the same product for multiple uses should be everyone's goal. Using coffee filters as laundry sheets is a great way to use something that is already laying around your house! You can use coffee filters to discharge the static electricity in your clothing.

I'm not a huge fan of using laundry sheets in general. The chemicals that are in laundry sheets leave a residue on your clothes that make the fabric softer and neutralizes the static electricity, but it also coats the inside of your dryer, making the dryer less efficient over time.

Using coffee filters is a great replacement to get the same effect. Get the coffee filter a little damp with some water, put a few drops of vinegar on a dryer sheet, and a few drops of your favorite essential oil to give it a nice smell!

6. Coffee Filters in Your Car

I try to keep a small stack of coffee filters in the glove compartment in my car. They can be used for tons of things, like wiping your windows of greasy fingerprints or a way to soak up a spill.

My favorite use for coffee filters in a car is to wipe down all the accrued dust that builds up around the dashboards. Having dust all over my car is a pet peeve for me, and the dust seems to cling to the coffee filters quite easily. I guess you can use this to dust your house or other parts of your life but they are most handy for me in the car!

What are your favorite tricks to use coffee filters? I would love to hear them! Comment below to share your thoughts!

Also, make sure you check out my post about how coffee is grown in Colombia! It shares an in-depth look into coffee plantations:

How To Grow Coffee In Colombia

Also, if you have time, check out the coffee that I have for sale. I try to use the best ethically-traded and responsible-sourced coffee for my coffee beans and I would appreciate the support! Here are a few of the ones I have for offer:

Adventurous Coffee Black Bear Peruvian Roast

Adventurous Coffee Red Fox Mexico Roast