15 Uses for Coffee Filters
By glblguy
My wife is a member of a number of “Mom’s forums” on the internet and often is privy to all kinds of creative tips. She’ll occasionally send some over for me to use here on Gather Little by Little. She recently sent me 15 uses for coffee filters and thought I would share them with you. I’d site the original author, but unfortunately not sure who it is:
- Cover bowls or dishes when cooking in the microwave. Coffee filters make excellent covers.
- Clean windows and mirrors. Coffee filters are lint-free so they’ll leave windows sparkling.
- Protect China – Separate your good dishes by putting a coffee filter between each dish.
- Filter broken cork from wine. If you break the cork when opening a wine bottle, filter the wine through a coffee filter.
- Protect a cast-iron skillet. Place a coffee filter in the skillet to absorb moisture and prevent rust.
- Apply shoe polish. Ball up a lint-free coffee filter.
- Recycle frying oil. After frying, strain oil through a sieve lined with a coffee filter.
- Weigh chopped foods. Place chopped ingredients in a coffee filter on a kitchen scale.
- Hold tacos. Coffee filters make convenient wrappers for messy foods.
- Stop the soil from leaking out of a plant pot. Line a plant pot with a coffee filter to prevent the soil from going through the drainage holes.
- Prevent a Popsicle from dripping. Poke one or two holes as needed in a coffee filter.
- Wax Eyebrows – Do you think we used expensive strips to wax eyebrows? Use strips of coffee filters.
- Absorb Grease – Put a few in a plate and put your fried bacon, French fries, chicken fingers, etc. on them. Soaks out all the grease.
- Razor nicks – Keep in the bathroom. They make great “razor nick fixers.”
- Hats – As you can see from the picture, they make great play hats for kids!
Have a creative tip for how to use the inexpensive and versatile coffee filter? Add your tip in a comment below!
This article is part of an ongoing series called Money Saving Monday. Each Monday, I share tips and techniques you can use to start saving money.
Photo by: richardmasoner
January 19th, 2009 at 7:37 am
Use them to strain the moisture out of fat free plain yogurt. You can then use the yogurt like cream cheese. Mix in some herbs and garlic and you have a great veggie dip, plus you’re getting the beneficial bacteria and calcium.
January 19th, 2009 at 9:11 am
I had no idea how useful they could be! I don’t even drink coffee but I can see I should still have filters around.
January 19th, 2009 at 11:12 am
Thanks for all of the great tips!
January 19th, 2009 at 11:56 am
You can use coffee filters as a sub for cheesecloth in a pinch. With my all my muslin for making/straining chicken stock dirty last week, I just used a coffee filter. It took a little longer to strain than normal, but it worked a lot better than doing a load of kitchen linens late at night. You can also use it for bouquet garnis (bunch of herbs) or anything you want to cook in your soup, yet keep it easy to remove before serving. Just wrap in twine and coffee filter, and remove with ease!
January 19th, 2009 at 12:18 pm
What about when you want coffee? :)
If you can come up with a way to use USED coffeefilters… that’d be awesome. :)
January 19th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
I’d like to add one more!
I have successfully used coffee filters to detail my car, especially the dashboards and all the door cards with the use of silicone based protectant such as ArmorAll. I guess it works great because it actually picks up dust and grime and is also lint free keeping the interior of the car nice and clean.
January 20th, 2009 at 10:22 am
You can make a snowflake! You fold it into eighths and then cut little pieces our of it. Then unfold to see your beautiful snowflake. I used to do this as a kid in school. It came to mind as it is snowing over here.
January 23rd, 2009 at 9:53 am
splatter covers for the microwave – wonderful idea!
January 25th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
Snack containers for kids at the table. Our day care did this and it works great.
January 26th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
I can’t believe no one has mentioned cleaning eyewear!
January 27th, 2009 at 4:55 pm
DON”T RECYCLE FRYING OIL! You should never re-use oil that’s been used for frying because you’ll end up with a wholloping dose of carcinogens. If you have a bio-diesel vehicle, use it for that, but please, don’t cook with it again.
January 28th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
At work when someone offers me some of their microwave popcorn, I use a coffee filter as a bowl. It soaks up a wee bit of the oil, and if I pop my own corn, it’s less messy than eating straight out of the bag.
January 28th, 2009 at 4:09 pm
Best idea I found was to line the training potty – number 2 can be lifted right out!!!
Lots of my friends have now used this with great success…
January 28th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
I use them to clean CD’s and DVD’s. No lint and they are strong! Great for when the kids get fingerprints on their Wii games!
January 28th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
I raise herbs for teas. I use coffee filters to pack the crushed tea leaves into. By folding them in half, then into thirds, you can sew a double seam, twice (so that you have three sections), cut between the seams and then fill. Sew up the edges and you have a filled teabag.
January 28th, 2009 at 5:48 pm
I use them in lieu of a funnel for mixing powdered drinks into water. If your pitcher has a narrow top, put some of the powder in the filter, fold the filter in half, and point the narrow end into your pitcher (folding helps make it less flimsy). Great for Kool Aid or re-filling your hummingbird feeder.
February 11th, 2009 at 7:23 pm
Wow, great tips! I actually have a package of coffee filters sitting on my kitchen table right at this moment – I had gotten the wrong size, and was about to throw them away because I didn’t know what to do with them. So glad that I found this list! I’ll have to click around to check out the rest of your site…
Thanks!
March 27th, 2010 at 6:34 pm
You can use a Coffee Filter in the Laundry Hamper. Prevents mildew if you have damp clothes in there.
June 25th, 2010 at 12:30 pm
2 filters will last a very long time. dampened an used with corn tortilla press. re-spritz with water after every 2 or so tortilla. for my press i had to trim off approx 1/2 inch on one edge. love these things !!!
June 25th, 2010 at 12:32 pm
also for corn tortillas. if you have a pancake griddle you can do several tortillas at one time. chk around. i pd less then $11 for my press. most successful in so. calif
August 21st, 2010 at 9:32 am
My 2 cents: mix in some herbs and garlic and you have a nice dip, plus you’re getting the beneficial bacteria and calcium.