25+ Clever Uses for Coffee Filters You’ll Wish You Knew Sooner
Updated: Nov. 26, 2024
You use coffee filters everyday to make your favourite morning brew, but they have lots of other uses around the house. Read on to find out how coffee filters can be used to clean your glasses, protect food in the microwave, and more!
Make an air freshener
Out of all the uses for coffee filters, this might be the easiest! Fill a coffee filter with baking soda, twist-tie it shut and you have just made an air freshener. Make several and tuck them into shoes, wardrobes, the fridge or wherever else they may be needed.
Filter cork crumbs from wine
Don’t let cork crumbs ruin your enjoyment of a good glass of wine. If your attempt at opening the bottles results in floating cork crumbs, just decant the wine through a coffee filter.
Learn how to open a bottle of wine without a corkscrew.
Clean your specs
Next time you clean your glasses, try using a coffee filter instead of a tissue. Good-quality coffee filters are made from 100 per cent virgin paper, so you can clean your glasses without leaving lint. You can also use them safely to polish mirrors, TV and computer monitor screens.
These nearly-forgotten cleaning tips from the past work just as well today!
Create a non-medical face mask
The coronavirus pandemic has seen new (and previously unforeseen) uses for coffee filters: They’re one of three common household items you’ll need to create a DIY face mask. Follow the step-by-step instructions in the video above to see how coffee filters, hair ties and a bandana can be used to assemble a non-medical face mask for your next trip to the grocery store—no sewing required!
Here are 11 mistakes you’re probably making with face masks.
Cover food in the microwave
Coffee filters are microwave-safe. Use them to cover bowls or dishes to prevent splattering when cooking or baking in your microwave oven.
Make sure you avoid these potentially dangerous microwave mistakes.
Line a sieve
If you save your cooking oil for reuse after deep-frying, line your sieve with a basket-style coffee filter to remove smaller food remnants and impurities.
Check out more clever kitchen hacks you’ll wish you knew sooner.
Dusting
When you need to clean a computer monitor or TV screen, reach into your kitchen cupboard for a coffee filter. Thin, cloth-like paper filters are great at picking up fine dust particles, and one filter goes a long way. You can also use coffee filters for dusting knickknacks and other home accessories, while you’re at it. Add a spritz of cleaning solution and the coffee filter will catch even more dust and disinfect surfaces, too.
These are the other home items you should be cleaning more often.
Make your own tea
If you drink a lot of tea and like to save money then you might want to consider transforming coffee filters into tea bags. Sure it requires a little extra effort, but if you’re in a pinch it’ll work like a cinch!
Learn what happens to your body when you drink tea every day.
Makeshift dryer sheets
Doing laundry and throwing it in the dryer only to find you forgot to pick up dryer sheets is pretty frustrating. You can certainly forgo the dryer sheets but if static electricity drives you nuts you can fashion a makeshift dryer sheet out of a coffee filter, white vinegar and some essential oil.
Don’t miss these brilliant uses for vinegar all around the house.
Clean cast iron
There are a lot of ways to clean cast iron skillets, like with coarse salt. You can also use a coffee filter to soak up any remaining moisture after washing it. The coffee filter will help prevent rusting.
This trick show you how to clean the outside bottom of pans.
Dry glassware
Water spots can be a real annoyance. You clean your glassware and think it’s been dried properly only to pull out a foggy, spotted glass that no one wants to drink out of. Enter all the uses for coffee filters. Because of the quality of paper used to make coffee filters (after all, who wants paper bits in their morning joe?), coffee filters don’t leave any lint or smears behind. This makes them perfect to fully dry off your glassware without a trace.
Check out more surprising cleaning tips that actually work!
Clean stainless steel
Because coffee filters won’t leave any lint or residue behind, they’re a great cleaning tool. One of our favourite uses for coffee sheets in our cleaning repertoire is to use them to clean or polish our stainless steel for a perfect streak-free finish.
Catch ice-cream drips
Next time the kids scream for ice cream bars or ice pops (or you want one!), serve it with a drip catcher made from basket-style coffee filters. Just poke the stick through the center of two filters and the drips will fall into the paper, not on the child or your carpet.
This viral video shows you how to make creamy whipped lemonade.
Prevent soil leakage
When you’re repotting a plant, line the pot with a coffee filter to keep the soil from leaking out through the drain hole.
No backyard? No problem! Use these urban gardening tips to add greenery to even the smallest porch, patio or apartment balcony.
Make an instant funnel
Cut the end off a cone-style coffee filter to make an instant funnel. Keep a few in your car and use them to avoid spillage when you add a quart of oil or two.
Check out this guide on how to clean the glass inside your oven door.
Treat a fever
The many uses of coffee filters also extends to your health! Soak a few filters in brewed tea or cold water and chill in your freezer. Fold the filter up to make a cold compress to tame a headache or puffy eyes.
Use this trick to keep ice cubes from sticking together!
Spread oil or butter
Sturdy coffee filters won’t leave fibers behind on your baking pan; use one to evenly spread oil or butter over a flat surface when cooking.
Here are 15 brilliant butter hacks you’ll wish you knew sooner.
Corral small objects
Building an IKEA cabinet or complicated Lego set? Set out a few coffee filters to hold all the small, easily lost pieces in one place.
These 10 organizing shows on Netflix will inspire you to declutter now.
Protect stacked plates
Whether storing your fine china on the shelf or packing your everyday dishes for transport, layer some coffee filters between each plate to prevent nicks and scrapes.
Don’t miss the best spring cleaning hacks we found on TikTok!
Line a cookie tin or Tupperware
A coffee filter laid on the bottom of a food container will absorb excess oils and catch crumbs, leaving you an easy cleanup.
This viral hack show you how to keep food cold outside.
Carry messy food
A cone filter is the perfect size for holding a pita, quesadilla, or other hot pocket on the go.
Serve snacks, dish-free
A basket filter becomes a perfect makeshift bowl for popcorn, candy, chips, and other movie night favourites.
Check out these 20 clever cornstarch hacks you can use today.
Take the perfect low-light photo
Soften the flash on your camera by holding a coffee filter over it when you shoot.
This waxed paper hack will get rid of grease and dust in your kitchen.
Make a colourful goodie bag
Use some washable markers to draw a pattern on a coffee filter, then lightly mist it with water from a spray bottle. Fill the filter with candy or coins, fold into a pouch, and tie up the top with a ribbon.
Discover all the things you can do with steel wool around the house!
Rest a dirty spoon
Leave a basket filter open on your counter and rest your dirty spoon or spatula on it while cooking your favourite meal.
Don’t miss these $1 solutions for common household dilemmas.
Polish without a mess
Absorbent and durable, coffee filters are perfect for removing nail polish from your fingernails, or spreading shoe polish on your boots.
It turns out the usefulness of nail polish isn’t limited to your nails. Check out these extraordinary ways to put ordinary nail polish to work around the house.
Face oil blotting sheets
The uses for coffee filters also include beauty—they’re great for using on your face to remove oil or for use on your skin. Coffee filters are way cheaper than blotting sheets and will work just as well because they made from nearly the same material. You can get extra crafty and cut up some coffee filters into squares to carry around in a tin so you have some in stock anywhere you go.
Pamper yourself with these homemade face mask recipes.
Empty coffee grounds into your garden
Rinse your coffee grounds out to remove extra acids—you can do this with the old filter to make things easier. Then mix with your soil in a flowerbed or garden! The grounds will add valuable nitrogen to the soil without altering the pH balance too much and without rotting. It’s one of the best waste items to use in your garden.
Check out more gardening shortcuts that will save you time and money.
Filtering water
Filter out solids through a coffee filter before purifying water.
Next, check out our best-ever aluminum foil hacks.
