Monday, June 18, 2012

The Many Uses for Coffee Filters

A few years ago I received an email listing of ways you could use coffee filters, other than to make coffee. I don't drink coffee and don't have a coffee maker but some of the uses on the list sounded worthwhile so I printed out the list. I even sent the list out with my Christmas cards that year. I no longer have the list I printed out but if you google "uses for coffee filters" you'll pull up many pages on the topic. The list at this site is pretty similar to the one I had printed out:

http://www.mynewoldschool.com/2010/01/13/uses-for-coffee-filters/

The first one I tried was putting coffee filters in the bottom of flower pots. The filter allows water to pass through but keeps the soil in. I had many pots, containing flowers and tomato plants, on my balcony when I lived in St. Paul. I found this very useful.

Another use is to use a cover filter to cover bowls or dishes when using a microwave. Coffee filters are far cheaper than paper towels and I think do a better job because they stay in place better. It's nice not to have splatter all over the inside of your microwave.

I don't drink wine but I know from others that sometimes pieces of the cork break off into the wine bottle. Rather than trying to pick the cork pieces out of the wine you can pour the wine through the coffee filter.

My favorite use for coffee filters is to use them between plates and bowls of my grandmother's good china. You prevent chipping when you put one or two filters in between each plate and bowl. I use two because I'm extra cautious with this old china. My grandmother's good china is about 100 years old now, over the years a few pieces have become chipped. But I'm hoping no more pieces get chipped now that I'm using coffee filters to protect them.

Coffee filters are cheap. I just bought a package of 100 at the Family Dollar Store for $1. Imagine that! What uses have you used coffee filters for?


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