The Many Uses of Coffee Filters

There is a spam spewing email inundating the internet that touts the many uses of coffee filters. It's actually a quite useful set of ideas except that a more sustainable practice would be to use a rag, a reusable cleaning cloth, or one of Methods multiple use clothes that are for glass, wood or stainless steel. If you are set on sticking with coffee filters just make sure they are unbleached and natural, and don't forget to follow #15, my added suggestion, to compost those bad boys.

Okay, here goes:

1. Cover bowls or dishes when cooking in the microwave. Coffee filters make excellent covers.
2. Clean windows and mirrors. Coffee filters are lint-free so they'll leave windows sparkling.
3. Protect China. Separate your good dishes by putting a coffee filter between each dish.
4. Filter broken cork from wine. If you break the cork when opening a bottle of wine, filter the wine through a coffee filter.
5. Protect a cast-iron skillet. Place a coffee filter in the skillet to absorb moisture and prevent rust.
6. Apply shoe polish (who uses shoe polishes anymore?!). Ball up a lint-free coffee filter and use to apply polish.
7. Recycle frying oil. After frying, strain oil through a sieve lined with a coffee filter.
8. Weigh chopped foods. Place chopped ingredients in a coffee filter on a kitchen scale.
9. Hold tacos. Coffee filters make convenient wrappers for messy foods.
10. 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.
11. Prevent a Popsicle from dripping. Poke a hole or two, as needed, in a coffee filter and drop the popsicle handle in. Drip will fall onto filter and away from little (or big!) hands.
12. Use strips to wax your eyebrows. (*disclaimer. this is not something I advocate unless you truly know what you're doing!!!)
13. Put a few filters in a plate and put your fried bacon, french fries, chicken fingers, or other greasy foods on them. They soak out all the grease.
14. Keep them in the bathroom for "razor nick fixers."
15. Compost. Compost. Compost.