5 REAL Uses For Coffee Grounds – I Tried Them Out!

There are multiple websites and tons of pins on Pinterest touting the many benefits of coffee grounds. Some work, some do not. For example, several sites say that used coffee grounds repel ants. Not the ones I saw crawling over the grounds I'd spread in my porch. I think I even saw one scoop some into a teeny weeny cup.

So for my benefit and yours, dear reader, I decided to wade through the mounds of “Uses For Used Coffee Grounds ” and let you know which practices are true which did and did not work, at least for me: 

 

1. Use To Scrub Pots And Pans - Yes, using a handful of grounds does substitute for toxic abrasive cleaners, BUT coffee grounds can also clog your sink!  If you're going to try this, do the scrubbing on a towel or some newspaper that you can clean without flushing the grounds down the sink.
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Use Coffee Grounds As A Household Deodorizer – Yes, you can place some in a jar or dish to absorb odors from refrigerators and freezers, BUT you can also put a bowl of them in a musty basement or garage to help with smells. And, they're great at the bottom of trash cans (especially in the bathroom) to get rid of those nasty odors!
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Plant Food – It's true that rosebushes, azaleas, rhododendrons, and evergreens love acidic soil. I collect my grounds in a used coffee can (of course) and sprinkle them around my rosebushes. They love the grounds and I love the roses! 
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Shoe Deodorizer – Junior's sneakers are an environmental hazard, so I grab a pair of old knee-high panty house, filled each sock with coffee grounds, and place them in each sneaker. Okay, so the odor doesn't fully disappear, but at least now I don't want to pass out each time I pass Junior's shoes.
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. Use When Shopping For Perfume Or Cologne – The last time I went to Bed, Bath & Body Works, my daughter and I had a blast trying on new scents. Unfortunately, it was difficult to really get a sense (pun intended) of the new scent when the old one was still in the air and on our arms. I had packed a tablespoon of coffee grounds in a little Ziploc bag and we took a whiff of the coffee between fragrances. The coffee scent actually cleared our noses of the previous smell.

Coffee grounds are one of those substances I always look at and think, “they HAVE to have more uses than just for coffee” and they do. 

Some work, some don't, but if you drink coffee and you have the grounds around anyway, why not try some of the uses above? They worked for me!

Thanks for reading!

Note:  Photos are courtesy of Pixabay.

Growing Bean Plants - A BLAST For Kids Of All Ages

I'm a teacher's aide at an elementary school and I'm constantly flabbergasted at what the kids are learning!  Sure, I've seen this stuff before, but not in a long time, and it's fun asking the kids to explain to me what they're doing. Thus, I was thrilled when the 4^th graders recently showed me the interesting plants growing on their desks. 

They were growing bean plants from ordinary beans and the plants looked incredible!

My bean plant growing in dirt - I'm having so much fun growing it!

So I asked them to teach me (or re-teach me since I'd grown them when I was in school eons ago). 

Bean plants are great for any kid (or adult) to cultivate because they require very little care and sprout so quickly you can virtually watch them grow. Here's what you'll need to start:

Any unused beans are going into chili.

Dried beans – I purchased a bag of Goya beans. I separated out the lima beans (which the family won't eat anyway) because they're big and easy to see. I saved the rest of the beans for use in chili.

A paper towel

A small dish

Here's what you do:

1.  Wet a paper towel and fold it so it fits inside the dish. 

2.  Slide a bean or two between the folds of the wet paper towel.

3.  Wet the towel every day (if it dries out, sometimes I wet it twice)

Could it BE any easier?!!

In a day or so, you'll see the bean start to crack and a green shoot emerging. When the shoot is an inch long, plant it in dirt. 

Future bean plants.

Again, you'll be amazed at how fast your plant will grow. 

For an incredible stop-action clip showing the process from bean to plant, visit http://www.instructables.com/file/F0GT0TJFW4JU0VO/.

Thanks for reading!!!

9 Unexpected, Delightful Uses For Epsom Salt

Everybody is always touting the magic of white vinegar and baking soda. And while I'm a HUGE fan of both because of their versatility...

 I'd like to call your attention to one of my favorite, frugal substances with a MULTITUDE of purposes: Epsom Salt.

Save your pennies by using Epsom salt

 At under $2 for a 16 ounce bag of this stuff, you'll find it does so many things, such as:

Foot Soak – Sure, this is probably the most well-known use for these amazing crystals and as the mother of a gymnast, I've become well-acquainted with this use because sometimes Lily comes home with achy feet. Just add ½ cup of Epsom salt to a large pan of water and soak for 20 minutes or so.

Hair Volumizer – Mix equal parts of Epsom salt with water and work the mixture through your hair. Leave on for 20 minutes, then rinse. 

Face Cleaner/Exfoliant – Mix ½ teaspoon into your cleansing cream and massage into the skin. Rinse afterward with cold water. It's also great for fighting blemishes.

Splinter Remover – I recently got a splinter on the bottom of my foot. After a 20 minute soak in Epsom salt, the splinter was drawn out. Amazing!

Epsom salt is so cheap, too!

Relieve Itchy Skin or Bug Bites – Dissolve a tablespoon of these crystals in a ½ cup of water either apply as a wet compress or spritz onto itchy skin.

Fertilize Houseplants – Your houseplants will thrive by adding 2 tablespoons of Epsom salts per gallon of water and using it monthly.

Fire Starter – I LOVE this recipe, courtesy of Martha Stewart, for making a fire starter. 

Fabric Softener Crystals – Mix one cup of Epsom salt and 10 drops of essential oil to make fabric softener crystals. Use ¼ cup per load and add it at the beginning of your wash cycle.

Sea Salt Texturizing Hair Spray – Wish I'd known about this one BEFORE I spent $4 on texturizing spray! Mix one cup of hot water, 2 tablespoons of Epsom salt, 1 teaspoon of aloe vera gel and ½ a teaspoon of conditioner in a spray bottle. Spray the mix into your hair and scrunch for beachy-waves.

One thing I didn't mention is using Epsom salts as a laxative. Honestly, I've never tried it, so I personally can't recommend it. PLEASE check with your doctor before ingesting anything.

As you can see, Epsom salts are one of those incredibly cheap, multi-purpose substances that people have been using for hundreds of years.  Give the uses above a try and let me know what you think.  Now excuse me. It's time to grab my carton of Epsom salts and cater to my houseplants! 

THANKS FOR READING!  

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Sources for this post included: /www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com; http://wellnessmama.com;  www.care2.com; www.treehugger.com;

3 EASY Plants You Must Have In Your Home

Having plants in the home is great on many levels. Not only do they remove pollutants from the air and look nice, but they're also a fantastic way to teach kids about responsibility. The concept that children are responsible for another living thing, something that needs to be nurtured in order to keep it alive, is a great lesson to teach.

My favorite three houseplants are:

• Aloe – A succulent, this is an easy plant to grow. During the Summer, the soil should be soaked and allowed to dry out before re-watering. During the winter, the plant becomes dormant so watering should be minimal. The one at the beginning of this post is my baby aloe.  Oh, and the container used to hold junk food. I just spray-painted it and glued on letters left over from a spelling game. I keep this plant in the house for a multitude of uses including:

• Treating burns, including sunburn
• Taking the sting and itch out of insect bites
• Soothing rashes

For more “amazing uses for aloe” click here. 

• Snake Plant – Also known as “mother-in-law's tongue” and “the bedroom plant,” this wonder is great because while most plants take away oxygen at night, this one gives off oxygen at night. The plant also filters formaldehyde (commonly used in particleboard in furniture), trichloroethylene, xylene, toluene, and benzene from the air. It's pretty easy to grow since it tolerates low light levels and irregular watering (great for kids who might forget to water it).
  
  

  

  Snake Plant       

  
  

• Corn Cane – The one below was given to me as a wedding gift by my great aunt and is 22 years old. It does wonderfully with low light and low water and it's easy to propagate. This beauty has produced many babies over the years which make great gifts. 
  
  

  

  My 22-year old corn cane

   

I usually take the water leftover from the many water bottles my kids seem to abandon all over the house and water the plants with that. Periodically, I also add 1 tablespoon of Epsom salts to a gallon of water and use that for the plants. It seems to make them flourish.

I love how warm plants make a home feel and the fact that they remove toxins from the air is a bonus. Watering them is on my daughter's list of chores, since she took over that responsibility from me, and she takes pride in the fact that she is the one who keeps our greenery alive. Plants are great for the environment and caring for them is a plus, emotionally, for even the littlest kid. Cultivate houseplants and reap lots of rewards for your family! 

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The little red spot you see hanging from the corn cane is an ornament, since the corn plant also serves as our Memory Tree.  Stay tuned for an explanation of what a Memory Tree is and how to make one. 

Thanks for reading!!!

Plants & Snow: A Complicated Relationship

I've mentioned quite a bit that here in the Northeast, we've had a LOT of snow. As I type this, there's another 3 inches coming down on the ground. Funny, but whereas a few months ago we would have freaked out, now the announcement of that kind of precipitation is met with a shrug and a “Just 3 inches?”


Anyway, because of the ice storm we had last week, the family and I spent an hour or two outside yesterday, gently getting ice and snow off of our bushes. I know snow is a great insulator, but combined with ice, too much of it can pose a real danger to plants, making them more susceptible to breaking (for more on this, click here: http://www.ipm.iastate.edu/ipm/hortnews/1994/12-9-1994/snowdam.html). Indeed, several of our arborvitae were bowed and touched the house. As we unburdened them, they gently started standing straight again – not completely, but well on their way. Similarly, Diva helped get some large chunks of snow off the massive azalea bush in front of the house. Not only will it keep the bush from cracking, but I think access to even the weaker Winter light will help the plant grow.


Indoors, the dry heat from our furnace combined with the heat given off by our fireplace, can really dry out houseplants. Instead of just using tap water, I've been using melted snow to water them. I was doing it to save water and because I know snow contains nutrients, such as nitrogen, that are beneficial to the plants. In doing some reading, I discovered that apparently there's even more benefits to using snow. According to the website Clean Air Gardening (www.cleanairgardening.com), in experiments done at the Siberian Botanical Garden, it was found that veggies that were watered with melted snow “grow twice as fast as those fed regular water” and melted snow is actually easier on plants than regular water (here's the link to that article: http://site.cleanairgardening.com/info/watering-plants-with-snow-melt.html). All I do is fill a bucket with snow (obviously, make sure you take snow that's untainted by the salt you use on walkways) and put it in the basement to melt. After a few hours, I have what's been called “poor man's fertilizer” and it's free!


I'm tired of the snow and I hope it hasn't damaged my bushes too much. Using it to fertilize and water my plants gives me hope that something good will come out of all this white stuff on the ground. As with all relationships, the one between plants and snow isn't good or bad.  It's just, well, complicated.

Diva loves the snow.

Thanks so much for reading!  Please check in with me again, won't you?