How to Make Your Room Smell Like Coffee Without Candles
Coffee is usually just something we reach for in the morning (and sometimes throughout the day.) But there are so many more uses for the magical bean.
Do you love the smell of coffee in the morning? Or throughout the day, even at night? Coffee aroma is comforting and energizing, so many people crave the smell, even if drinking coffee isn’t great.
Why is that?
Well, the coffee aroma has 800 different aromatic compounds. That is more aromatic compounds than any other beverage! Including wine, which only has around 200-300 aromatic compounds.
Around 11% of those compounds smell like chocolate. (Which can explain why we love coffee aroma so much!).
When we smell coffee, it’s like a symphony of scents for our brain! Full of various scents at varying strengths based on how the coffee beans were roasted or ground. And whether or not it’s a dark or light roast.
And just smelling these aromatic compounds – without even tasting them – can improve your mood just as much as drinking a cup of coffee.
Coffee is also great for your skin, too!
With more and more people using single-serve coffee pods (these zero-waste coffee pods are way better for the environment, by the way!), the smell of coffee drifting through the house isn’t as common as it used to be.
Here are some ways of making your room smell like coffee without candles.
- Improvise a candle.
If you love the smell of coffee, get your room to smell like coffee all day! First, gather a cup of coffee beans. Then put a vanilla-scented candle inside of the cup. The candle flame will warm the coffee beans and make the room smell like coffee.
- Homemade Coffee Air Freshener
Guideline on the DIY Coffee Air Freshener.
Materials
⅔ cup of whole coffee beans, leftover coffee grinds, or fresh ground coffee
2 tablespoons of molasses
2-3 cinnamon sticks
6 cups of filtered water
Tools
Large pot
Instructions
Fill the pot with water
Add all of the other ingredients and stir for a moment to help the molasses dissolve.
Bring the pot to a simmer (not boiling, but lightly bubbling).
Let the pot simmer for one to two hours, occasionally checking to ensure enough water in the pot. If the water is getting low, you can add more. Make sure all ingredients are always covered with water.
When done simmering the pot, let the pot cool completely. Instead of throwing the water down the drain or the contents into the trash, consider adding them to your compost pile.
Here are some other unexpected uses of coffee.
- Exfoliating Body Scrub
Turn your used coffee grounds into a luxurious body scrub that will leave your skin silky smooth and glowing. Just combine a half cup of used grounds with a quarter cup of olive or coconut oil and a pinch of citrus zest. It slows off dead skin cells, tightens blood vessels, and boosts blood flow. Thank you, caffeine.
- Compost
Toss what’s left from your daily brew directly into your compost pile for a boost of nitrogen that’s great for your garden and the environment. Here’s how to compost at home (no matter your living situation).
- Pest Control
You might love the aroma of freshly-brewed coffee, but pests do not. Sprinkle coffee grounds whenever you need to scare away ants, snails, or slugs: These critters are offended by the strong smell, so this is an easy, waste-free way to keep them off your property (and yet another reason that coffee grounds are your garden’s best friend).
- Hair Rinse
So your locks are looking a bit drab these days. The solution? Empty the contents of that used coffee filter…onto your head.
Simply massage used coffee grounds into your hair and rinse thoroughly for extra shine—no products required.
Plus, the caffeine in coffee grounds is also thought to stimulate hair growth and prevent loss, so if you work ‘em into the scalp, you might end up with a fuller head of hair to boot. That said, be careful if you have light hair, as the coffee can leave behind a little color.
- Meat Rub
Due to their acidity, coffee grounds act as a natural flavor enhancer and tenderizer for meat. That’s right—grounds can be used in dry rubs and marinades for a robust flavor boost and a more succulent finished dish.
Best of all, you can pour that last bit of red wine into your glass where it belongs. Here is an easy-peasy recipe to get you started.
- Deodorizer
Instead of baking soda, try putting a bowl of coffee grounds in the fridge to eliminate icky food smells and even the closet to banish stubborn musty odors.
You can also keep a dish of them by the kitchen sink to rub on your hands after chopping onions, garlic, or fish—they’ll neutralize the lingering scent quicker than you can say instant coffee.
- Refrigerator deodorant
If you have funky smells emanating from your freezer or refrigerator, place a cup of unused coffee grounds inside and wait. The coffee grounds will absorb the odor.
- Kitchen Scrubber
Not only will coffee grounds make your kitchen smell nicer, but they can also be used to keep it sparkling clean.
Pour coffee grounds into the sink and make the most of their abrasive action to eliminate any film from soap scum and foodstuff; then send ‘em down the garbage disposal to make that smell fresher.
- Hand deodorant and soap
If you have been handling garlic or chopping onions and want to remove the smell from your hands, thoroughly rub some coffee grounds on them and rinse with water.
The coffee will absorb the smell and replace it with a coffee scent. Alternatively, you can create a coffee-based hand soap or scrub by combining a melt-and-pour soap base with coffee grounds (and essential oils of your choice) so that the coffee smell isn’t so intense.
- Furniture Repair Aid
Buff away unsightly scratches and scuffs from dark wood furniture by applying used coffee grounds to the problem areas with a Q-tip.
Once the grounds have had a chance to sit (just a couple of minutes should do the trick, say the experts at Needlepointers), gently scrub them away with a rag, and those superficial imperfections will be a thing of the past.
- Scour Pots And Pans
The coarse texture of coffee grounds is ideal for cleaning dishes and removing caked-on food bits from your favorite pots and pans.
To put those leftovers to good use, sprinkle them directly onto your cookware and scrub with a soft sponge or brush. Make sure to rinse thoroughly afterward (unless you like the taste of coffee-flavored scrambled eggs, that is).
- Under-Eye Treatment
If you haven’t been getting enough sleep, you’re probably already leaning on coffee.
Good news: Once you perk up with a cup of the stuff, you can use some grounds to give yourself the appearance of being bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, too.
Simply combine some fresh grounds with egg white and apply to the undereye area for a quick treatment that reduces the appearance of dark circles and puffiness.
- Fireplace Cleaner
You love your wood-burning fireplace, but are less enthused about getting rid of the ashes (cue the major mess all over your favorite T-shirt).
To avoid sweeping with a dusty cloud all around you, scatter some damp coffee grounds onto the pile of ashes. The grounds will weigh down the lashes and prevent those pesky smoke clouds from forming.
- Gardening
Haven’t hopped on the compost train yet? Fear not: You can still use coffee grounds to help your garden thrive. In this case, the grounds aren’t left to compost with other material—a process that yields richer soil, primed for easy planting—but is used as fertilizer to feed the plants themselves.
Coffee grounds can help ensure that fast-growing plants’ nutritional needs are met, even if you aren’t putting compost in the ground.
Still, be sure to have some regular fertilizer on as well, since the high acidity of coffee grounds should be balanced out to achieve a more neutral pH for your plants.
Add them to your outdoor compost bin. The grounds help stabilize the pH level, degrade food quickly, and deodorize the bin.
Their higher acidity may benefit acid-loving plants and boost the flowers’ blooms, like roses, gardenias, azaleas, holly, and rhododendrons. Coffee can also prevent fungal infections in plants.
Sprinkle them around plants to repel ants, snails, slugs, cats, and dogs, as they dislike the smell.
- Natural Cleaner
We touched on this one already, but thanks to their gentle scrubbing power, coffee grounds are great in your cleaning arsenal—and this applies to more than just the kitchen chores mentioned above.
If you want to steer clear of the harsh chemicals in commercial cleaning products, just bust out some old coffee grounds and use them to scrub the toilet bowl, bathtub, and just about anything else, provided the surface isn’t porous. (Note: Coffee grounds will stain porous surfaces.)
- Flea Remover
OK, this is a weird one…but it works. If your furry friend has come home from an outdoor romp with some unwelcome guests, you can use coffee grounds to show those parasites the door.
For this one, you’re going to give your pet the same exfoliating treatment we recommended for your skin: Put your pup or cat (good luck) in the bath, sprinkle coffee grounds all over your pet’s wet fur and start scrubbing against the natural flow of the fur.
The result? The abrasive action of the grounds will remove the fleas from your critter’s coat…sans chemicals. Remember that coffee grounds should only be used externally since they can be toxic to dogs if consumed.