Using Coffee Grounds to Keep Fireplace Dust Down
Updated 1 Jan, 2020
There are a surprising number of ways that you can use old coffee grounds so that you don’t just have to throw them away when you’re done. You can use them to make DIY car air fresheners, put in your garden to kill snails, keep ants away, and improve the soil quality for plants that like acidic soil. Some people even use old coffee grounds for facials or to remove cellulite.
In this post, we’re going to cover another way that you can use coffee grounds, and it’s sure to save you a lot of time and effort. If you have a fireplace that you regularly clean out, then be sure to keep reading to find out how you can use coffee grounds to keep the dust down.
The Problem with Ashes
The main problem you run into when cleaning out the ashes in your fireplaces is that as you sweep them, they begin to fly up in the air. This makes it significantly harder to get them all cleaned up because they’re going up into the air rather into the bag or whatever you’re collecting them in. It’s also frustrating because then you find that you’ve coated other parts of your home in fireplace ashes and the simple fireplace-cleaning job turns into a much larger cleaning project than you initially intended.
Coffee Grounds: The Solution
Believe it or not, but the simplest and most effective solution to this common problem faced by people who are cleaning out their fireplace is coffee grounds. Because the coffee grounds are small, moist, and heavy, they can be mixed with the ash from the fireplace and make it significantly easier to clean up.
The small size of the coffee grounds is what allows it to mix well into the ashes. Each tiny coffee ground clings to several even tinier pieces of ash until all the ash is stuck to the coffee grounds. What allows it to stick is the moisture that the coffee grounds hold. Since the ash is dry and the coffee grounds are wet, this causes the ash to stick very easily.
What makes this work is the weight of the coffee beans. They are heavy enough and large enough that they won’t go flying up in the air when you sweep them, even if you do it with some force. When the coffee grounds are stuck to the ash from the fireplace, then the ash has no choice but to also stay grounded while you work to get it swept up and out of your fireplace.
How to Use Coffee Grounds to Keep Fireplace Dust Down
1. Spread moist coffee beans into the bottom of your fireplace after you have removed all the wood and as many of the larger chunks as you can.
2. Sprinkle them over the ashes and then lightly mix them into the ashes, being careful not to cause a whirlwind of ashes while you’re mixing.
3. Once you’ve got them adequately mixed, you can begin sweeping them up.
Keep in mind that while this method works, the number of coffee grounds and ashes have to be more or less proportional as a small number of grounds will not be able to absorb a lot of ashes.
It may be that you’ll need to save up coffee grounds for several days before using them to clean out your fireplace. Fortunately, it’s easy to keep them moist by simply keeping them in a sealed container at room temperature.
