7 Unusual Uses for Coffee and Coffee Grounds ...

That cuppa won't just leave you feeling better in the morning—there are a lot of unusual uses for coffee that will also leave you looking better. After shampooing your hair, you can saturate it in strongly-brewed coffee. Of course you'll want to make sure that the coffee has cooled down, and you'll want to put it in a container that you can take in the shower with you (a plastic pitcher with a lid would work). Slowly pour 2-4 cups of coffee into your hair at the end of your shower, massage it in, put on a shower cap, and rinse it out after about 30 minutes. It will make your hair shinier, and it will give dark hair a bit of a color boost. It will also leave your locks with a yummy java smell.

It's impossible to get rid of cellulite, but there are ways to make it look better. You can combine ½ cup of used coffee grounds with ¼ cup of olive oil to create a cellulite scrub. Hop in the shower and massage the mixture into a problem area for about three minutes before rinsing it off. The coffee will tighten skin by dilating blood vessels and decreasing water retention. This reduces the orange peel appearance of cellulite. You can also add a scrubbier exfoliant to the mix, such as brown sugar or sea salt. To make the mixture more effective, wrap your problem area with plastic wrap after massaging the mixture in and leave it on for about 30 minutes.

If your refrigerator is starting to smell a little funky, you can use coffee grounds to combat food odors. Just place a used filter full of used coffee grounds inside a jar or mug and place in the back of the fridge. Coffee also makes a great air freshener for cars. Just fill a hole-less old sock with dry coffee grounds, tie the top of it with a piece of string, and place it underneath one of your seats. You can also put used coffee grounds inside your car's ashtray to get rid of the cigarette smell.

If you're a coffee addict like me, you'll end up with a bad headache if you try to forgo that cup of Joe. This probably isn't a good thing. However, coffee can also be helpful in treating headaches that aren't caused by caffeine withdrawal. Some studies have shown that caffeine actually increases the effectiveness of over-the-counter headache medicines like acetaminophen, aspirin, and ibuprofen. Just be sure to drink some water with your pill, and don't down your cup of coffee—your headache will be replaced by a tummy ache.

If you want to give a piece of boring ol' white paper a little more personality, you can "age" it using coffee. Just fill a large baking dish with coffee and submerge a piece of paper or two in the brew. Let it soak for a few minutes before removing it and laying it out on a thick towel to dry. You can also do this with lacy doilies or other paper products. To make your aged paper even prettier, use a paintbrush and some strongly-brewed coffee to create your own watermark or designs like flowers and twisty vines.

You might want to save your used coffee grounds for dinner time. They help remove grease and stuck-on food from pans. Just mix the grounds with a little soap and water and scrub away with a piece of cloth, paper towel, or sponge. You can even use the used coffee filter as a rag. If you cooked a meal using strong-smelling foods like garlic and onions, the grounds can also be used on your hands. And they don't just get rid of odor—if your hands are covered with butter or oil, the coffee grounds will help remove it.

If you make iced coffee at home, then you'll definitely want to use this tip. The iced coffees you buy at your local café are great at first, but they get watered down as the ice in them melts. So why not save money by making better iced coffee at home, where you can make sure that your drink doesn't get watered down? All you have to do is fill an ice tray with coffee instead of water. Let the coffee cubes freeze, and add them to your iced coffee to ensure that it maintains its full coffee flavor. Just remember that the cubes will make the coffee taste stronger as they melt.

So when you make your pot of coffee in the morning, save the grounds and don't throw out any leftover brew. It might be useful later on in the day when you decide that you want to give yourself a mini spa treatment. Do you know of any other unusual uses for coffee and coffee grounds?