25 Creative Uses for Coffee Filters

I pilfered this from the Stacks and Stacks Facebook update, but it was so great I had to pass it on. I already tried two of them today! And I added one--used one for the veggie cuttings that I put in the compost bin. (I use un-bleached filters.)

1. Cover bowls or dishes when cooking in the microwave. Coffee filters make excellent covers.
2. Clean windows, mirrors, and chrome… Coffee filters are lint-free so they'll leave windows sparkling.
3. Protect China by separating your good dishes with a coffee filter between each dish.
4. Filter broken cork from wine. If you break the cork when opening a wine bottle, 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. Ball up a lint-free coffee filter.
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 one or two holes as needed in a coffee filter.
12. Do you think we used expensive strips to wax eyebrows? Use strips of coffee filters..
13. Put a few in a plate and put your fried bacon, French fries, chicken fingers, etc on them. It soaks out all the grease.
14. Keep in the bathroom. They make great "razor nick fixers."
15. As a sewing backing. Use a filter as an easy-to-tear backing for embroidering or appliqueing soft fabrics.
16. Put baking soda into a coffee filter and insert into shoes or a closet to absorb or prevent odors..
17. Use them to strain soup stock and to tie fresh herbs in to put in soups and stews.
18. Use a coffee filter to prevent spilling when you add fluids to your car.
19. Use them as a spoon rest while cooking and clean up small counter spills.
20. Can use to hold dry ingredients when baking or when cutting a piece of fruit or veggies.. Saves on having extra bowls to wash.
21. Use them to wrap Christmas ornaments for storage.
22. Use them to remove fingernail polish when out of cotton balls.
23. Use them to sprout seeds. Simply dampen the coffee filter, place seeds inside, fold it and place it into a plastic baggie until they sprout.
24. Use coffee filters as blotting paper for pressed flowers. Place the flowers between two coffee filters and put the coffee filters in phone book..
25. Use as a disposable "snack bowl" for popcorn, chips, etc.

My Clean Fridge Blog

I'd like to announce the birth of a new blog...My Clean Fridge!

http://mycleanfridge.blogspot.com

I've decided that this whole "take a picture of your clean fridge" idea is pretty fun and would like to invite my readers over to this blog dedicated to clean fridges, clean pantries, clean whatever!

You are welcome to e-mail me pictures of your fridge (or whatever area you'd like to keep clean) on a monthly basis, as incentive for YOU to keep YOUR area clean! Feel free to send me the "Before" and "Afters" or just the "Afters" if you like. I will post your story and your photos on the blog as I get them.

My next project (bigger than my fridge) is my pantry....I might be brave enough to even post a "Before" shot and let you see the results as I go. I'm afraid it will take a whole day or several shorter sessions.

See you in the crisper!

Margaret Pearson Pinkham

Fridge 1/1/10

Here it is as promised. The interior of my fridge on January 1!

Knowing I would be taking this pic really kept me pretty honest about throwing things out (or using them) on an ongoing basis. I really only threw out a couple things right before I took the photo.

Welcome to my blog!

Until my full-service website is up, this blog will be serving as the best source of information about me and my services. Please check back frequently, leave comments or questions and let me know what you think.

Let me introduce myself
I am a professional organizing consultant and coach based in Sonoma County, California (about an hour north of San Francisco). I specialize in helping clients who tend to have more serious or long-standing issues with organizing, which can manifest as a lot of clutter, time-management problems or even compulsive hoarding.

My clients also often face "brain-based challenges" which run the gamut from ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury), depression, bipolar issues or other health issues. We work together to design systems that will function with each client's unique brain.

My extensive training through the National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization (NSGCD) has helped me to understand these and many other issues that clients might face. I am not a therapist, nor do I attempt to help clients with these issues directly, but I do help design organizing strategies that can take into account these and other issues that often contribute to the clutter or organizing problems.

I earned my "CPO-CD®" (Certified Professional Organizer in Chronic Disorganization) in 2007 through an 18-month mentored and peer-reviewed study offered by the NSGCD. It's a new and exciting field of study and we are quite the elite bunch right now! I am the only organizer in the North Bay to have this designation, and one of only 60 or so in the nation. Click here to see a list of other organizers near you who specialize in chronic disorganization and are graduates of this program or have earned lower level certificates.

I've also recently (2009 and 2010) earned my Level V (Program Coach) and Level V (Master Trainer) desiginations through the NSGCD.

I look forward to hearing from my readers and am happy to answer questions about my services or about organizing in general.

Sincerely,

Margaret Pearson Pinkham, CPO-CD®
(707) 823-3479
margaret@organizeinharmony.com