Did you know that coffee filters can be used for more than just, well, filtering coffee? They’re actually a versatile tool that can be useful in all sorts of situations, including some unexpected ones.
There are few things in life more essential than coffee. From getting us out of bed in the morning to providing a much-needed pick-me-up in the afternoon, coffee is there for us when we need it most.
But did you know that coffee filters can be used for more than just brewing a pot of joe?
That’s right—coffee filters can actually be quite handy in a survival situation. Here are just a few of the many uses for coffee filters.
Insulate Your Home
In a pinch, coffee filters can be used to insulate your home.
Related: 10+ Things To Do To Winter-Proof Your Home
If you have a drafty window or door, cut a coffee filter to size and tape it over the opening. This will help keep the warm air in and the cold air out.
Fire Starters
Coffee filters soaked in wax make great fire starters.
They’ll light easily and burn for a long time.
Simply soak the coffee filter in wax, let it dry, and store it in an airtight container until you’re ready to use it.
Absorb Spills
Spills happen—but that doesn’t mean they have to ruin your clothes or belongings.
If you accidentally spill something, simply place a coffee filter over the spill and blot it up with a paper towel.
The absorbent nature of the coffee filter will soak up the vast majority of the liquid, sparing your clothes or furniture from being ruined.
Sore Throat Relief
Soak a coffee filter in warm water, then lay it over your throat like a compress. The warmth and moisture from the compress will help to soothe a sore throat.
Related: 12 Native American Remedies That We Lost To History
Bug Protection
If you don’t have any bug spray on hand, coffee filters can be used as a makeshift mosquito net.
Simply poke holes in the center of the filter and slip it over your head like a hood. The tiny holes will keep bugs out while still allowing you to breathe comfortably.
Odor Removal
Got ashes on your clothing or in your hair? No problem! Just rub them away with a dry coffee filter.
Coffee filters can also be used to remove unwanted odors—simply place one inside shoes or to absorb unpleasant smells. For a better result, you can also add baking soda inside the coffee filters.
Use It To Apply Calamine Lotion
Hate getting calamine lotion all over your hands? Place a generous dollop on a coffee filter and use that to apply the lotion instead. The filter will absorb any excess lotion so it doesn’t end up on your skin, clothes, or towels.
Cloth Diaper Liner
New to cloth diapering? Coffee filters make great liners because they’re cheap, disposable, and biodegradable.
Just place one inside the diaper before putting it on your baby to catch any solid waste. When you’re done, simply remove the liner (and its contents) and wash as usual.
DIY Bandage
Coffee filters can be used as bandages or dressings for wounds.
The absorbent nature of the filter will help to soak up blood and other fluids, while the paper material will keep the wound clean and protected from infection.
Pre-Filter Water You’ve Collected
Use them as a pre-filter when collecting water.
Coffee filters can be used to remove large particles from water before running it through your main water filter.
Related: Building The Three Bucket Bio-Water-Filter
Use It To Write Notes
Ever run out of paper and need something to write on in a hurry? Just grab a coffee filter.
The thin paper is perfect for jotting down notes or lists, and you can even fold it up and take it with you in your pocket or purse.
Keep Produce Fresh
Line your fruit bowl or vegetable crisper with coffee filters to help keep your produce fresh longer. The filters will absorb excess moisture, preventing mold and rot from setting in.
Pet Food Dish
Don’t have a pet bowl on hand but need to feed Fido in a hurry? No problem.
Related: DIY Dog Treats That Last A Long Time
Just grab a coffee filter and set it on the floor with some food in the center. Your pup will be able to chow down without making too much of a mess.
Dry Wet Clothing
Place wet items inside of a coffee filter and then set them in the sun or close to a fire to dry out. The coffee filter will help absorb some of the moisture so your clothes dry faster.
Keep Soil In The Pot
Coffee filters make great transient liners for pots full of soil.
Simply line the pot with the filter before adding your soil and plants.
When it’s time to transplant them into a larger pot or into the ground, the filter will prevent the soil from falling out.
Make A Portable Food Wrapper
Going camping? Pack up some sandwiches wrapped in coffee filters for convenient transportation.
The paper is strong enough to prevent leaks and tears, but lightweight enough that it won’t add too much bulk or weight to your bag.
Make A Survival Straw
Make a survival straw out of them. This is a great way to filter water on the go. Simply cut the top and bottom off of a coffee filter and then roll it into a cone shape.
Related: Survival Uses For Drinking Straws You Normally Throw Away
Cut a small slit in the bottom and then insert one end of a drinking straw. Sucking the water up through the straw and enjoying filtered water wherever you are.
Make A Cold Compress
Soak a coffee filter in cold water and then apply it to a bruise or insect bite to help reduce swelling.
Make A Funnel
Cut the bottom off of a coffee filter to make a funnel for easily pouring liquids into small containers.
Trap Cooking Grease
Place a coffee filter over the top of your pan while cooking to trap grease splatters.
Sprout Garden Seeds
Want to start a medicinal herb garden? Just soak the seeds overnight, then place them on a filter moistened with water. Fold up the filter and place it in a resealable baggie.
If you don’t know where to start, here’s a kit that has the 10 medicinal herbs you need to have in a crisis.
Store Garden Seeds
Once your gardening season is over, save some seeds from your best-performing plants so you can replant them next year.
Place the seeds on a dry coffee filter, then fold up the filter and store it in an airtight container in a cool, dark place until spring arrives.
Use To Make Tea
If you don’t have any tea bags on hand but still want to enjoy a cup of hot tea, improvise by using a coffee filter instead.
Place your favorite loose tea leaves inside the filter, then secure it closed with string or a rubber band before steeping in hot water as usual.
Keep Insects Out Of Food
Place a coffee filter over the top of your food to keep insects out while in storage.
Protect Skillets From Rust
Place a coffee filter in the bottom of your skillet before storing it away to protect it from rusting.
Make An Oil Lamp
If you need light but don’t have any candles, you can easily make an oil lamp.
Just take a coffee filter and roll it up. Fill a glass jar with some vegetable oil and soak the coffee filter all the way inside.
This will provide light for a few hours.
Use As A Disposable Bowl or Plate
When you’re short on dishes, coffee filters make great disposable bowls or plates. Just be careful not to put too much weight on them or they will collapse.
Use In Place Of Rags Or Towels
Coffee filters can be used in place of rags or towels when cleaning up spills. They’re also great for dusting furniture or cleaning the windows.
Use As Emergency Toilet Paper
And most importantly, if you run out of toilet paper, coffee filters make excellent emergency toilet paper. Just be sure to dispose of them properly afterward.
Make A Pair Of Gloves
If you find yourself without gloves and need to do something that would normally require them, like changing a tire or cleaning something dirty, cut two holes near the top of two separate coffee filters large enough for your hands to fit through. Wear these “gloves” while performing your task and then dispose of them when you’re done.
As you can see, there are all sorts of ways to use coffee filters beyond just making coffee.
So next time you’re stuck in a bind, reach for a coffee filter and put it to good use. You may just be surprised at how handy they can be.
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Rebecca not your best work. Using a coffee filter as a makeshift water filter “Survival Straw”??
Wouldn’t remove anything but some of the larger organic crud leaving you full of HAPPINESS and disease causing Pathogens.
Not going to work, a far better use is pre-filtering your surface water (creeks, ponds etc.) to REDUCE (note not eliminate) the amount of organic crud that will clog up your REAL Water Filter, thus extending its useful life.
Fire starter by adding wax? Why not add wax to a handful of dry grasses? Or maybe make a feather stick with a sharp knife and a reasonably dry stick?
Use as a dressing? Just wait until you try to remove that “Dressing” once it clots and dries. Instant rip off the duct tape experience as you re-open that wound.
I’ll stop here. Not worth the effort to go line by line of this article.
Sorry not your best effort. Some folks that don’t actually try to do stuff might be inclined to spend 1.25 at the Not a Dollar store for their NEW Multi-use emergency coffee filters.
I find this article very interesting .
I fill all the info that I can get will be some what useful, “if you use common since”.
Take the info and make it work and if it dose not fit into your way, then don’t use it.
Rebecca, you did good because , I’ve never read any article from the critic’s here. Keep up the good work…
Thank you…
stay sharp
PS: restaurant coffee filters are larger and might work better.
Sorry red ant was not informed that you must have an article in this site before commenting.
Could you please pass on a link to YOUR Article, Sir?
And then perhaps tell me how I could actually write an article here, so I would have the privilege of commenting.
You are far too kind and way to diplomatic!
Thank you Michael. I read this article and had to read comments for sure-how in the world most of these suggestions could work is beyond me!!! No no not a helpful article….
You are a jerk. Nothing was claimed about removing pathogens. Pre filter. We have used coffee filters for many things, …not all of these suggestions as yet. I find the comment sections to be full of rude idiots that claim to be experts. In an attempt to get additional suggestions on here I have to read garbage like you. You had NOTHING useful to ad. If it worked for others you should STFU.
I found many useful ideas in this article that I never would have thought of. I’ve used coffee filters for other uses also over the years such as filtering herbs from liquid or cleaning glass/mirrors. No lint! Why be so cruel with your opinion- take what you want/can use for yourself from the ideas and move on. Great article and thanks for the ideas and effort freely given!
Delter, Cruelty is just how some people roll. It is the real person behind the catchy avatars. They don’t know how to disagree without belittling the person they disagree with. Opinions are like assholes, everybody has one, some just stink more than the others..
I kind of agree with Michael: Some things listed here would be for a total ‘dire emergency’, as there are other more reliable and easy options. The lamp…still not sure how it is going to light being way down under the oil…but if it’s all you have….
Gloves? Not likely unless you have tiny Tyrannosaurs Rex hands. And as for “bug protection…mosquito net? Who has a head that tiny????Might fit over the crown of the head, but not much more…so that one is downright silly.
The covering food to keep insects out was a good one until the last few words: in storage…..Not practical at all unless you keep your storage foods uncovered in a small container that the filter would fit over…even then, not so much.
Several listed uses are pretty nifty and would work well in a “no other option” scenario..the plant filter, tea, protecting skillets and other dishes if used between them, sprouting seeds, a funnel until it got soaked through, compress, using to rub lotions on…trapping grease, food wrapper…diaper liner.
But again, insulating your home? No, not really; mosquito netting for your head…uhm, no, drying wet clothing…not unless you have a HUGE filter! Nothing is going to “fit inside” one…
So, the article has SOME redeeming qualities and nice ideas, but others are pure fiction and wouldn’t be usable at all.
You know, people, this forum is for all ideas and comments, even if they disagree with the writer and/or your own opinions. it just needs to be done with tact and politeness…
i use them for coffee….so guess i can write a article for that one
Must be a Jim Cobb article
coffee filters are of course “food grade” – uncontaminated as they come out of the retail packaging >>> good to go to be included in your long term food bucket packaging …..
good practice to include a desiccant pack – never hurts to include moisture absorbing into any food you’re packing up – always drop into the bottom of your deployed mylar bag before filling – the desiccant and 02 absorber (on the top) do combat in their individual effectiveness – keep the max distance possible ….
the coffee filter – especially the larger commercial “Bunn” size filters – make a great outer wrapper for the loose silica gel granules – best economical source for silica is the Fresh Step Crystals brand cat litter – 8lb bag goes a looooooong way ….
Happy Packing !!!!!
I think I must agree with Michael.Repurposing is fine in some
cases.But this? The trolls are licking their chops.
I think the trolls have mostly ignored it this time? That’ll bring em out!!
Chuck is the worst troll he often comments on various preppers who command respect.
Yes indeed!!!
At least a couple of these suggestions had me scratching my head and finally concluding they must be a joke. For instance, using a filter for insect protection. Punch a hole in it and pull it over your head like a hood? WHAT?? We’re talking about something 6 in wide, how the Dickens would that work?
I buy the “natural” coffee filters. They are brown, so they aren’t bleached and infused with the whitening chemicals that might leach into whatever you’re using it for.
It seems like coffee filters might also be good for a charcoal poultice to draw infection out of a wound instead of using plastic wrap.
Use as a prefilter for your car, truck or other engines in very dusty situations. Just duct tape or zip tie over the inlet of the air filter.Worked during the Mount St. Helens eruption in 1980.
rubber banded over respirator filters also – as a pre-filter in an extreme environment situation like your Mt St Helens SHTF ….
I tried fit a coffee filter over my head but it just wouldn’t work. I’m going to look around for a pin head and have them try it.
LOL! Yep!!!
Half of these uses seem to assume that coffee filters are absorbant. They are NOT! If they were, they would not make good coffee filters. They are designed to prevent particles, like coffee grounds, from passing through, while allowing liquids, like coffee, to pass through.
They absorb grease just fine.
I’ve got an old commercial Bunn coffee maker that uses those larger coffee filters. My buddy found out that i had it and gave me an almost full CASE of those filters. That was in 2011 and i still have most of that case of filters left. I don’t use that machine that often, as i’m kinda addicted to my Keurig at work. So i definitely have enough of those to try some of these uses. I’ll add an automotive usage angle to the list. Have done this off and on for close to 30 years, so i know it works. Many times when you’re working on a vehicle and you are on a tight budget you may need to reuse fluids like antifreeze, transmission fluid or engine oil and many times you will inevitably get bugs, dirt, grease, water, etc in your drain pan. This leaves 2 kinds of contaminants, basically. Some settle to the bottom and others float on top. Take the coffee filter and slowly and lightly drag it across the top to skim off floaters. Patience is key here as floaters always try to squirt away as you get close to a corner or edge of the drain pan. Get out all that you can as crap does’nt need to be in your engine or transmission. You’ll never find a service manual that says bugs and dirt are just fine. But what do those engineers know anyway? If a hillbilly shade tree mechanic says bugs, wood chips and dirt are all good then by all means go for it! Lol. The second kind of contaminants, those that sink to the bottom, are generally dealt with in the following manner. Pour your drain pan slowly and avoid stirring up the stuff on the bottom. When you get about 3/4 of the way done carefully pouring back into your engine or another container the last bunch of your fluid has most all the crud in it and a lot of people wait until it’s settled into a corner or pocket, pour off all the good fluid that they can and just pitch that last pint or so of whatever fluid. Works. Straining that last bit will save you $. Have used coffee filters to do just that many times over the years.
Thanks for an excellent idea!
OH, sorry red ant I’m commenting without having an article here. My bad.
Most of these are ridiculous and would never waste my valuable coffee filters for that. What I have done though is us coffee filters to strain goat’s milk instead of buying a much more expensive milk strainer filter. I used an old basket from an old coffee pot as a strainer basket to hold the coffee filter while I poured the milk through it. Cheap and simple.
…lots of good uses for coffee filters, but maybe not a majority of these…?
Here you go…
To the critic, that seems to think that they can give anything better, but I, meaning me have not read but Only remarks against a large amount of articles, that in some way would or might could help someone, but in reading most critic’s comments, are not beneficial to someone that just might need to read the article and get something from it.
I am sure that you can wright some type of an article of something useful even to someone that just might need to hear a positive remake that has been placed in the article, it just might be the one that they might need to read.
There’s a way, it’s been there from the beginning…
If you go and look in the site you can send Claude an message, that you wish to wright an article that might be useful to someone. Michael…
I recall a person, but this person was very informative in most all of his post, “he respected the site and Claude respected him, also”.
He wrote an article and Claude put it on the site. Maybe, If you write an article, with some just to it, then he might just put it out for all the critic’s. Michael..
Remember, there just might become a time that this info on this web site, no matter how stupid or dumb it sounds. It’s Better to know it and not need it then to need it and not know it…
On the field, you better be able to think on the fly, that’s why we need “all and any information” that just might help, how ever or what ever.it may be…
You will need and use everything you can get, when that day comes.
What is a prepper, a user of all things that is survival, all…
Make it useful????
stay sharp
A lot of semi-coherent words to say that red ant has not written an article here?
If you have, please post a link so I can enjoy your informative prose.
Hey michael you must be so hard up about yourself that you could not even just say, I will wright an article, but no you had to come and blow some more of your vomit on here and could not even back it up. LOMA off @ you. I knew you were a fake…
No balls!!!!!!!!!! YOU michael are not trusted!!!!!
red ant posting drunk again? Two messages just to express your spleen?
Funny, I Don’t drink.
You only assume what you think you know, but you only say that to make, what your self fill better.
Got anything better then just guessing or is that how you, just are?
No trust in you.
red ant why does it matter if you trust me or not?
I’m done with your incoherent diatribes.
So, feel free to spill your nonsense without response from me again.
Finally
Trust means a lot on here.
You should know this, just like in the field. Who ever it is you are helping, has to trust you. RIGHT…
Thanks for the replies back, just add something useful next time.
Michael and red ant: TAKE IT SOMEWHERE ELSE! I like this blog, but get SO TIRED of all of the name calling by certain people who clearly don’t like each other, who use up space on a blog to spit vile at each other. Share your emails and spew your hate privately, PLEASE!!!
Carol L.
I’ve been on this site for a very very long time, fighting to keep this from going on.
Then comes some that help go against the trolls, then come you to say, that we need to stop but you can not say anything to the one or one’s that are making this site suck like it dose now.
Please help the site to stop the one’s that come on here to say negative junk about everything that is said in the article..
Not me and the others that try to keep them from being here to blast negativity.
Maybe you should just ignore what you don’t want to read. Pass it by like i have to…
I don’t read any of your post.
PLEASE…
TP… sure. Everything else, meh.
Great article, Rebecca,
Anytime someone takes the time to help me look at something in a different way than I’m used to I’m thankful.
I truly value the people, articles and comments that positively add to survival skills.
The rest of the chest beating in these comment sections isn’t fit to line the bottom of the bird cage.
Thank you to all the positive commenters.
John, thank you so very much. I couldn’t have said it better. And you spelled every word correctly!
Ya little michael you did good. what a joke…
I think the article was good. I use my used coffee filters with used coffee in them in my compost!
One of the best uses for coffee filters is to help sort tiny things. Trying to find the perfect nail, screw or nut from a large container? Dump them on a coffee filter. When you are done you can carefully pour precious items back into the container without losing any.
Before SHTF, works great for beads, buttons and other crafty items like embossing powder and gilding flakes.
Good article. It gave me a couple new ideas. Thanks. I’ve used coffee filters over a magnet to pick up parts, and keep metal shavings from covering the magnet. I also used it to pick up metal shavings in tight places where I couldn’t reach with broom or small brush.
Thanks Bill
You are right on track. Never thought about using coffee filter on a magnet to pick up tiny metal shavings. Will keep the magnet clean.
thanks
stay sharp
There is a rare earth magnet on a bendy wand kind of deal that we use on the trucks to go all around in the fuel tanks to check for ferrous metal, and then to get the remnants of it – for when a high-pressure fuel pump fails.
It’s so powerful that it is advised to take a couple rubber/nitrile glove fingers and zip-tie them around the magnet, to make it easier to remove the debris. Doing that helps a lot.
Liked the article. Some of the commenters… not so much. One use I have for coffee filters is to make my own desiccant pouches. Just put silica cat litter in a coffee filter, fold it up, and staple it. inexpensive and works great with ammo storage, brass, guns, knives, or anything else that could be harmed by humidity during storage.