10 brilliant uses for coffee filters

1 Catch messy ice cream drips

When the ice cream man made his rounds, you surprised the little ones in your life with ice pops, but the treats melted all over their hands. Next time, poke the stick through the center of a coffee filter. The paper creates a mini basket that will catch any drips as they fall, warding off a sticky mess.

2 Outsmart oily skin

Sticky summer days lead to shine on your T-zone, but using blotting papers can get pricey. A better bet: Cut coffee filters into quarters and store in a plastic baggie in your purse. When you need to freshen up, press one to shiny spots on your skin. The porous material will soak up oil just as well as blotting paper—at a fraction of the cost.

3 Avoid microwave splatters

Last time you reheated pasta, the red sauce splattered all over your microwave. The secret to preventing spills: Loosely cover the bowl with a coffee filter when you reheat the dish. The filter will act as a lid to keep the sauce from splashing out, and its pores will allow steam to escape, so your food won’t overheat.

4 Leave windows streak-free

Instead of cleaning windows with paper towels, which can deposit tiny pieces of lint on the glass, try this: After spraying windows with glass cleaner as usual, use a few coffee filters to wipe them clean. The thick texture of the filters will hold up to scrubbing and the close-knit fibers will absorb the cleaning product to ward off streaks— without leaving lint behind.

5 Entertain Fluffy for pennies

To keep your kitty out of mischief, ball up a clean coffee filter and spritz with catnip spray. Your pal will have a blast batting it around, and the filter’s strong woven fibers will help retain the catnip scent for hours.

6 Deodorize smelly shoes overnight

A cheap fix for stinky sneakers: Pour 2 tsp. of baking soda in the center of two coffee filters, tie closed with a rubber band and place one in each shoe. The porous filters allow the baking soda to absorb odor so shoes smell fresh.

7 Make lipstick last for hours

The pro secret to a gorgeous smile: After applying your favorite lipcolor, use a coffee filter to gently blot lips. Next, lay the filter over lips and brush on a small amount of face powder. The filter will allow just enough powder through to set the color, so your lipstick appears fresh all day.

8 Prolong the life of celery

Whether you top it with peanut butter or hummus or eat it plain, celery is the perfect snack—but it often wilts in the fridge before you get a chance to eat it. To keep the veggie fresh, wrap stalks in coffee filters, place in a sealed ziptop bag and store in the refrigerator. The filters will absorb any moisture inside the bag, keeping the crunchers from getting soggy.

9 Shuck corn on the cob with ease

Nothing beats corn on the cob at a summer barbecue—if only removing the silk from the cob didn’t make such a mess! To make the process a breeze, try this: After removing the husks, dampen a coffee filter and rub it over each ear of corn, moving in the opposite direction of the silk. The silky strings will get trapped in the wet fibers of the filter, so you can easily pull them off.

10 Keep cork pieces out of a glass of wine

Oops! All you wanted to do was kick back and relax with the girls when the cork tore. Rather than fishing out pieces from each glass, pour the wine through a coffee filter. The filter’s pores will allow the wine to pass through while straining out the cork, so you can get back to enjoying your day!