Fashionable Home: December 2011

Better than paper towels and a lot less expensive, you can buy 1,000 coffee filters at the dollar store for almost nothing.

Cover bowls or dishes when cooking in the microwave.
Clean windows, mirrors, and chrome. They’re lint free so they’ll leave windows sparkling.
Protect china by separating your good dishes with a coffee filter between each dish.
If you break the cork when opening a bottle of wine, filter the wine through a coffee filter.
Protect a cast iron skillet by placing a coffee filter in the skillet to absorb moisture and prevent rust.
Apply shoe polish with a balled-up coffee filter.
Recycle frying oil. After frying, strain oil through a sieve lined with a coffee filter.
Weigh chopped food. Place chopped ingredients on a coffee filter on a kitchen scale.
Hold tacos. Coffee filters make convenient wrappers for messy foods.
Line a plant pot with a coffee filter to prevent the soil from going through the drainage holes.
Prevent a Popsicle from dripping. Poke one or two holes as needed in a coffee filter.
Use strips of coffee filters to wax eyebrows instead of expensive strips.
Put a few on a plate to drain bacon, fried chicken, french fries, etc.
Keep in the bathroom to fix razor nicks.
As a sewing backing. Use a filter as an easy-to-tear backing for embroidering or appliqueing soft fabrics.
Put baking soda into a coffee filter and insert into shoes or a closet to absorb or prevent odors.
Use them to strain soup stock and to tie fresh herbs to put in soups and stews.
Use a coffee filter to prevent spilling when adding fluids to your car.
Use them as a spoon rest while cooking and clean us small counter spills.
Hold dry ingredients when baking or when cutting up fruit or vegetables. Saves having extra bowls to wash.
Use them to wrap Christmas ornaments for storage.
Use them to remove fingernail polish if you run out of cotton balls.
Use them to sprout seeds. Simply dampen the filter, place seeds inside, fold it and place into a plastic bag until they sprout.
Use as blotting paper for pressed flowers. Place the flowers between to coffee filters and put them into the phone book until dried.
Use a disposable snack bowl for popcorn, chips, etc., especially when traveling.