11 Creative  Ways to Reuse Your Eggshells

Do you ever look at the pile of eggshells after breakfast and wonder if you can use eggshells for something? When you have the reuse it mentality, you start looking at everything and pondering other uses. Believe it or not, eggshells do have other uses, so don’t toss them out! Eggshells are a source of calcium and have an abrasive texture, making them beneficial in many different circumstances.

Clean the Eggshells First

Unless you want disgusting eggshells on your counter, make sure you clean them. Rinse the shells off inside and out. Use your fingers to rub across the inside to get the membranes out. You can leave them out to dry, or you can bake the at 150 F for 10 minutes.

11 Creative Ways to Reuse Eggshells

Face Mask

Using a blender or mortar and pestle, grind up the dried eggshells. Then, whisk the powder with an egg white. Use it just like a face mask. It provides amazing nutrients to your skin! Make sure you rinse it off of your skin well once it dries.

Make a Household Cleaner

Eggshells have a naturally abrasive texture without any nasty, unnecessary chemicals you might find in cleaners at the store. You can use eggshells as a multi-purpose, household cleaner.

Make sure you dry the eggshells completely and use a blender or food processor to grind up the eggshells totally. Then, mix the ground up eggshells with baking soda in a 1 to 3 ratio. For example, for every one tablespoon of eggshells you use, add three tablespoons of baking soda. Then, add water to moisten the mixture. You can use this to scrub counters, pots, water stains and more!

Boost Your Tomato Plants

Tomatoes love the extra calcium that eggshells provide. The plants tend to develop blossom-end rot which can destroy your harvest if calcium is lacking. Make sure you crush up the eggshells. Then, add the eggshells in the pot or hole where you plant your tomato seedling.

Plant Seed in Eggshells

If you have children, planting seeds in eggshells is a fantastic project they will enjoy. You will need to keep the eggshells at least half intact, creating a small container to begin seedlings.

Keep the eggshells in an empty egg container. Put dirt into each of the shells, place the seed inside and water gently. When it is time to transplant your seedling into the garden bed or container, put the whole shell into the ground! Eggshells are biodegradable and add more calcium to the soil. You can crack the bottom of the shell a bit to allow the roots to get through easily.

Remove Stains in Mugs

Tea and coffee drinkers notice frequent stains in their coffee mugs. Eggshells can help get rid of these stains and bring your mug back to life. Crush up the shells and put them in the mug with water, allowing them to soak overnight. Eggshells are porous and absorb the stains without you needing to do any scrubbing. Score for you!

Feed Them to Your Chickens

So, your chickens laid the eggs, and now you feed them back to your chickens. Just like wild birds, chickens can experience calcium deficiency. You might notice the shells aren’t as hard as they once were. All you need to do is crush up the shells and mix in their feed. You can also just put out a feeder with crushed eggshells. While some chicken owners prefer to give oyster shells, eggshells are a free option.

Clean Your Drains

Do your drains need to be cleaned? Dry and grind up the shells into a powder. Sprinkle this powder into your kitchen sink after washing dishes. The abrasiveness of the shells allows the powder to stick to gunk in your pipes, pulling the pieces off. Pour hot water down the drains after the shells.

Add to Bird Seed

Wild birds who visit your bird feeders will benefit from crushed eggshells mixed into the bird seed. You want plain eggshells, and make sure the shells are dried entirely. Female birds often experience calcium deficiency once they lay their eggs. Adding eggshells to their bird seed gives them a nice, boost of calcium. You can also try crushing the shells and spreading them on the ground around the bird feeders.

Improve the Taste of Coffee

I know; you are wondering how you could impossibly change that miraculous taste of coffee. Some people don’t like the acid in coffee. You can add eggshells to your coffee grounds. Eggshells are made up of mostly calcium, which is alkaline. The shells will absorb some of the acids in the coffee, mellowing the flavor out.

If you are going to use eggshells in your coffee grounds, make sure you have fully cleaned out the eggshells, and there are no pieces of egg membrane left inside.

Attack Garden Pests

Many organic gardeners use diatomaceous earth as a way to get rid of unwanted garden pests. DE is ground up fossils which irritate and kills any pests in its way. Eggshells have the same abrasive nature, so you can grind them up and sprinkle directly onto your plants to get rid of pests. Sprinkle it on the pests themselves, their nests, or around the leaves and base of your plant.

Add to Your Compost

Eggshells are biodegradable, so they should be put into your compost if you find no other way to use them. Many of the fruits and veggie scraps you add to your compost contribute a mix of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Those vitamins are important for healthy growth, but the calcium contributed by the eggshells is just as important. Calcium helps the plant build healthy “bones,” which are cell walls inside of the plant.

Once you get started, you realize there are dozens of ways to use eggshells. There is no reason you should toss them out when you can use eggshells in your everyday life. What are your favorite ways to reuse eggshells?