I got this in an e-mail and thought I'd pass it on. There's lots of good ideas here. But, because it doesn't directly relate to Thailand I thought I'd stick it in Bedlam. If the mods think it would better somewhere else please feel free to move it.

Subject: Coffee Filters

Better than paper towels and a lot less expensive...

Coffee filters ... Who knew! And you can buy 1,000 at the Dollar Stores for almost nothing.

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 top of 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 odours.

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.

It 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 kiddie's disposable "snack bowl" for popcorn, chips, etc.

26. Use them to filter out the pulp in lemon juice bottles

OH YEAH THEY ARE GREAT TO USE IN YOUR COFFEE MAKERS TOO.

Some good ideas there Ian.

Some very good tips there.

I don't think they are as cheap as paper towels here in NZ, though.....but I will definitely be pricing filters with many of those ideas in mind.

Thanks.

I'm off to check my supply of filters...

They make great TP

Should be used to filter certain threads in Bedlam

27. Use them to fashion a Brian Ferry bath mat.

28. Use them to kill swans.

29. Cover with tinfoil and use as monkey-human thought transference device.

30. Use them as hats to worship Satan.

Paper towels hold more liquid.....if you're a single guy (not living in Thailand) you will know filters don't quite do the job.

I never used to mind a bit of cork in my wine.

I have one on the top of my Computer that acts as a Spam filter. I've been Spam free for 2 hours now.

I never used to mind a bit of cork in my wine.

You could filter out sediment with one.

31. Tear them into strips and glue them to the black stripes on zebras making them appear to be horses.

waitaminit...I thought that you could use paper towels fer coffee filters but not the reverse

waitaminit...I thought that you could use paper towels fer coffee filters but not the reverse

That's true, but only in the case of the single guy about to go to sleep.

I never used to mind a bit of cork in my wine.

You could filter out sediment with one.

There seems too be a move towards cork free bottles.

I always thought wine appreciation involved a fair bit of mental tossing about things like sediment and corks anyway.

I never used to mind a bit of cork in my wine.

You could filter out sediment with one.

There seems too be a move towards cork free bottles.

I always thought wine appreciation involved a fair bit of mental tossing about things like sediment and corks anyway.

That's true, most wines don't need bottle conditioning, so screw tops or synthetic corks are perfectly fine.