Smart Uses for Eggshells: 10 Creative Ideas for Reuse

When you’re making breakfast, the eggshells often go right into the trash can. But did you know there are a few great ways that you can reuse those eggshells?

Whether you have your own chickens or are a city-dwelling egg lover, you can reuse your eggshells without that much extra work. Here, we go over the 10 most popular ways that you can reuse eggshells.

The 10 Creative Ideas for Reusing Egg Shells

1. Turn Them Into Chicken Feed

It might seem weird to feed eggshells back to your chickens, but due to the amount of calcium that chickens need and the amount that’s in eggshells, it’s a wonderful trick. But before feeding the shells back to your chickens, you need to bake them. Baking the shells sterilizes them and helps ensure that your chickens don’t associate eggs with snacks!

Clean out and bake the shells at 250 degrees for 10 minutes. Then, pull them out and grind them up before adding them to the rest of your chicken feed.

2. Add Them to Your Coffee

It might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you’re looking at old eggshells, but it’s an effective way to reduce the total bitterness in the coffee. Clean out the eggs completely, then boil them in your coffee to help reduce the bitterness.

It also gives your coffee a calcium boost. As long as you clean out the eggs first, you can add them to your coffee to make it a bit more palatable.

3. Turn Them Into a Seed Pot

We’ve yet to find an idea as cute as turning broken eggshells into seed pots. Put a little soil in the eggshell and use it as a starter pot for your plants.

It’s a great natural pot, and when you’re ready to move it into the garden, you can plant the entire eggshell. The eggshell will compost out in the soil and give the plant a natural calcium boost right when it needs it most.

4. Grind Them and Eat Them

It doesn’t seem palatable, but if you bake the eggshell and then grind it down, it turns into a fine powder that you can’t even taste.

Doing this is a natural calcium supplement that is great for your overall health.

5. Compost Them

There’s a large amount of calcium in eggshells, so go ahead and throw them in the compost bin. Once everything in there breaks down, you get an excellent fertilizer that you can use for different plants.

6. Keep Pests Away

If you’re dealing with small pests in your garden, your old eggshells might be the perfect solution. You don’t need to do anything special with the eggshells; just throw them out around the problem areas in your garden.

Slugs and other small pests can’t handle the sharp feeling of eggshells, so they’ll steer clear. Even better, as the eggshells break down, they’ll give a calcium boost to your plants!

7. Feed Them to the Birds

If you don’t have any chickens but have a few bird feeders, this is a great way to reuse your eggshells and get free bird food. Bake the shells and grind them down before adding them to the rest of your bird food.

8. Make a Facemask

There are a few different eggshell-inspired facemask recipes out there, and most of them do a great job of moisturizing and revitalizing your skin. You’ll need to take extra precautions to ensure that you’re sterilizing them correctly, though.

9. Put Them in Stock

If you’re already in the habit of making your own chicken or beef stock, eggshells can be a great way to get a few more nutrients in there.

Clean and break down the eggshells, then add them in when you’re making the stock. You’ll get a nutritional boost without spending any extra money! It’s a simple and easy way to get the most out of your eggshells.

10. Throw Them in the Garden

If your household goes through many eggs, you need to be careful with how many you’re putting in the garden, but for the most part, they’re great to add. The shells will quickly compost and leave your garden with a calcium boost that tomatoes, kale, spinach, and turnip greens all need to thrive.

Break down the shells before tossing them in, and do your best to spread them out around the entire garden. If you can still see eggshells from last time, it’s best to wait a bit longer before adding more shells to the soil.

Conclusion

Now that you know a few different ways that you can reuse eggshells, it’s up to you to decide which ones you’re willing and able to try.  It’s typically not much work, and you might find that it saves you a few bucks and reduces the amount of waste that you produce!

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Featured Image Credit: CA Creative, Unsplash