6 Indoor Plant Hacks You Need to Start Doing Right Now

Try these easy reader-tested and approved indoor plant hacks, then sit back and watch your houseplants grow and thrive.

Plant hacks for your indoor gardenAleksandarNakic/Getty Images

Being a houseplant parent has increased in popularity in recent years. According to civicscience.com, 66% percent of consumers in the U.S. own at least one houseplant. With so many people growing houseplants, there are always learnings and our readers shared their best plant hacks for indoor gardens.

1. Use Ice Cubes to Water Houseplants

To help prevent a watery mess on the floor, one Birds & Blooms reader has a secret plant hack. “I put ice cubes in my hanging plants,” Roslyn Francis of Lodi, California, says. “As the ice melts, the soil absorbs the water and it doesn’t drip out the bottom of  the pot.”

When is the best time to water plants?

2. Get Creative with Plant Placement

Some plants need full sun, some like full shade and some like a little of both. One hack that will give all of your plants what they need is to use furniture, such as long sofa tables and creatively place them in front of windows.

Hope Cate of Wilmington, North Carolina explains. “I placed a long sofa table so that half of it is in front of a south-facing window,” she says. “Plants that prefer a lot of light are in the area in front of the window. But because the other half of the table is in the shade, I can have many plants in one spot, and they are all happy.”

These are the best houseplants for low light.

3. Find a Second Use for Your Coffee Grounds

Using coffee ground as a fertilizerWachiwit/Getty Images
Save leftover coffee grounds for your houseplants.

After the grounds from your daily cup of Joe have cooled, don’t toss them in the garbage. Dolores Koland of Pelican Rapids, Minnesota says, “Add coffee grounds to your houseplants and watch them thrive.”

Here are some ways you can use baking soda in your garden and landscape.

4. Invest in a Moisture Meter

Instead of using your finger to gauge the moisture levels of your houseplants’ soil or just guessing that it’s time to water, you can use a moisture meter. Tracy McCullum of Joliet, Illinois says, “Use a soil moisture meter to prevent overwatering. It lets you know if the soil is wet, moist or dry.” The XLUX T10 Soil Moisture Sensor Meter has almost 52,000 reviews on Amazon. 

Can you reuse potting soil in planters?

5. Rotate Your Plants for Even Sun Exposure

plant hacksCatherine Falls Commercial/Getty Images
Rotate plants weekly

If you’ve noticed that your houseplants are leaning toward the light, try this super simple hack. Judy Roberts of Graytown, Ohio, says, “Give the plants a quarter-turn once a week to even out their exposure to the sun.” This will help your plant grow evenly.

These 10 houseplants are best for beginners.

6. Give Plants Some Rainwater

Nothing beats a little fresh air and fresh water—and that’s true for your houseplants too. “If your pots are small enough to carry, put them out in a light rain when the weather is warm,” says Robbin Moller of Sylvania, Ohio. “I have yet to encounter a houseplant that doesn’t perk up with a little rain.”

Before you buy your next houseplant, make sure it’s not on our list of houseplants you’ll regret.

Kirsten Schrader
Kirsten has more than 15 years of experience writing and editing birding and gardening content. As content director of Birds & Blooms, she leads the team of editors and freelance writers sharing tried-and-true advice for nature enthusiasts who love to garden and feed birds in their backyards. Since joining Birds & Blooms 17 years ago, Kirsten has held roles in digital and print, editing direct-to-consumer books, running as many as five magazines as a time and managing special interest publications. Kirsten has traveled to see amazing North American birds, and attended various festivals, including Sedona Hummingbird Festival, Rio Grande Bird Festival, The Biggest Week in American Birding Festival and Cape May Spring Festival. She has also witnessed the epic sandhill crane migration while on a photography workshop trip to Colorado. Kirsten has participated in several GardenComm and Outdoor Writers Association of America annual conferences and is a member of the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology. When she's not researching, writing and editing all things birding and gardening, Kirsten is enjoying the outdoors with her nature-loving family. She and her husband are slowly chipping away at making their small acreage the backyard of their dreams.