What to do with old t-shirts?
Instead of throwing them in the trash
In my earlier post about my cold I mentioned cloth tissues. If you’re curious, here’s a little background on where they came from:
Cloth tissues were something I tried out because my husband had a pile (a number of piles actually) of old cotton shirts that he was getting rid of. They were too worn and stained to donate, and we don’t have a textile recycling facility in the Edmonton area. A quick google search revealed there is one in Calgary if you’re willing to take a drive or live in that area. So I decided to cut them up for garage rags. Anything that didn’t work as a rag (sleeves, black shirts) became… cloth tissues!
I didn’t know how much use I would get out of them until I had them. Because they’re all around the house and handy I use them for all sorts of things:
Wiping up a quick spill
As a napkin when I forget to grab one
For wiping excess makeup off my brushes or touching up my makeup
Even as makeshift coasters
The key to making this work? Have little tissue and disposal stations all over your house because you don’t want a snotty tissue sitting on your dining room table or on the floor where a child or pet might get it. I keep a basket of tissues on my bedside table, in each bathroom, in the living room, or anywhere else I spend a lot of time and may need to blow my nose. I suggest you keep a disposal station in each of these areas. I use cute vases like the one below as disposal stations - then on laundry day, you round up all the stations, dump them into your laundry bin, and off you go. In my bedroom and personal bathroom the tissues go right into the laundry bucket.
Then when they inevitably become too gross or worn to keep using I don’t feel bad throwing them away because I’ve extended their life tremendously. However, now that we have a textile donation program at the shop I take advantage of that when I have to.
Other uses I’ve seen for old shirts:
If you’re a graphic t-shirt collector or they have sentimental value, I’ve seen people make quilts out of cherished t-shirts.
If you only have one or two cherished shirts, I’ve seen them framed and put up as art.
If you want to get creative, you can make shirts into a bag, headband or dog toy.
If you’re the practical type you can make t-shirt rope/yarn.
If you have textile recycling in your area, that’s always a good plan too!
Please share if you’ve tried cloth tissues or have any other ways of reusing old shirts. If you don’t have old shirts but still want to make the change to cloth tissues, we’ve got you covered! Earth Warrior Lifestyle out of Edmonton makes some gorgeous hankies out of repurposed 100% Egyptian cotton from our textile donation program.
