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How to Recycle Old T-Shirts

May 9, 2012 By Dana White | 19 Comments

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How to Recycle Old T-Shirts

How is it possible that a ratty old t-shirt can hold so many memories?

I can’t count the number of times I have almost placed a favorite t-shirt in the trash or the donate pile . . . only to put it back in a drawer.

Sooooo many memories.

But I recently had a moment of clarity as I was folding the above favorite-but-too-ratty-to-even-think-of-putting-in-my-garage-sale t-shirt.  If you live in Texas, you recognize the symbol and the irony.  (Do you have Dairy Queens where you live?)

While folding, I was listening to Money Saving Mom’s book.  In one of the lists of ways to save money, she mentioned cutting out paper products as much as possible.  One idea was to create rags out of old t-shirts.  It was a quick tip, but significantly mind-changing for me.

Not so much as a way to save money, but as a way to break through my sentimentality.  For some reason, placing this beloved t-shirt in the trash was saying it no longer meant anything to me.

That it was completely and totally useless.

And that felt disloyal.  Irrational, but true.

So I kept it.  Long past the point where I could even answer the front door wearing it.  Long past the point where I could sleep in it without feeling a twinge of guilt that I wasn’t trying a little harder to look decent for my husband.

Somehow, giving this t-shirt purpose . . . helped me break through that strange guilt that I tend to feel over inanimate objects.

And . . . cutting up t-shirts into 8-inch-or-so squares is a great job for an 8 year old boy!

How to Recycle Old T-Shirts

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Filed Under: progress | 19 Comments

Comments

  1. Beretta Fleur says

    May 9, 2012 at 4:12 pm

    I know the point is to GET RID OF STUFF but if you really, REALLY can’t or there are a few tees that have total sentimental value… 1 or 2 might make cute decorative pillows for the kid’s rooms.

    Pretty easy and also fun for kids developing or possessing sewing skills:

    http://jezebel.com/5849901/how-to-turn-a-t+shirt-into-a-pillow

    Reply
  2. Mary Stephens says

    May 9, 2012 at 4:59 pm

    Yay! Good for you! T-shirts make wonderful rags too. 🙂 My husband had more clothes than I did when we got married (in our 30s). His bachelor solution to all those old t-shirts and socks that had been accumulating since high school was to keep them. 😉 So…before we got married one day we went through all his clothes which he’d moved here from California. Wow. There was a lot of stuff there! I wonder if any other woman started married life with as many rags as I had. LOL 🙂

    Also, socks make good rags for dusting. They are great to slip over your hands (or your child’s hands) and then just run your hands over everything. You can spray them with a dusting spray if you wish.

    Reply
    • joan says

      May 10, 2012 at 11:40 am

      An additional tip on that sock/duster is to cut a slit down the back/heel of the elastic so that you (or whomever sorts socks at your house) does not mistake it as a SOCK when it is now a RAG when it comes out of the laundry.

      Reply
  3. Jana D. says

    May 9, 2012 at 5:48 pm

    I have this same issue! Here’s a great sentimental way to preserve the graphic, after using the rest as rags: http://quiltbug.com/articles/Tshirt-quilts.htm

    Reply
    • JoDi says

      May 12, 2012 at 8:33 am

      So glad you suggested the t-shirt quilt! I had the same idea and was going to suggest checking out Andrea Dekker’s post on Simple Organized Living about the t-shirt quilt she had made by an Etsy vendor. It sounds like a lot of people are sentimental about their t-shirts! I guess it’s because they’re with us for so many memorable times in our lives. It’s nice that you can use them for rags AND save the part with the design for a keepsake that isn’t clutter!

      Reply
      • sahm2girls says

        May 14, 2015 at 8:02 pm

        The only problem with making favorite shirts into quilts is that I now have more quilts than I can possibly use…

        Reply
  4. M. L. Ross says

    May 10, 2012 at 12:26 am

    Oh, Nony, my mom has been doing this for forever although more from a cheap/ thrifty POV than for sentimental reasons. Dad’s old white T’s had plenty of useful fabric left as did all the worn out wash cloths and towels. Absorbent, flexible, washable, bleachable. Good for kitchen clean-ups too. They even sell boxes of shop rags at hardware and big-box stores that are re-purposed hotel and restaurant linens – cheap, cheerful and eco-friendly!

    Now all I really want is a Vanilla Oreo Blizzard… and look what I found!
    http://www.amazon.com/Drama-Queen-T-shirt-Apparel-Medium/dp/B0042GLKCU/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1336627365&sr=8-4

    Reply
  5. Gina, book dragon says

    May 12, 2012 at 3:57 pm

    My first thought was a t-shirt quilt but when the shirt is that worn…rags seem best.

    The good thing about using a too-worn-to-wear-favorite t-shirt for rags is walking down memory lane when you’re dusting!

    Just finished 28 days and I laughed when I got to the end and you told us to go wash the dishes! Wanted you to know that I did start a load of dishes when you said to, I just finished the book instead of doing the hand washing.

    Reply
  6. Jessica Beek says

    January 23, 2014 at 7:10 am

    I do the same thing! My rescue group, Animal Rescue of Southern Illinois uses these every day! We do not wash them after use to save time and & money. And the germy dirty towels are not hanging around our laundry wash area. This makes clean up of even the worst of messes are safelyy clean, sanitized. they are also awesome for cleaning any of a pet if needs to be washed on its rear end pause or even facial area. I never worried that the clothing I’m using may have absences on it which may not have come out in the wash even with a bleach wash.I ask for donations from the YMCA Lost and Found bin that no one claims, bleach them run them through an extra rinse cycle and they are ready to go.That a life saver this has been for us. we also use t shirts and old sweaters 2 line Kitty and doggie carriers. If they get dirty we throw them away.

    Reply
    • Dana White says

      January 23, 2014 at 8:35 am

      I love this! So good to know there are places where things can be used even when they seem to be useless!

      Reply
  7. Sarah says

    January 29, 2014 at 8:35 am

    Yes, we have tons of Dairy Queens in Indiana, about 5 DQ’s just in our town. Love this whole concept! I’ve been known to make my children and myself wear old clothes so I don’ have to deal with how to declutter them.

    Reply
  8. Helen says

    January 29, 2014 at 9:54 am

    Making a quilt out of old t-shirts is a great idea if you LIKE to make quilts but it could lead a clutterer like me to move into that “wouldn’t it be a great idea to BECOME a quilter / scrapbooker / etc. person” psychological disaster area. For people more like me, may I suggest thinking about taking a picture of the t-shirt and/or, if you don’t have a camera handy, writing a little note “remember my wonderful old t-shirt that said “Chicago” in Ukrainian” and tossing it with other pictures. Or, taking a deep breath and saying, “I am enough, I do enough, I have enough. I am grateful for the blessings in my life” which — by the way — I don’t say often enough. Nony – thanks for your wonderful column.

    Reply
  9. Melissa McGinnis says

    January 29, 2014 at 11:36 am

    I have one for you if the shirt has sentiment and isn’t holey in the right places. I took some of my husband’s old Firefighter shirts and cut off the arms at the seams, cut a scoop out of the neck and sewed up the bottom from the inside (reinforced) and we use them as reusable grocery bags. They fit SO much, great for the environment and are cute too. Only thing is we have to pretty much tell everywhere we use them that they are bags but once they check them out they want to do it too! 🙂

    Reply
    • Dana White says

      January 29, 2014 at 12:02 pm

      I LOVE THIS IDEA!!!!

      Reply
  10. RedheadedCyclone says

    October 24, 2014 at 3:56 pm

    (again, not trying to comment on old posts, but this really struck me)

    I have a very strong emotional attachment to clothes who have been through ‘the wringer’ with me. I agree totally that the trash just isn’t where you can put a friend who has helped you make so many memories… so, I burn them… go out to a lovely spot with a fire pit and burn them. Especially those that are a thread away from unraveling… there is something more…. honorable about that then tossing them with the coffee grounds…

    Reply
    • Dana White says

      October 25, 2014 at 9:50 am

      I love this idea. And I LOVE comments on old posts!!

      Reply
  11. Laura says

    May 14, 2015 at 3:11 pm

    Here we use old t-shirts as “baby butt rags”. They are basically cloth diaper liners. If baby wets, we wash them with the diapers. If baby messes, we throw them out, poop and all. It saves most of the poopy work with cloth diapers.

    Reply
  12. Jenny says

    May 15, 2015 at 1:52 am

    My super thrifty nifty best friend- makes double thickness squares from their old Ts- easy cut and sew, perfect lint free cloth for cleaning glasses and screens.
    She makes stacks of them and has given them as gifts.

    Reply
  13. Danielle says

    June 10, 2015 at 4:57 pm

    I think there is a definite link to feeling guilt over inanimate objects and being a slob. “Normal” people probably realize t shirts don’t have feelings. But for me, I feel it! The only time it works in my favor is when it comes to matching socks. Matching socks brings me joy because I feel like they are happy to be together again. I know…that’s crazy talk….but it’s good to know i’m not the only one who attaches feelings to objects….

    Reply

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