Question by AJ Franklin: What can you do to recycle old bedsheets?
This set of very good sheets is about 15 years old and is worn out. The fitted sheet has holes worn in it but the top sheet is still usable. There must be some way to recycle old cotton sheets, but I don’t know what it would be.
Best answer:
Answer by Joan H
Just buy a bottom sheet, the top sheet is probably soft, from washings, and will feel good for a long time. I have sheets a lot older than that, some 40 years old. They were percale sheets from Penny’s and Sears. Still usable.
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My Mother was the Recycling Queen, long before recycling was ever thought about. Old bedsheets were precious, she’d have sat down at her old pedal-type sewing machine and fashioned clothing for her five daughters. When the older one had finished with these garments, they were handed down the line, then turned into “dishrags” to use in cleaning. The final step was a “mop rag” to use on the worn linoleum floor, rinsed in water that was carried in from the well.
A very good portion of the material that she deemed usable might be cut into squares and sewn into a quilt, joining other squares of cloth that would eventually keep us warm on cold winter nights. From bedsheets to flour sacks, not a thread of material was wasted. We would proudly wear our recycled bedsheets to school.
Tear them and use as cleaning rags…….
I have made pillow slips, duvet covers and dresser scarfs with old bedsheets.
You can donate them to the animal shelter. They are always looking for old sheets, blankets and towels to use as bedding for the animals.