Simple Ways to Reuse Old T-shirts

Everyone is going crazy for Marie Kondo’s new show Tidying Up. The wardrobe purge is hitting nearly everywhere. While Marie Kondo encourages donating the things you decide do not bring you joy but one thing people don’t realize is that when you donate junk it just hurts the economy in 3rd world countries where the junk that can not be sold is shipped of to leaving local textiles makers in competition with junk that is cheaper. Instead of donating one t-shirt that cannot sell or wasting them by throwing them out you can use them to make something new.

Easy ways to reuse old T-shirts.

One great way to use extra large and bigger t-shirts is to turn them into cloth diapers. Simply cut down the sides and trip off the top to great large squares of fabric. These can be folded like any other flat cloth diapers. The decorated side can even be folded on the outside and the diaper pinned to show off the design while your child runs around coverless.

Really nice old t-shirts can be turned into fabric wrapping paper for a fun Homemade wrapping paper similar to the fabric wrapping papers that are so popular in Japan. Cut the same way you would for a cloth diaper and use as wrapping paper.

I love to turn old t-shirts that have gotten stained into cleaning rags. Just because the fabric is ugly doesn’t mean it has met the end of its life. These cleaning rags are great for putting into an old wipes container filled with disinfectant to make my own disinfectant wipes that can be washed and used over and over. With 5 kids this saves a LOT of money. When I make the kids clean their hand and footprints off the walls I have them attach these to the end of a Swiffer handle for easy cleaning. Back when we used dryer sheets I learned that I can make them by placing these t-shirt rags inside a jar of watered down fabric softener.

Old t-shirts are great for turning into jewelry. The kids will spend hours finger knitting to kill time. I have seen people knit t-shirt yard into dish clothes for scrubbing dishes.

Old T-shirts have plenty of life left to them

Strips of old t-shirts can be attached to a rug base to make a hook and tie style rug. Using a verity of t-shirts gets you a fun and colorful rug perfect for a kids room. I do advise you avoid using any parts of a t-shirt that have glitter on them for this project. It will spare you the horror of wondering where all that glitter on your floor is coming from.

T-shirts and other baby and toddler clothing make great fabric for a children’s quilt. Placing all of your memories on your babies younger years into a quilt they will love for the rest of their lives. You can even add surviving pieces of your child’s favorite blanket.

Old t-shirts are great for making reusable shopping bags or even your own cloth produce bags to reduce your single-use plastic waste. Simply turn inside out, sew the bottom with a double reinforced stitch and cut off the neck and arms to make handles.