A couple of years ago I switched from a California King to a Queen bed. I still have some of the linen from my king sized bed. I suppose that I could donate them to Goodwill but there are not many California King beds around here.
What are some other options for cotton sheets, other than the trash?
ETA: Sheets can not be recycled in the blue box.
Do you have dogs? Our dogs usually ride in my Jeep Wrangler, where I totally do not care about hair/mud/etc. When my gf wants to take a dog somewhere in her car, she uses old sheets to protect her back seat.
Make KKK robes and sell them on eBay?
If you do interior house painting, they’re useful as tarps, to cover the floors or furniture. Or if you have furniture in storage, they can be used as dust covers.
But if they’re in decent shape, donating them is probably best. Someone will have a bed that size and the donation will net Goodwill a few dollars.
I have a box full of old clothes that are too ragged to be repaired. I cut off pieces of them to repair the old clothes that can be repaired. For an old bedsheet, I might cut off a small piece of it to use for repairing the pocket of a pair of pants. Sometimes a good pair of pants will develop a hole in the bottom of it, allowing things to slip out of it. I sew the piece from an old sheet (or whatever) to enough of the bottom of the pocket to make sure that nothing falls out of it. Another possibility is to cut up the old sheet into pieces that can be used as rags. It’s nice to have rags around to wipe stuff on.
We use them to cover garden plants in the fall when there is an early frost.
Also torn in strips to tie up tomatoes.
Also, we have a rag rug my wife braided and stitched from old bedsheets.
That’s a lot of fabric and if you’re not inclined to sew, then donate them - someone else would probably be thrilled to get them. I’m thinking kids’ costumes, cheap, easy curtains for a spare room or basement, even packing material to wrap larger items for a move. But I certainly wouldn’t discard them.
I’ve found a place in Toronto that offers papermaking courses and I emailed them to see if they are interested.
Let’s ask Bluto.
Seconded. This is the fate of all our bedsheets once they get threadbare.
Prison break.
Use them - tuck the extra under the mattress.
StG
Check to see if any animal shelters want them. I usually donate old bedding to them.
I donate my old linens to animal shelters, too.
That was what I was going to say- they make fine frost covers for plants grown in the late fall, winter, or early spring.
Maybe see if there’s a community garden or something like that near you, and maybe they’ll be interested in them.
Do scout troops and youth groups still use sheets as billboards or signs?
paint in large letters :
"Car wash here–sponsored by scout troop #123 "
or “Go Tigers!!!Win the championship!!”
It was usually a single-use sign, which got tossed into a garbage can at the end of the day, so I guess it was kinda wasteful.But that never occurred to us at the time.
There are some great ideas here.
I cut or tear the sheets of old material (bedsheets, old T-shirts) into small individual cloths I can expend without worrying too much.
Sometimes these are used for applying furniture polish / wood oil, as the cloths can be reused for this purpose until they’re too dirty.
I also sometimes use these as insulation, to wrap around exterior faucets in the fall, prevent their freezing and breaking when it gets really cold out. I also apply an outside layer, typically a plastic grocery bag, to keep out the wet, and hold the whole bundle together with a large rubber band.
If you do any camping, or know someone who camps, you can sew them into sleeping bag liners (fold them in half, then sew the two edges - not for fitted sheets, tho). The fabric of bed sheets is usually more comfortable than that of the interior of a sleeping bag, depending on the material. These can also be used for travel if you are concerned about bed-bugs where you may be staying.
After they’ve been washed, cut them (or keep a kid busy) into paper towel size pieces. Pillowcases and all.
Now you have a big pile of clean and handy rags. Use them in place of paper towels!
I use old sheets to cover my motorcycles in the garage. So go buy a motorcycle if you don’t have one.