In the past week I’ve shared why I keep my family’s sheets and towels instead of buying new ones – and I’ve explained how I reuse and repurpose our old towels. But how do I repurpose old sheets?
If one of the sheets in my sets rip – or the elastic on a bottom sheet stretches out and just won’t stay on a bed, what do I do with my leftover flat sheets?
- One easy solution is to use your old, stained or mismatched sheets as paint dropcloths. Sure, you could buy plastic dropcloths at the hardware store – but why buy more disposable plastic products? Sheets work really well.
- Sheets can make excellent tablecloths for every day use. Or if you’re handy with a sewing machine, you can cut sheets into squares and transform them into cloth napkins.
- If you have young children, drape a sheet over a table (card tables work great!) and you have an instant tent inside your home.
- During my childhood summers, my mom made a playhouse completely out of sheets in our backyard. After she strung clothesline between several trees, we hung up my great-grandmother’s old sheets for a three-room house, complete with a living room, bedroom and a tiny triangular bathroom. With green, leafy treetops as our roof, I loved the way the white walls would billow in the breeze. Because the sheets were so old, it didn’t matter if anything happened to them. Without a doubt, my sheet playhouse was my favorite thing to do on summer vacations.
Talk back
Please give me some more ideas – how do you reuse your old sheets?
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Today I’m linking up with Nourishing Joy.
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Hilary Kimes Bernstein is a Christ follower, wife, mama, and journalist. She writes about making healthy decisions that honor God and happen to help the environment at Accidentally Green. Short and sweet - like her writing - Hilary is the author of several healthy living eBooks.
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I have an old Flannel fitted sheet & I’m thinking of cutting it up & using for reusable cleaning rags! I think I’ll use pinking scissors though.
I bet pinking scissors would do the trick! I cut up a flannel receiving blanket, but only with regular scissors … and the edges have definitely frayed.
sheets work great for quilt backers or quilt squares too.
What an excellent idea! Thanks so much for sharing, Patricia!
I made all the pads for my cloth diapers out of old flannel sheets. Would work great to for reusable panty liners, nursing pads etc.
I love these ideas, Lydia! I know that the cloth pads I bought are made of flannel … there are so many ways to repurpose flannel!
I used two old white sheets to hang on the basement wall to create a little video gaming corner. We currently rent, so it was a quick way to make the unfinished walls look more inviting. They can also be used as backdrops for photos.
Great ideas, Evie!
I still make sheet houses outside in the summer–and I’m 56! It’s just a nice way to make a little getaway on long summer days.
I love hearing this! Thank you for inspiring me to make my own sheet houses this summer!