When you’re clothes are old and worn and you need to buy new stuff, what do you usually do with the old stuff? Most people either stick them in the back of a drawer or just throw them all out. If you keep it all, you’re just cluttering up your house and throwing them out is incredibly wasteful, but what else can you do? In fact, there are all sorts of great things that you can do with old clothes instead of just getting rid of them. Here are some great ways to recycle all of the old clothes that you’re keeping in the drawers.
Fix Them
Before you do anything else with your clothes, you should consider trying to fix them. Most people just write off a piece of clothing as soon as it gets a small rip or tear in it but you can usually do something about it pretty easily. Small holes are easily sewn up and you’ll never be able to tell as long as you do a good job. If you’ve got larger holes in your clothes, you can still do something with it. Pieces like jackets in particular look great with morale patches on them and they’ll easily cover up any big holes. Jeans can be patched as well but things like tops or skirts aren’t going to look good so you’ll have to find something else to do with them.
Donate Them
If the clothes are in good condition but you just don’t like them anymore or they don’t fit, you should consider donating them. There are plenty of people out there that need those clothes a lot more than you do so there’s no point chucking them away when they could go to people in need instead. There are all sorts of charities that take old clothes or you can take them down to your local thrift store.
Sell Them
Donating old clothes is always a good thing to do but if you want to make a bit of extra cash to spend on some more clothes, you could sell them instead. There are companies that buy clothes by weight if you don’t want to go through the hassle of selling them all individually but you won’t get that much money for them. If you’re willing to put the time in, you should list them on eBay, you’ll get a lot more money from them and you can use it to buy a whole new wardrobe. Always be upfront if the clothes are a little damaged, otherwise, you’ll get bad reviews and you’ll struggle to sell the rest of your stuff.
Make Shorts
Any pair of old trousers can easily be made into a pair of shorts in a couple of minutes. If your trousers are too small or you just don’t really like them anymore, cut them off at the knee and turn them into a pair of great shorts instead. Turn up the bottoms and sew them in place to stop the ends fraying and you’re done.
Flannel Scarfs
Flannel makes a great material for pajamas but what do you do with it when it’s worn out? One great idea for recycling an old flannel shirt is to repurpose the material and make it into a great scarf. Unpick the stitching carefully so you don’t damage the material and you should have enough to make into a great scarf.
If you don’t have any flannel pyjamas, you could use a man’s shirt as well. You can pick one up cheap from a thrift store if you don’t have one already.
Pillows
One of the best ways to recycle clothes if you’re not that handy with a sewing needle is pillow making. You can make a pillow out of pretty much any piece of old clothing. If you sew up the bottom of any top or sweater, cut the arms off and sew up the openings as well and then fill it with stuffing. Finally, sew up the top and you’ve got a great pillow. You can even use more of the features of the clothing to make the pillow even better. For example, if you’ve got a woolen sweater with nice big buttons on, you could use those as decorating on the pillow. If you haven’t got any stuffing, you can just make a pillow cover and use the buttons to fasten it on.
Sweater Skirt
If you’ve already got enough pillows, there are other ways that you can use up an old sweater. You can make a great skirt with an old sweater and some elastic for the waistband. Cut off the arms and sew up the openings, the length of the skirt depends on how big the sweater is (obviously) and how far up you cut it off. The bottom of the sweater is already sewn up properly so you just need to attach the elastic to the top and your new skirt is all ready to go.
T-Shirt Rug
T-shirts are one of the worst pieces of clothing for cluttering up your wardrobe. People are always reluctant to throw them out and they just end up stuffed in the back of a drawer. Luckily, you can make a great rug out of all of your old t-shirts fairly easily. It’ll take a bit of time and effort but you don’t need to be an expert rug maker or anything. The first step is to open the t-shirts and cut them into thin strips of yarn. Then join all of the pieces of t-shirt yarn together and you’re ready to start weaving. Make a basic loom from a circle of cardboard with slits in the side to hold the yarn in place and then start weaving. It can be quite time consuming but you won’t even need to do any sewing so anybody can do it.
Next time you’re having a wardrobe clearout, don’t just throw out all of that old stuff. You should try fixing them first. If that fails, either donate them or upcycle them into something else.
