Living Green: Finding Uses for Old Clothes

Back in the days before thrift stores, people really used to get the good out of old clothes. Nothing was thrown out until it was used and reused half a dozen different ways. Clothes were passed around to family members, reconstructed to make new clothes, or sewn into other uses. Back then, this was called "thriftiness." These days, it's really a wonderful example of green living.

Sure, you can buy organically grown cotton, wool, and linen products which is all well and good. Greener yet, is buying second hand clothes from consignment or thrift stores. Places like these receive tens of thousands of pounds of old clothes every month and not all of it can be sold.

Some places, such as St. Vincent de Paul and Deseret Industries will ship unsold clothes to developing countries. But many just toss that unsold merchandise into the dumpster. Buying used clothing keeps valuable resources out of the landfill, and saves you money as well.

Reduce

When it comes to the three "R"s of recycling, reduce is the most important. This simply means to use less of a product. Instead of buying 30 cheaply made shirts, why not invest in ten quality made shirts instead? Quality clothes that are classically styled can last several decades; we have stuff in our closets that belonged to a great grandmother and are still unbelievably hip. Less clothes means less money, and less potential for waste.

Reduce can also be linked to another old axiom called "Use it up." In our closets, clothes go through three stages. Newer clothes are worn for work, school and church. Once they start to look a little worn or faded, they become play clothes, camping or recreational clothes. When they start falling apart, they are worn for tasks such as heavy yard work, painting or mechanical work. Instead of buying three sets of clothes, we simply move one set through three different phases which gets the most use out of a single garment.

Reuse

Some things are simply too good to turn into work clothes. Some uses I've found for old clothing include:

Reconstructing old wool coats into new coats for children, sofa pillows or even cloth handbags and clutches.

Old dresses usually have enough fabric to make a new dress for a child or a Halloween costume. Cotton dresses can also be used to sew a small set of curtains for a bathroom or back door. Sew the scraps into small squares and stuff with dried beans for bean bags. Or, turn the scraps into fabric Christmas ornaments, contrast collars for children's shirts, hair bands, or a cloth belt.

Old jeans can be made into skirts, turned into blankets or made into throw pillows. Remember those wild 70s cutoffs? Cut a pair of blown-out-at-the-knee jeans several inches above the knees and let the material unravel. Jeans can even be shredded and turned into homemade paper.

Men's plaid shirts can find new life as cotton handkerchiefs. Save several plaid shirts to create a set of coordinated table napkins. Men's cotton shirts make wonderful plush toys, lampshade covers, and summer quilts. Cut with pinking shears, they also make terrific toppers for home canned jams.

Heavy wool fabric can be cut into strips, and turned into braided rag rugs. I have a circa 1890 braided rug that was made out of old civil war uniforms, which has outlasted every other rug I have ever owned.

Turn mismatched socks in sock monkeys and sock puppets.

When the fabric has been used every possible way you can imagine, it's time to turn them into animal bedding or rags. Shredded fabric works well for hamster and rat cages. Old, worn out coats make great dog blankets. Strips of old fabric can be used to tie climbing vines onto trellises or for staking your vegetable plants. Threadbare cotton squares are terrific for straining jellies.

Recycle

The obvious place to recycle old clothes is to donate them to a thrift store. Before making that donation, take a good look at the clothing and ask yourself, "Would I wear this?"

Donated clothes should be clean, unstained, intact, and wearable. Thrift stores do not have the facilities nor the staff to mend and launder your old clothes, and will throw out anything that is dirty, stained, mildewed, smelly, torn, or missing buttons and zippers. If your clothes are in this condition, it's best to use them for rags yourself.

It's so easy to apply the principles of reduce, reuse, and recycle to old clothing. Best of all, you'll find yourself saving money while keeping the planet a little greener.