If you have some old t-shirts lying around that are really, really no good for wearing or donating, cut them up into rags.
Just get a sharp pair of scissors, cut out the neck edging and the seams, and cut the remaining fabric into your desired rag size.
I have a big pile of these, and we love them for dusting and cleaning kitchen surfaces like dishwashers and the fridge.
I find them to be much less frustrating to use than paper towels, and there’s no waste or cost involved other than the laundering (which is minimal.)
Also, my girls like to use them for washing their faces because hey, if makeup or acne medication gets on them, no one cares! They were ugly rags to begin with.
And I love that we have something functional made from clothing that was no longer wearable.
(Shirts with holes, shirts with bad stains, shirts that did the annoying become-shorter-and-wider-in-the-wash thing, shirts that no one would buy even if you donated them to Goodwill…all of those are good candidates as long as they’re knit cotton fabric.)
As you can see, I don’t bother folding mine; I just wash them, dry them, and throw them into this box that sits in my linen closet. Easy, easy!
Eileen says
Just cut up an old t-shirt yesterday – they are the best for cleaning mirrors!
Deidre says
Thank you so much for this post Kristen – I have been trying to reduce my use of paper towel etc and looking at some very sad t-shirts, and thank you to everyone for your comments; lots of great tips.
Ann says
We use them for baby wipes with our cloth diapers. We just squirt water on over a bowl during changes. So easy and soft.
Rebecca says
In Yiddish it’s called a Shmata. We need a shmata to wipe down the table
Deidre says
I have just been sitting here saying “Shmata…Shmata…”I like that, I shall call mine Shmata
Marybeth says
We do this all the time. Hubby has a basket full of them next to his work bench. My daughter’s leggings are good for this too. They always seem to get little holes in them. After a few repairs I just cut them up
Jenny says
I have my T-shirt rags pile, my old towel rag pile, and my old flannel nightgowns and shirts rag pile. All good. And yes, I do compost them in the end. I don’t think cotton grows in Illinois, or I might try to complete the cycle!!!
JD says
Jenny, I grew up in Southern Illinois, and cotton used to grow there!
I meant to add to my post that cut up, old thermal waffle-weave underwear makes great gentle scrubbing rags.
Jenny says
Yes, I agree, and we have plenty of those (long undetwear) Northern Illinois!
Jennifer says
I do the same thing, with old towels. I tend to replace them every 5 years or so and I will keep a few in reserve for giant messes. With the others, I will cut one bath towel into 9 – 12 kitchen towels. We use these as napkins every meal and then wipe down the kitchen with them after every meal. I haven’t bought napkins in years and only buy paper towels a few times a year – cloth doesn’t sop up pizza grease well.
David says
Now you have made me feel bad Kristen. I’m thinking about all those old undershirts , pj’s, etc that I have just thrown out, never to be recovered! And I am so proud of myself for saving the paper napkins for clean up and buying packs of kitchen towels to use. Well at least I have nice square matching kitchen towels while you have multi colored, multi sized, multi material ones!
But, you win, as usual!
Dave.
Diane C says
Don’t feel bad, David, more will come along. If you wish to hasten the process, check garage sales and thrift stores, where they can be had for less than the price of a single roll of paper towels.
Kristyna says
T-shirts make the best rags! They’re also great for baby wash cloths because they’re so soft and thin. Perfect for tiny faces and hands.
(Best part is you can throw them out when they get gross.)
JD says
We use my husband’s old white tee-shirts this way, as well as our colored ones, but the white ones seem to bite the dust more easily, so we have more of them to add to our rags. They work great on a lot of things, and if they are 100% cotton, can be composted later if you want.
I use rolled up old tee-shirts stuffed in my boots, to keep my boots upright in the closet, so the boot ankles don’t develop “breaks” in them.
They make good plant ties, as mentioned.
I’m glad to hear so many other people use old shirts as rags! I felt kind of alone, as the one person in my circle who did this.
Does anyone remember the commercial in which a woman said she got a stain on a nice sweater, so she used the sweater as a cleaning rag, until she washed it in new Amazing Whatever Brand detergent, and it came out so great, she started wearing it as a sweater again? (I’m showing my age, here.) I remember wondering who would use a bulky sweater as a rag and why, when tee-shirts were the perfect rags. Of course, this being long ago, I guess it was accepted then that everyone used their old clothes as rags. Now, we “recyclers” are kind of radical. People say to me, “Just get a paper towel!”
Kristen says
And you can say, “Just get an old t-shirt!”
Nicoleandmaggie says
A secret: you don’t even have to cut them.
Kristen says
You don’t find that to be super bulky to work with? I don’t like the sleeves especially!
nicoleandmaggie says
Larger rags are useful for big spills and proofing big baked goods (though honestly we use them for cleaning counters if they’re what’s on top). We do have smaller rags, but that’s generally because larger rags get fabric fatigue and rip apart. We do still have a 6 year old which means we still get big puddles from time to time.
Kristen says
I do like having larger ones…but it’s the seams and the collar that seem inconvenient to me! If you cut those out, you can still have a pretty large rag from the body of the shirt.
But of course, you do what works for you. I’m not about to argue that my way of cutting up and old tshirt is right for everyone. I don’t think there’s a wrong way to do this.
WilliamB says
My roommate doesn’t cut and I find that quite inconvenient. A t-shirt rag is at least two layers and has hard hemmed edges. It’s too big, now the whole rag must be washed even if only part of it is dirty, and the hems get in the way.
My preference is to cut off the hems and cut the shirt in half. Then I have four rags: two small ones from the sleeves, two large ones from the body.
nicoleandmaggie says
You can use the smaller ones for small spills and the bigger ones for big spills. Then no worries about washing.
By the time a t-shirt is a rag in our house, it is already falling apart because first DH wears them until they are no longer presentable, and then I wear them to bed until fabric fatigue really sets in. So no problems with hardness or hems. Everything is soft. YMMV.
Kristen says
Yep, that’s exactly how I do it too! A whole t-shirt is too much fabric to be useful to me.
Carole says
When I got married, my mother in-law gave me a cardboard box of good rags. I used and added to that box for many years. I can’t remember when I finally had to replace the box. She also gave me a jar of used buttons and a stash of homemade quilts.
Battra92 says
Everyone needs a jar of buttons just like we all need a jar of random screws and nails that we’ll never use.
Mrs. Money says
If you follow the Curly Girl method for washing your hair, old t shirts are supposed to be amazing for drying your hair! I really like using old t shirts for dusting too. They work so well!
Natalie says
Haha I am reading this just out of the shower with an old t shirt on my head to dry my hair. They work great
Jody says
Another idea for crafty sorts with t-shirts that aren’t too worn out (with holes and such) is to cut them into t-shirt yarn and crochet a basket or rug or something else you could find on Pinterest.
We’ve also used t-shirt strips for tying up plants in the garden.
All of this is because we are still using worn out cloth diapers for rags; someday we’ll need t-shirts for that. Maybe.
Kristina says
We have also used old cloth diapers for rags for years after our last babies (now 8!) The prefolds were super absorbent, and I also had made some flannel inserts that are now great cleaning rags.
ann says
I have some cut from black T-shirts, and I use them to take off waterproof mascara with some olive oil. I wash them in a garment bag, so they don’t end up sopping wet, wadded up in the folds of our front-loading washer at the end of the cycle. (I keep the bag in the dirty laundry pile and add them to it until I do a load, then wash and dry the whole thing and then put the bag back into the dirty laundry pile—nothing fancy).
Darlene says
Ann, I’m going to try your idea. I like what mascara does for my almost invisible eyelashes but I’m not crazy about what removing it does to my facecloths. Thanks!
ann says
I hope it works well for you!
ann says
I meant a delicates bag…not a garment bag!
Nan says
I do the same thing- they really come in handy for extremely messy things too. There is no guilt if you have to throw one away.