How to Put Old T-Shirts to Use as Cleaning Rags

I'm hard at work right now clearing out and cleaning up the apartment. I've made my work difficult for myself, though. Since I starting more DIY projects, I've been stashing away everything that might maybe one day be sort of useful.

I live in 700 square feet with my husband and small dog who eats everything. There's nowhere to stash away things that might maybe one day be useful.

I know this fact, and I acknowledge this fact, and then I do store lots of things away anyway. Well, I've decided now I must tame the maybe-useful-one-day item stash, so I must use those items within the next two months, or they go away to the world of the land fill.

I'm pulling clothes off the mending needed pile, fixing them and restoring them to their rightful place. I'm tossing art supplies so old that they probably have been dried out and useful for several years already. And I'm going through the t-shirt bin.

Yep, the t-shirt bin. I at least had already cleared out the t-shirt drawer, but all the t-shirts simply moved into a bin where they sat waiting to be used for...probably three years.

I've had a bag of t-shirts in my closet for three years.

Some have been there longer than that. I started making a rug five years ago that I worked on again three years ago. More on that later. I've started it again. I did also get some out to make the t-shirt dog toy a few months ago.

According to my new rule, if I don't find a way for the t-shirts stored in my closet to be useful in the next several weeks, the whole bin gets tossed. Well, I found a use. Actually, I found several. I'll tell you about the first one today.

T-Shirt rags

Glamorous, right? I came up with this idea when I realized I was already doing it anyway. Anyone dust regularly with rags or socks? I (somewhat) regularly pull a t-shirt at random out of my t-shirt bin and cut off a corner to use as a dust rag.

Thus was born my more intentional and fully thought out idea. What if I turn all the t-shirts intentionally and nicely into cleaning rags? I'm trying to cut costs, right? I could use them to clean, and clean everything. Not just dust, but actually all the cleaning.

Well, not all the cleaning. Some messes need to be cleaned with paper towels and promptly tossed, because...gross.

I've had my eye on methods to cut costs around the house, and reusable rags is one such method. I had rag material right in front of me.

How to turn the t-shirts into rags

You need scissors and old t-shirts.

If you want a neat looking stack of similarly sized rags, you'll want to cut the t-shirts in a planned way, not just randomly. There's no wrong way to do this- you can cut off the bottom hem, or leave it, or make small rags or large ones or triangular ones. Do whatever brings joy to your heart.

I cut off the top of the shirt right below the sleeves, and then cut just the edge off of the sides.

If you want it to be really neat, follow this tutorial from Kalyn Brooke.

I then folded them neatly into a small sized rag pile, and a large size rag pile.

I set aside the tops for the rug that I am working on.

Storing and Cleaning the rags

I tucked the stack of rags into my linen cabinet. I also added an empty small trash can into the bathroom which I designated the dirty rag bin. I toss rags into that bin that I have used, and then will throw them in the wash.

What I won't clean with the t-shirt rags

There's no need to make yourself clean everything with these, unless you want to. I still keep paper towels and other cleaning supplies on hand.

Disgusting messes (I'm looking at you, Eddie the poodle puppy)
anything with bleach (I just don't want that mixing with my other stuff, and it will ruin the color in my colorful cleaning rags anyway).

The benefits of the t-shirt rag that I have found

First, you don't have to pay anything for the t-shirt rag. Free materials!
They are washable, and may be reusable for a long time. If they get too gross, though, you can just toss them- nothing lost, because that's where they were headed anyway.
They don't take long to make, and don't even need to look nice.
If you care about being environmentally friendly, you're recycling something old and not buying another disposable product.
Savings! These rags replace 1) dust rags, for anywhere from $2.00 to $10.00 dollars a box and 2) Paper towels, for $8.00 to $15.00 for eight rolls.

The downsides of the t-shirt rag that I anticipate

It does take time to make them- maybe 1 minutes a rag, but then to make a stack, maybe 15-20 minutes.
Washing, folding, and putting away the rags.
You do have to have used t-shirts for this.
These don't soak up messes the way a towel or paper towel does.

The Verdict?

So far, I'm liking the t-shirt rags. I'm all for the savings, which I have estimated will be at least $40.00 a year, and up to $100.00 for my little family of 2 adults and one dog (That may not sound like much, but these little savings add up).

I won't have to cut anymore rags for a while. I'll run the rags through the wash whenever I wash towels, so I'll not be doing that much more work than I would have done anyway. And I have gotten frustrated before with how many paper towels I have to go through for some cleaning work. A t-shirt won't rip if it gets too wet- I just may have to get another one out if it gets too dirty.

For now, I'm planning to keep this strategy and save the money on dust rags and paper towels.

Next up, I have to use up the tops of the t-shirts, which I did not turn into rags. I'm currently in the process of cutting them up for yarn to finish making my t-shirt rug from five years ago.

The Stay at Home Experiment

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