4 Easy Ways To Re-purpose Old T-Shirts & Reduce Rubbish Clearance*

*This is a collaborative post*

There are many ideas on Pinterest and various blogs about how to keep old t-shirts out of your rubbish clearance. People upcycle old t-shirts into beautiful scarves, stylish shawls, woven belts, and even fashionable headbands. However, these all involve the ability to sew, a talent many of us do not possess! Below are four ways you repurpose old t-shirts without knowing how to sew.

1. Turn Them Into Soft Reusable Rags

This is the easiest way to repurpose old t-shirts instead of throwing them into your rubbish clearance bin. One of the reasons we love t-shirts so much is how soft they are on our skin. This same soft quality makes them absolutely perfect for dusting furniture, cleaning mirrors, washing windows, polishing the car, cleaning your glasses, polishing your sunnies, shining your bathroom tile, and for many other purposes around the home. The best part is you can wash these rags and use them over and over again! Cut and or tear your old t-shirts into different sized rags to make them ready made for different purposes.

2. Turn Them Into Tassel Dog Toys

Your dog will love these homemade tassel chew toys better than any you could purchase at the pet store. This is because they'll have their favorite human scent infused throughout material!

- Lay your old t-shirts flat and cut them into strips, twelve to twenty-four inches long. Each strip should be between one to three inches, depending on the size of your dog and how big a chew toy they prefer. Use thicker strips for bigger dogs and thinner strips for smaller dogs.

- While you only need three strips of one t-shirt to make a tassel dog toy, if you use strips from three different t-shirts of different colors and patterns, you'll get cooler looking designs. Be creative!

- Take three strips of t-shirt that you've rescued from your rubbish clearance, line them up parallel, and tie a strong knot about one inch from one of the ends.

- Braid the three strips just like you would braid hair. It doesn't have to be perfect. You can braid it loose or tight, depending on what you and your dog prefer in a chew toy.

- When you get about one to two inches from the end with the braid, tie a tight knot like you tied on the other end.

- You can leave the tassels at each end as is or you can cut them into thinner fringe.

Voila! You have a human scented tassel chew toy your dog will love!

- For a thicker version of this chew toy, use six strips of t-shirt. After tying the knot on the end, braid three strips and then the other three strips. Then, braid the two braided pieces together and tie it off about an inch from the end like above.

- You can also use old jeans or other other clothes to make these tassel chew toys.

- Put any leftover t-shirt material into your rag bag.

3. Turn Them Into Crazy Cat Toys

Like dogs, cats especially love toys with their human's scent infused on them. Some cats even like to chew in dog-like fashion. However, even if your cat isn't into chewing, they will love stalking these, flinging them into the air, and then pouncing on them.

You can make these the same way as described about for the tassel dog chew toys, only with two modifications. First, they will need to be shorter because cats are smaller and most cats will play with these toys differently. You can experiment with different lengths to see what attracts your cat the most, but for most cats, four to six inches should work. Second, you'll want to cut the strips you braid thinner for cat toys, about one-quarter to one-half inch wide. This lighter weight will make them "fly" and "twirl" through the air better!

- Put any leftover t-shirt material into your rag bag.

4. Turn Them Into Tote Bays (No Sewing Style!)

T-shirts make great tote bags that are perfect for visting farm shops, farmers' markets, arts and crafts fairs, beach combing, and really any time you need to tote something around. You could even use one of your t-shirt tote bags as your rag bag!

- Lay an old t-shirt out flat. Cut the sleeves off on both sides so the t-shirt now looks like a tank top or muscle shirt.

- Cut out the neck line in a rounded shape. You can use a bowl as a guide if you want a perfect circle. However, you may prefer an oval shape or another shape. In fact, you can also experiment with a rectangular shape. This will be the opening to your tote bag, with the shoulders being the handles. Thus, it is your personal preference how wide an opening you want to your tote bag.

- Turn your t-shirt inside out before you do the next step.

- Now turn your attention to the bottom of the t-shirt that you've saved from the rubbish clearance bin. Draw a line straight across the bottom of the t-shirt about two inches from the bottom.

- Cut slits (fringe) in the bottom of the t-shirt, cutting through both the front and back side of the shirt. The width of each fringe should be about one-half inch wide.

- Now, here's the best part. Instead of sewing the bottom shut, you're going to simply tie knots! If you can tie your shoes, you can make this tote bag! Starting with the first and second fringe, tie them together as you would the first step of tying your shoes. Do this twice so it becomes a knot. Continue to do this across the entire bottom of your t-shirt, two at a time.

- For many purposes, such as a tote bag to store rags in, this will be all you need to do. However, if you want to make the bottom more secure, with no tiny holes in the bottom, you can go back across the bottom, tying each combined tassel again (double knotting). This will eliminate even the tiniest holes and make the bottom strong enough to tote a bag full of apples!

- Turn the t-shirt right side out. Voila! You now have a t-shirt tote!

- If you want to reinforce the handles of your tote bag, you can braid or wrap strips of t-shirt around the handles for more support.

- You can make the tote bag shorter by simply cutting of the bottom of the t-shirt before you begin.

- Put any leftover t-shirt material into your rag bag.

Now you have four great ideas on how to easily turn your old t-shirts and keep them out of your rubbish clearance bin. Please post a photo of your creations to the Clearabee Facebook page. Clearabee would also love to see some videos of your dog or cat playing with your old t-shirt toys.

*This guest post was contributed by Clearabee

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