We’ve already covered old duvets before really but we’ve had an email from Gill:

I have 6-8 used but still serviceable quilts and pillows and no-one seems to want them. The local homeless shelter says they don’t take donations and I’ve contacted several charities who I thought might use them (rather than selling them for recycling) but no-one is interested as they are not ‘good as new’. Even the local PDSA won’t take them for animal bedding.

Any suggestions as I’d rather they were put to good use as quilts rather than scrap.

I’m surprised that shelters for both humans and animals won’t take them, especially if they’re machine washable. Perhaps offer them on your Freecycle/Freegle group – someone on there might be happier to receive them than charities obeying “no used stuff” policies.

On our local Freegle group, people frequently as for “anything for a new home” so they might want them. There also might be people who want them to use for other things – not for their original purpose but not for fabric reclamation/recycling either – for example, using the quilts for making insulating blinds or to make mattress/pillow protectors.

Pillows can also be upcycled – they can be “squared-off” to make cushions, used for animal bedding (nesting building dogs love having a selection of pillows to dig around in), made into draught excluders/draft dodgers or bolsters, or the stuffing reclaimed for all sorts of craft projects.

Does anyone else have any other suggestions where might take USED quilts and pillows? Or have any more recycling ideas for pillows?

A friend’s mum was having an old bedding clear-out recently and I snagged some 1970s pillow cases in the process.

I made one of the pillowcases into two cotton bags – a shopping bag and a smaller one for when we just need to carry a few items – but don’t know what to do with the other two.

At the end of the day, they’re just (mostly) cotton pieces of fabric but like with the shopping bags, it would be nice to take advantage of the fact they’re a retro-pretty fabric, strong yet light and already have strong seams sown into most of the sides.

So any other suggestions for reuses?

(Photo by brainloc)

We have a number of cushions and pillows around the house that are not exactly cushioning or pillowy any more. For want of a better word, I shall describe them as clumpy – the stuffing has clumped together into uncomfortable lumps – and no amount of fluffing (…that I can do before my arm gets tired) will redeem them.

It usually seems to be one of those situations that gets worse over time – which preventative regular fluffing can keep at bay – but washing them certainly seems to speed up the process.

Any ideas of how to bring them back to life? Or how to reuse the cushion corpse once it has passed over?

(Photo by Justified)