Give your pillows a new life
Rather than tossing your old ones away, get creative
OK, it’s time for some pillow talk. Specifically, what you should do when they get old, lose their fluffiness and generally get icky.
According to the National Sleep Foundation, we should replace pillows every one to two years — mostly because the residue from sweat, skin cells and dirt builds up inside them over time.
You can certainly take pillows to a fabric recycling centre, donate them to an animal shelter as pet beds, or compost the feather or down stuffing. But upcycling is also an option.
The lifestyle website purewow.com recommends cleaning feather, down or polyester pillows before you give them a second life. To do this, first put pillows in your washer two at a time to keep the machine balanced, and run it on the gentle cycle with bit of detergent, ideally the powder kind.
Then put the pillows in the dryer using the no-heat air-dry setting or delicate setting, and pop in a few tennis balls to break down any clumps.
(Note: this method won’t work on memory foam or latex pillows.)
Once they ’re dry, it’s time to get creative.
1. Shift their shapes.
Take out the stuffing from one or several old pillows, and use it as filler for a pillow of another shape. Put it in a throw pillow cover (sew one or buy one premade) and you have something that’ll give your couch some pizzazz. Or toss it in a long, skinny fabric shell and you’ve got a doorstop — the Simple Life Mom website has a good tutorial.
2. Use them for lounging.
The Sorry Girls website has a tutorial that uses stuffing from several pillows as the filling for a DIY floor poof. Or treat your pet to a cosy bed. Sew a soft blanket or T-shirt into a cover and put the whole pillow inside.
3. Take it outside.
Make gardening easier on your joints by kneeling on an old pillow covered with a waterproof material or large garbage bag while you tend to your plants. Or make your own fertilizer by putting the down feather filling, raked-up leaves, used coffee grounds and vegetable scraps in a compost bin. You’ll have a nitrogen-rich fertilizer for the garden in six months to a year.
4. It’s rag time!
Cut the pillowcase up into smaller squares and use the pieces as a rag. Or make them long and thin, and you’ve got some homemade garden ties.