4 Very Handy Things You Can Do With an Old Pillowcase

Pillowcases will almost always outlive their fitted and flat companions. It’s a fact of life. Perhaps the sheets get ripped or stained or repurposed as ghost costumes, but whatever the reason, you’re bound to have a few stray pillowcases lying about the place. Whether they’re faded, worn a bit thin, or simply not your style anymore, your old pillowcases are still immensely useful, as these four near-instant, no-sew tricks prove.

This maneuver is so simple, and so smart. If you own more than one set of sheets, keep your bed linens organized and accessible by storing each set in its own pillowcase. Fold the fitted and flat sheets the pillowcases, stack them, pop the stack into your old pillowcase, place the neat little bundle on your shelf, and admire how together your life is. Your sheets will stay perfectly clean, organized, and dust-free. If you have multiple sizes of beds in your home, use pillowcase patterns to help organize: Put your queen sets in retired striped pillowcases and your twin sets in faded floral pillowcases.

A pillowcase is the perfect size for a laundry bag, especially if you’re a strict laundry sorter. Fill one with delicate unmentionables, one with sweat-soaked workout gear, one with your black and deep blue faves, one with to-be-bleached white, and one with your filthy, filthy towels. If you are more of a wash-’em-all-together type or a sort-’em-when-the-time-comes type, use an old king-size pillowcase or a worn-out body pillow case. Bonus: no sewing skills needed!

Use an old pillowcase—all you have to do is snip a little hole!—to protect your clothes as they hang in your closet, especially helpful if you happen to live in a studio apartment where clothing storage and cooking smells occupy the same space. This trick is also great for protecting garments when you travel; if you need to bring hanging clothes on a car trip but don’t happen to own garment bags, you’re only a snip away from protecting your outfits from backseat grime.

Planning on spending a few hours sitting on a bistro chair on your fire escape for a couple hours and need to have supplies available? Want to keep all your current magazines right at-hand but don’t have room for a magazine rack? Want a fun, impromptu storage hack for your kids’ books? Keep all your faves within reach by creating a chair pocket in less than 10 seconds. And, if your chair backs are beat-up and your old pillowcases are cute, chair pockets are a great way to spruce up your chairs while adding surprise storage.