Bedsheets

Day Two: Bedsheets

A year ago, we traded our old double innerspring mattress for a queen-sized, foam core mattress. The innerspring mattress had been a wedding gift to my husband's former fiance upon her first marriage. To give you an idea of its age, Rich and I have been together going on twenty years, and he and Laurie spend at least seven years together. So for twenty years, we'd been cramped on a small mattress, crowded with ghosts, and waking up with stiff hips.

The new mattress gives us more space in the bed, but less space in the linen closet.

We had too many sheets to begin with. Years ago, my sister upgraded her double bed to a king, and passed a big stack of white cotton sheets on to me. Then there were the sheets we'd gotten as wedding gifts. And the sheets we'd had before, when we were thirty-something singles.

I hate the idea of donating sheets to the PTO Thrift Shop. I know they'll just sit on a rack there, looking tired, gray and mismatched. No one will buy them. Ultimately, they'll get shredded or end up in a landfill.

I looked on-line for uses for old bedsheets. I definitely will not be cutting them into strips and braiding them into rag rugs. No, I don't need thirty drop cloths. And goody bags and wrapping paper sewn from old sheets sounds vaguely repulsive.

One blogger suggested that animal shelters would accept old bedding. The Humane Society of Huron Valley accepts only old towels and blankets. No sheets.

I emailed a couple friends who work for different animal rescue groups. Waiting to hear back.

[LATER] Success! My friend TJ's wife will take them for the animal rescue place where she volunteers! And it's an excuse to visit with TJ. And the linen closet is organized at last.