11 ways dog owners can recycle bedding
Used fitted sheets and comforters can save money on pet supplies
My father was skeptical when I asked for all of my late grandfather’s old sheets. Pointing out a petroleum jelly stain here and a bleach stain there, I told him I didn’t care and wanted the entire pile. Why? Because I have a dog who loves to gnaw on a blanket.
She doesn’t chew on pillows, shoes, chords, couches or anything else around my home. But if I throw any kind of soft fabric in her crate, she’s going to gnaw at that thing so much it’ll look like Charlie Brown’s Halloween costume.
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When I finally realized I could no longer sew and save a longtime comforter I’d had since my early 20s, I hesitated to give it to my Hound mix Junee. I didn’t want to part with the blue and green decor or the three German Shepherds looking back at me. Finally, I gave in. Within an hour, she was chewing all the filling out of my comforter and spitting it out like sunflower seeds. When my mother’s dog watched Junee in action, Jackie ran through a pile of cotton like it was snow. (I really wish I would’ve recorded this.) She has no interest in chewing the filling. She just wants to separate it like laundry piles.
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And over the years, Junee has had the time of her life with old blankets, old comforters and old sheets. When they get too tattered, I finally discard the shriveled-up pieces and give her another one. But besides being a chew toy for dogs, what other ways can old sheets be recycled for a dog? Here are 11 ideas.
1. Use it as a soft cushion on the bottom of a crate.
I still haven’t figured out why, but the plastic pan at the bottom of a larger crate I bought for Junee cracked into multiple pieces and ended up with sharp edges. It looked like broken glass. Meanwhile, the smaller crate that Junee constantly goes into is still in almost-new condition four years later. Same brand. Bought in the same year. Different results. Instead of buying a new plastic pan (or a third crate), I had extra pieces of carpet that were originally going to be placed under my couch legs for easy moving on Sweeper Sundays.
I used a Slice knife to cut two pieces of carpet into the shape of her crate. Then, I folded an old blanket on top of the carpet pieces. With your eyes closed, my DIY multi-layered crate bottom feels more like a mattress. I put her dog bed on top of this “dog mattress.” Junee watched my project unfold and leaped inside. Shortly after, she took a nap. A year later, when I hand clean the dog bed, she’ll sometimes just lay on that “dog mattress” until the dog bed dries.
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2. Use it as stuffing in a flattened dog bed.
Do you have a dog bed that used to be light and fluffy, and is now as flat as a board? If you know how to do basic sewing, you can cut a small slit in the bed with a seam ripper, and push in the used blankets or comforter filling to make your dog’s bed feel like it did when it was sold in stores. Shift it around like you would to puff up a pillow. Voila! New-ish dog bed.
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3. Cut the bed sheet into pieces to use as dog paw wipes.
Depending on the material, you can use these blankets to wipe your dog’s paws after a walk or to clean the dog’s paws on a rainy day. They also come in handy to rub on pad paw moisturizer.