Reuse An Old Pillowcase For Clever Kitchen Towel Storage

Unlike paper towels, dishcloths and kitchen towels are a great way to save both your money and the environment. However, their use comes with the downside of figuring out where to store the dirty rags in between laundry days. Even the best kitchen towels that are cute and absorbent can pile up quickly once they're dirty, and in a small kitchen, this can become a problem. Leaving the rags out in the open can be smelly and unsightly, yet storing them in a basket or bin inside your kitchen cabinets often wastes valuable space. The good news? If you're looking for a storage solution for your dirty kitchen towels, repurposing an old pillowcase into a bag that hangs on the inside of a cabinet door could be the perfect project for you. 

For this hack, all you need is an old pillowcase, scissors, two adhesive hooks, and a sewing machine or needle and thread. Overall, this budget-friendly DIY is a great solution. Because the bag is made of fabric, it takes up far less space than other bulky storage solutions. Plus, if you choose a machine-washable pillowcase, it's even easier to keep clean than containers made of plastic or other materials, since you can wash it along with your kitchen towels.

Start by deciding how large you want your towel storage to be. It should be smaller than the cabinet door to ensure it doesn't block the door when opening or closing. If you need to alter your pillowcase to the right size, simply turn it inside out and cut it down, leaving room for seams. Ideally, cut along the side with the opening to adjust the height, and choose one side to adjust the width. This will mean you only need to sew one seam after cutting. Once it's sewn, turn the pillowcase right side out and use the two hooks to hang it inside a cabinet door.

Storing damp towels in a bag inside a poorly ventilated cabinet is a recipe for mold and mildew smells, so if possible, let the used rags hang to dry outside the cabinet first. No matter what, it helps to know how to remove musty odors from your towels if you use reusable kitchen towels often. When laundry day comes around, use the pillowcase to carry your kitchen towels to the washing machine, empty them out, and then toss the pillowcase in as well. 

A pillowcase that can tolerate the same heat as your kitchen towels is ideal so that you can wash everything together on the warmest possible cycle. Once the cloths and pillowcase are clean and completely dry, hang the pillowcase back in place and put away your clean towels. Using the best way to fold kitchen towels if you have shallow drawers helps save even more space in a small kitchen.