My first fine home purchase, an organic fitted sheet finally bit the dust. I’m attached to this sheet for more reasons beyond its soft, purple-y feel against our nighttime skin. This 10-year old sheet traveled with me in 2011 on tour stops across the country and championed for HGGH readers and fans the famous fitted sheet folding technique.

It made its debut on the big stage at the Texas Book Festival last fall. All the more reason I couldn’t bear to just pitch it out when the threads bore so bare (beyond mending) after a final, fateful voyage in the washing machine last month.

I, like others, cut it up and put it not in the lowly rag bin, but into my stash of kitchen muslin, always a hot commodity around here for straining vinegars and jellies, keeping flies out of ferments and just general kitchen usefulness.

What do you do with your beloved, old sheets?