What to do with old pillows and bedding

The linen closet is one of the last places people sort and one of the fastest. Nobody is sentimental about a fitted sheet with a split seam, but the pile still has to go somewhere, and the rules for a pillow are not the rules for a towel.

Start with the flat and the stained

Pull everything out and put it on a bed. Anything with a rip, a stain you can't get out, or elastic that's gone goes straight into a bag and does not go back on the shelf. Be honest about the sets: a fitted sheet with no flat sheet is a rag.

Then match what's left into sets. Two sets per bed is plenty for most households. The rest — the spare you kept for the spare room, the three comforters from a bed you no longer have — is the pile you're actually deciding about.

What the donation desk will take

Call before you load the car, because this is a category where policies change by the store and by the week. In general, clean sheets, blankets, quilts, towels and table linens move. Used pillows, mattress pads and anything that smells of smoke or a damp basement usually get turned away at the door, so ask about those specifically.

• Clean sheet sets, folded and matched
• Blankets, quilts and comforters in good shape
• Bath and kitchen towels with no holes
• Tablecloths and cloth napkins
• Throw blankets and afghans

Pillows are the hard one

A used pillow is one of the few things almost nobody will take, for obvious reasons, and that's fine. If it's still firm and clean, call a local animal shelter and ask — some want them for bedding, many don't, and the answer changes with their storage space. Otherwise it goes in the trash bag and you stop feeling bad about it.

The towel bag for the shelter

Shelters near me have always wanted towels and blankets, because they go through them constantly and they don't need them to match. Call and ask what they can use and when to drop off. Bath towels, hand towels and fleece blankets are the usual ask. Don't haul in feather or foam pillows unless somebody there told you to.

Textile bins and the rag bag

Clothes and linens too worn for donation still have a use as fiber, and most areas have a bin or a curbside program for it — the same bin you'd use for ripped jeans. Read the label on the bin about what goes in, and keep the bag dry, because a soaked bag of textiles gets rejected by whoever sorts it.

If there's no bin nearby, ask a charity shop whether they take rag. Some do and sell it on by weight. Ask at the counter before you drop a bag of torn sheets in front of them.

Quilts and the handmade things

A quilt made by somebody in the family is not a linen decision. Set those aside before the sorting starts and deal with them alongside the photographs, not the towels. Same for a crocheted blanket, a christening gown, or the embroidered tablecloth that came from somebody's grandmother. Everything else in that closet is laundry.

The mistake I see most is washing everything first. If it's headed for a bin or the trash, that wash is wasted water and a day you didn't have. Sort first, wash only what's actually being donated, and never leave a damp towel in a bag in a hot car for a week.