The laundry is done. You’d think that would be the end of the hard part, but oh no, no it’s not. Now it’s time to smash, stuff and wrestle all the folded clothes into the limited dresser drawer space. Often, the drawers win and stick their T-shirt tongues out at me in their victory.

I have a thing about not throwing things away, especially when it comes to clothes. I have T-shirts I have not worn in years stuffed into my dresser drawers. That’s a lot of wasted space. Well, now there’s a way to use those raggedy old T-shirts and clear up some much-needed space in your closet: turn them into scarves.

I can’t take all the credit for this idea. I saw something similar on Pinterest but tweaked it a little bit. It’s actually really simple and only takes four steps. But before you get started, make sure the scissors you use are really sharp and can cut through fabric well. Otherwise it’ll just be a struggle and it won’t look as good.

1. Decapitate your shirt. Take a T-shirt and cut horizontally underneath the arms and discard the top part. If your shirt is really long, then you might want to cut a few more inches off the top so it’s not too thick. Don’t cut horizontally from the bottom. You’ll want to keep the bottom stitching in place so when you do the next step it won’t fray.

2. Slice and dice. Cut vertical strips from the bottom of the shirt to the center. You can make them as skinny or thick as you want. You could also vary the widths by having some thin and some thick. I made all my strips half an inch wide.

3. Streeeetch. Pull the cut strips so the cuts don’t look so uniform. It’s fringe. You want it to be a little messy. Don’t get crazy and pull too hard, or the strips will be super skinny. You don’t want that.

4. Wear it. Fall is the perfect time to wear scarves, so slip it over your neck and pair it with a T-shirt and jeans.

You can play around with different colors. Maybe you want to use a blue T-shirt for the base of the scarf and tie yellow strips around the blue ones – or you could hot glue them – for a touch of school spirit during a cold tailgating day or football game. You could also go the autumn route and use a red shirt with orange or brown. Or you could use a floral or striped T-shirt. As long as the T-shirt has a bit of stretch to it so you can pull the strands out a bit, it’ll work just fine.

These can make a really great gift if you’re broke or on a budget. If you already have the shirts lying around, it won’t cost you anything – beats buying an over-priced blue and yellow Jacks scarf at the bookstore any day.

If you don’t have shirts lying around but are interested in trying this out, Hanes sells men’s T-shirts in packs of five — usually in different colors that go together well. The shirts are relatively cheap, too, and should be about $12 at Walmart or another place. It’s hard to beat making five scarves for $12.