Playing off Steve's Hoarder House thread and Cindy's in-laws...

What do you save? What do you save that other people probably throw away?

I'll go first:

Bread bag tabs (there's a name for those, starts with "pan-", I forget what it is, but it was on Says You a couple years ago). They are very useful for scraping wax off a menorah and things like that.

Grocery bags. Paper and plastic. Every couple years, I put a bag full of bags in the recycle. But I use them for wastebasket liners, taking stuff to goodwill and things like that.

Useful plastic containers. Sturdy ones with tight lids. Mrs. pj throws them away. I've pulled a few out of the recycle bin. Don't tell her.

Mason jars. Same as above. For a while, I bought pasta sauce or something that came in a nice mason jar. I saved them.

Pens. I have boxes of pens. They have logos from companies I've never heard of. If I find one that simply doesn't write, I toss it.


I used to save motorcycle magazines. Recently I tossed several boxes of them, only saving out Cycle World because I want to re-read Kevin Cameron's columns.

Mrs. pj just discarded several years worth of National Geographics.


I was saving toilet paper tubes for years because I use them for storing computer and audio cables. That was when I went through less than a roll a month. With two women in the house, we go through at least two rolls a week, so there's never a shortage.

I save coffee cans. I have space to save six; after that I throw them away until I use one or two and replenish the stock.

I use them for all sorts of things, mostly to send hardware out to jobs.

We went through a significant downsize last year, so went through a lot of the doubles and triples of various tools, and other types of hardware parts that I would always save for home owner projects.

We still have a bag stuffed with plastic bags - that occasionally get used for something.

I have more tennis balls than I know what to do with. Every match Uses 3 balls, so someone has to take them home. I keep 80 for serve practice, discard the rest.

We just refinished our floors, so we got rid of a ton.

I really dislike clutter, so I don’t save things.

A friend of mine raised a son who was deaf and had a cochlear implant. Scraping and squeaking noises were unbearable. His teacher put tennis balls on the bottoms of the chairs so they didn't scrape on the floor when someone scooched back. I found an ad on craiglist from a tennis player who had tubs of slightly used balls. She wanted like 50 cents a piece which I thought was outrageous, but I bought them all and gave them to my friend.

You don't know anyone with a golden retriever?

At the moment I try to only save things I use. Moving a bunch has helped me be better. Right now I’m saving glass jars because of my pigment processing experiments. But we have collections of things still - Mr. Jodi and his stoves, and we have a ton of glass insulators. I save bits of paper And cardboard that are useful for art projects. And I’ve been in-crinkling and storing the brown paper that comes wadded up in boxes from amazon - that is super useful For the messy artwork I do in the studio.

quote:

Originally posted by pianojuggler:
A friend of mine raised a son who was deaf and had a cochlear implant. Scraping and squeaking noises were unbearable. His teacher put tennis balls on the bottoms of the chairs so they didn't scrape on the floor when someone scooched back. I found an ad on craiglist from a tennis player who had tubs of slightly used balls. She wanted like 50 cents a piece which I thought was outrageous, but I bought them all and gave them to my friend.

You don't know anyone with a golden retriever?

I had the same thought about the golden, pj.

Or a pet shelter.

They are also great on walkers. Front legs with wheels, back legs with tennis balls slipped over them. Makes the walker glide nicely but there's still a tiny bit of friction so it doesn't get away from the user. I used to buy the cheapest ones I could find to put on my mom's walker.

Used to save the deli containers from the food I bought at the Polish deli when I was buying stuff there for mom. You can't reheat food in them, but they're great for storage or giving away leftovers to guests. Sort of like those Glad containers, except they're free.

We kept a few and put the rest in a giveaway box in our garage sale and they went almost immediately.

Large plastic flower pots. I am forever and a day dividing hostas and need something to put them in.

Weeds. Oh, wait. I'm not really saving those....they're just kind of piling up out there...

We save those food containers too. We used to use them to send people home with food after gatherings. Hopefully we will do that again, but for the foreseeable future, we're not.

We also save packaging to reuse it (boxes etc)...

Mr. SK saves cardboard cereal boxes because he uses them for crafty things.

I'm sure there's more...

I don't use as much so I don't find the need to save too much.

Right now the most common are plastic or paper bags. I use them for everything and figure I would like to get least one more use out of them.

Also saving the wire tops to coffee bags as I use them for nose wires on the masks I make.

I do save wrapping tissue paper and gift bags for reuse.

And on the rare occasion that I buy a newspaper, I save about half of it. I use to for my worm compost bin both as bedding and also to cover the soil to prevent flies from breeding.

Oh, and twist ties...There is always a need for twisties.

The bottom of egg cartons for when we paint at school. It’s less cleanup but I don’t feel guilty about tossing them when they have a bit of paint in them.

I used to save all sorts of jars for storage, but our collection began to over run our need for them, so I don’t anymore. I do, however, say, “this is a really nice jar” at least once a week. And then recycle it when Rob gives me the stink eye.

Plastic bags that vegetables come in at the grocery store. We try not to get them but sometimes it’s unavoidable. So I save them and use them for wrapping stuff or over top of our “vases” of cilantro and parsley in the fridge.

I used to save all of our coffee cans, but then we stopped drinking coffee. Currently my collection is holding up the ping-pong table that goes over our pool table so it’s high enough to be more comfortable as a fabric cutting table.

Tins. I love them. I keep them and then rarely use them. Little mint tins (like Altoids), larger tins (I store my Kosher salt in an old Morton’s Salt tin), etc. If it comes in a tin, I’m keeping it.

David’s Tea has metal canisters to store their tea. The idea is that you refill them, but I just keep taking them and I use them to store spices.

I could easily become a hoarder.

Sentimental so save too many gifts.

Save material...a few chests, trunks full.

Have and use lots of canning jars... dishes

Clothes that don't fit...just in case

Luckily I have a cottage that can store way too much


Luckily I live alone!

PJ, I save pasta sauce jars, too. I send soup home with the kids in them. Or sugared berries for the shortcake (most recently). I also save takeout soup containers for the same reasons.

Plastic produce bags to re-use, either at the store, or on the produce that comes from Imperfect Produce.

Always small canning jars, so I can re-use them. People give them back to me for more jam, chocolate sauce, bourbon caramel sauce. I still have to buy more, because they don’t all come back.

I used to save egg cartons to give to the person providing our fresh eggs, but she has just sent her hens to live elsewhere. Simplify! She’s got enough on her plate while pandemic homeschooling her kids, plus work.

That’s about it.

Scraps of paper I have written ideas on. It's out of control.

quote:

Originally posted by piqué:
Scraps of paper I have written ideas on. It's out of control.

Put them all in a box - and spend an afternoon typing them onto a Word document. It will be easier to find them. I was doing something similar with things I should read or watch. Problem was I had all kinds of scraps and no system to find them until I took a few minutes to type them into a document.