For example, I saved a bunch of these small cardboard sheets that were separating the rows of cans in a box of cat food.
Add some glue and you have a little tent for your cat.
Trinket goblin reporting! I save tons of different little things and stuff for a while, then one day, for no apparent reason I get overwhelmed and throw away everything( or donate or whatever) Cereal boxes are great to paint gouache so I cut them up and use them as needed. Embroidery floss and yarn scraps are great stuffers for small amigurumi. Electrical wire can be used sometimes for kumihimo. Empty glass jars are my doom, I collect them all.
I also save those cardboard pieces from between the wet food for painting on
The brown packaging paper from shipper Amazon boxes has all kinds of uses.
Wrapping paper for general occasions.
I hoard this paper to make toys for my parrots.
I have some boxes saved specifically to make some trackers for VR… But I thought we had a hot glue gun in the apartment and I was wrong so it’s just waiting in a corner until I can actually glue them the way I need. lol
Metal scrap. I toss it in the old refinery and voila! Iron ingots
That’s cool. I used to have a homemade furnace that I used to melt aluminum. But the crucible sprung a leak and the metal reached the blower and I just kinda lost interest before I could get a replacement.
Sounds hot
This is a hoarders thread but it’s ok cause me too lol
old cables. because YOU NEVER KNOW
I might have a need for all these ide cables at some point! Or a USB cable for a mid 2000s Motorola phone.
Sooooooooo many usb-micro cables.
And save every cable tie ever, just in case
They go into a nice heap right next to the rat nest.
Oh my god I got rid of like 5 cables like four fucking years ago and now EVERY SINGLE TIME we’re missing a cable in the house it’s “ah you threw all those cables out!”
SCART might make a comeback!
Also, what if I really need an extra 512MB of DDR2 RAM for something. Im wrong every day but one.
I saved literally every single RAM stick I’ve ever used (and more) minus two I gave to a friend. They’re in a big ziplock bag tucked into the corner of a box of misc PCI cards.
I will almost definitely never have a reason to install RAM from the 90s…but they’re there just in case…
Happened to me a few months ago with an old utility machine I have. I wasn’t as smart.
I used a few for my windows. Actual glass windows. They work as a stopper by wedging them in the track since they tend to slide on their own otherwise.
Actually people use those for retro gaming, even in the US where scart wasn’t a thing.
I own even more scart cables than old consoles (and all the consoles just use phono-scart adapters), that’s OK right? Right!?
Grocery bags are useful as small bags to separate things, trash bags for small cans or cleaning up a cluttered space, or as temporary barriers she small jobs.
Large cardboard boxes are great for under the car during oil changes.
Lunch meat containers are intended as reusable containers; I use them for lunches.
Fast food cups get reused-as cups.
Cardboard rolls for crafts.
After thoroughly washing, wiping, washing, and wiping again, I will reuse 5 gallon cat litter containers for dog food.
Microplastics have entered the body
Yeah the fast food cup thing bothers me a bit, personally. I don’t typically get fast food, but if I did I would just bring a reusable cup. (Do fast food places allow their use? Idk, I don’t get fast food, but my coffee shop uses my cup.)
Nothing I don’t use up relatively quickly.
Scraps of cardboard for sure. Also little dumb leftover pieces of foam core. I used to put used box cutter blades inside the foam core scraps before throwing them away, thinking that was a safe way to do it. It’s probably not. So now I just toss used blades into an old empty prescription bottle and just keep that on a shelf. (Therefore, I also hang on some of my prescription bottles).
I also tend to hang on to some empty plastic jars and food containers once in a while, too. I wash them thoroughly of course. I probably sound like a hoarder. I don’t hang on to every scrap of this stuff, just a small amount. The plastic jars (like the ones corn starch come in) are handy for storing left over pieces and parts from various crafting projects.
I work in an industry that uses razor blades and if OSHA comes in and finds one laying around it’s an automatic fine ($500 last I heard but that was a decade ago). They make disposable jugs for used blades, we put the blades in and throw the jug away once it’s full. So, basically, the same as your method. It seems to be the best anyone’s came up with.
Back in the days when Safety Razors were king, many houses had a little porcelain slot embedded into the wall by the sink, or one cut into the back of the medicine cabinet. This led to a completely open space in the wall, and the idea was that it would take longer than the expected life of the house to fill it up with rusty razor blades.
https://www.snopes.com/articles/347894/older-home-razor-blade-in-walls/
At least they didn’t try that with toilet paper
Unless it’s literal trash I’m saving it. I’m quite DIY minded person so I often also use those things for my projects.
If I keep it, it’s not a garbage.
Plus, reusing something is the second step in Reduce > Reuse > Recycle.
Adam Savage has entered the chat
For years I’ve desoldered components from electronics that are destined for recycling/trash. I haven’t needed them more than a few times but it’s redeeming when I need a specific thing I’ve never needed before and can pick one out of my component box rather than buying a pack of 100 and never use 99 of them.
Tiny momentary SPST switches are definitely the most common thing I use from the bin but I’ve also reused some LEDs, capacitors, and resistors.
I have a desoldering project in the works with some old boards because the buttons on then are amazing
As someone who just finished a small electronic project where I couldn’t find the perfect switches to save my life, I’ve sworn to save every switch I run across from now on
I used to do that too when I was still in school. Now I have a box of old capacitors and transistors with the wires broken off.
Those examples are not garbage, they are clean materials that can be repurposed. It is the second step in Reduce > Reuse > Recycle!
