I was just wondering what you all tend to save that would normally be thrown out and what uses you put them too?

Cans, Bottles, Jars, So on so forth.

One thing I try not to throw away is Tortilla chip bags. Strong nicely sized and not greasy inside they can be used for many things when cleaned out.

Jars, cans, bottles and plastic containers with well-fitting lids are sacred around here because of their multiple uses.

Plastic bags, though we're moving more and more to reusable cloth bags.

Dryer lint, toilet paper/paper towel tubes, elastics and twist ties are on the list too.

Plastic shopping bags:
Trash can liners.
Handy way to throw in things for quick transport to a vehicle.

Packing materials:
Reuse for shipping items.
Use when storing items in the attic.

Two liter bottles:
Making ice/water storage.

Junk mail:
After shreding, it is good packing material.

Wire hangers:
Strong, stiff wire for many tasks.

Cat food cans and aluminum beverage bottles make absolutely great alcohol stoves -often with the most basic of tools.

All those wonderful plastic coated wires from DS's toy packages (cut them down to size for twist ties, or leave as is for larger ties). Invariably, these have plastic pieces with predrilled holes in them. I'm sure those can be used for something eventually.

Plastic coated tags, sized right, are a great base for making your own duct tape flat packs, and easier to come by sometimes than old gift cards.

Old gift cards (see above).

Assorted mint, candy, and medicine tins (need I say more).

Almost any container with a lid gets cleaned up and saved for use somewhere else. Plastic peanut butter jars make great all purpose containers.

We recycle cans and cardboard so there's usually plenty hiding around somewhere when needed for other uses.

The list goes on with what others have mentioned: wire hangars, plastic grocery bags, paper bags with attached handles, packing materials (especially bubble wrap - I used a bunch to wrap christmas decorations for storage in the attic).

Trooper, nice call on the shredded paper to be reused for packing material.

Cat food and tuna cans also make good coiled-cardboard + wax or grease Buddy Burners.

If you have some fat candles, they make good candleholders, esp if you push a short nail into the center from the bottom.

Larger cans can be used to collect berries and other edibles. Poke a hole in each side and make a wire handle to hang on a branch while you work, or even put it on your belt.

Regular vegetable cans can be perforated and turned into candle lanterns. Even if you can't read by them, they can mark the way to the privy in the dark.

Emptied and hung on strings from a post (in a cluster), they can warn of giant underground worms.

Shiny aluminum can lids can be hung on strings over a garden area to scare off birds.

Keep the young kids busy with a can/string 'telephone'.

Used to be able to bake bread in cans, does anyone know if it's safe to do so now?

Aluminum cans - if alcohol fuel is available, make a few alcohol stoves for the neighbors in a power outage.

Aluminum soda and beer cans with the tops and bottoms removed (depending on height) provide 30 or 43 sq inches of lightweight, shiny (reflective) sheet metal.

LOL! Gives me tremors just thinking about it.

Those odd plastic packaging they seal products in can be saved and reused as packing materials to fill space in a box. Wadded up newspaper, pages from magazines make good padding. Cardboard boxes, like cereal boxes, can be stored flat and then reassembled as boxes to fill empty spaces and keep fragile stuff from rattling around.

Cardboard boxes flattened and stacked, cheap paperbacks and phone books, get used as backstop materials for pellet gun shooting.

Papers run through a cross-cut shredder make good bedding for pet rodents. Stuffed into an old pillow case they make great filling for a dog bed.

A oddball survivor socks, what he gnomes leave behind, can be stuffed with dried lentils and peas and used as wrist rest in front of the keyboard, gunrests for shooting, no-mar furniture assembly mallet. A pound or two of lintels in a sock, or a couple bars of soap, quickly end encounters when applied firmly to a head without drawing blood.

Sew shut the arm and head holes on an old, faded and pin-holed tee shirt and you have a functional stuff-sack. Takes about a minute on sewing machine. Tie or sew on some lengths of light line and you get a light, cheap, disposable backpack.

The legs of pants make handy stuff sacks, gaiters, camp pillows after a few seconds on the sewing machine.

Mesh onion or citrus or potato bags are great for all sorts of stuff, I particualrly like them for tire chains. These are the heavier bags, not the paper thin ones.

Find a source of roadside billboard plastic sign film, AWSOME. Ususally used once and discarded. Some are heavy with mesh reinforced inbetween the layers. I have some some new VERY thin stuff, not near as nice.

Ironwood

Now that is a resouce I have never thought about. Thanks!

The signs vary in size, the BIG highway ones can have 48' x 24' pieces !!!! One buddy put a black backed one (if the backfrop of the sign is black they usually use black tarp to save ink $$) on his roof and white all around just after framing and sheeting, he left it like that for years, looked like a stucco house with a shinlged blac roof. AWSOME

Ironwood

Thats pretty darn neat there ironwood Now im just wondering where exactly i can find those.

My fellow ETSers, I am starting to want to see pictures of your home decor.

hee hee hee .. what do you mean the garage is where my CARS are supposed to go?

Frisket,

Try stopping next time you see a crew replacing one, also call the # of the advertising companies at the bottom of most signs, most smaller shops are easy to find /talk to, some like CBS or some of the other biggies forget it, go right to the crews, BEER talks.


Ironwood

We can learn a thing or two from the less fortunate

Here is a flat inhabited by Asian workers ( very low pay )
They used pants to split/share one AC unit for two rooms

Speaking of pants, when a friend had holes in several pairs of jeans, he took them to a tailor and had them mended at $5 each rather than throwing them away and buying new ones. He also had a belt repaired and even had sheets made into curtains all at the same tailor.

Before I built the computer I am currently using I had a Pentium II workstation which I could have upgraded to a Pentium III.

So many times we get rid of something old and get something new when we can fix or update them ourselves or have someone else fix them.

Jeanette Isabelle

That's one of the things I love about second-hand stores, Jeantte. Lots of cast-off treasures just waiting for a new life!

I can never understand why anyone buys a funnel

Cut in half any plastic bottle, the upper half is a funnel, and the lower half is great for pencils, painting brushes or anything like that.

I use old CDs as signalling mirrors in GHBs ..etc. I have also taped some at home windwos to ( hopefully ) scare away nesting pigeons. They didn't scare the pigeions , so I hope they would work as signalling mirrors. LOL

For those with pigeion problem , you may try hanging the CDs from thins strings instaed of taping them to the window glass. May be if they are moving with the wind, they would be more effective than being staionary.

Nice improv on the funnel chisel, but I'd splurge for a real signal mirror. A CD CAN work if you have nothing else, or serve as additional improvised mirrors for others in a group, but I would not rely on a CD as your only signal mirror.

Funnel - This unit is in some ways better than the purpose built ones.

Cut the middle out of a plain gallon bleach bottle and slit the cylinder to make a rectangular sheet you have a very adaptive funnel. You wrap it loose for large openings and tighter for smaller openings. Being a curled rectangular sheet it is very easy to keep clean, and packs away very compactly.

Very innovative Art! I use a similar piece of repurposed plastic for a cutting board. Never thought of using it as a funnel. Duh! Thanks for the tip!

Chisel, I've heard of using CDs as signal mirrors before. The built-in sighting hole is an added benefit. Have you tried them out? How do they work?

In fairly well controlled tests, CDs make poor signal mirrors. It is much better to get the real thing, or use just any old mirror rather than a CD.

In my case, a CD is added to the kits on a (just in case) basis.

I am a city boy ( a 55+ y/o boy for that matter ) and not close to any kind of danger in which I may need a signalling mirror. So , no , I haven't used or bought a real signalling mirror, nor do I know where it can be sold in my part of the world.

In the old days, I used to go in a ship for 10 days as part of my work, or 1-2 days in nearby deserts , but nothing more serious. Now with age and added family responsibilities, I am limited to work in a six-floor corporate building, where i don't see much use for a signalling mirror. A whistle, however, is a part of every kit I have.

Also, my travels are limited to well-travelled highways either by car or as a passenger in a bus ..etc.

My latest project

There are two types of containers that we use and RELUCTANTLY throw away ... One is wet wipes and the other is coffee creamer. The opening in both is very nice and we use them for powder detergent for camping trips ..etc. In the wipes containers you have to cut the lips in the openings to make sure the powder (and small lumps of detergent ) flows smoothly.

WARNING:
Make sure to remove the creamer wrapping from the container so that there is no mistake . You do not want to put detergent in your coffee !!!

Next time when you consume one of those 5 kilograms ( or 10 lb ) of detergent .... and before you throw the empty plastic bag with all those detergent logos , cut one of the logos and glue it onto the re-purposed creamer container , so there is absolutely no mistake about the contents.

Napkins, little packages of condiments and individually wrapped drinking straws from fast food places.

Actually I often just put those extra packets into a ziploc bag and toss them in my backpack. Same with napkins because they can come in very handy for example blowing your nose when you've run out of tissues or in a pinch used as toilet paper if you are in a public restroom that is out.
kat

Great idea Kat! Asking for some extra cream and sugar in a bag when get TO coffee or tea will help increase that stash!

Not sure where you or your SO works, however at my work there is an endless incoming supply of TO coffee, tea and food condiments that continuously accumulate and and are free for the taking.

The same goes for Powerade/Gatorade bottles. I snag these when I can as they make great (strong/tough) storage for food when multi-day hiking and camping. I find that although the bottles are bulkier, the extra weight of the bottle is negligible and these qualities make for much better and more reliable storage then ziploc bags.

Examples, left to right:
Milk powder, pasta, oatmeal, basmati rice

The small plastic jar on the right once had PB in it and after a couple of good washes and rinses, there is no residue smell at all.

In the PB jar:
Individual packets of coffee, coffee whitener,tea, hot chocolate, sugar packets, multi-grain bars.

Ditto on the salt/pepper/sugar packets from fast food shops

Around here we have a nice place for breakfast, and we take out the packets we do not use. Nice thing is they all come in a long, narrow plastic bag (around 8x3 inches) to accomodate longer items like plastic knife/fork/spoon. The bag itself is great for TV and other remote controllers. It protects it from accidental coffee spill or other types of mishaps, especially when kids are around.

Nice set-up Teslinhiker!