I am bad for saving and trying to recycle things too. I get a lot of little plastic containers at work and bring them home. Some I haven't figured out what to use them for yet. We get drills in little plastic cylinders with a hooked lid on one end for hanging and a regular lid on other side. My neighbor used some for storing seeds in and I think I will use some for sorting needles in. We end up throwing lots out at work. I also use the plastic peanut butter jars for sorting parts and nails and screws in the shop. They don't break if I drop them. I have a different color lid for each part. Like red lids for screws and blue lids for nails etc. I saved those boxes checks come in and found a wonderful use for them. I was making a quilt for mom and it had small pieces in it and some of the peices I found were too close to the same size and color so i labeled each part in the square paper pattern with a letter and then put the same letter on each box and put the corresponding cut piece in the box.
I have other things that won't come to mind right now but I am going to bookmark this thread for future reference.
Lynda