I'm a big Bonnie Hunter fan (
Quiltville.com and
quiltville.blogspot.com), so about three years ago I sorted, pressed and cut my scraps up so I would
use them following
Bonnie's Scrap User's System. Now my scraps are making it into quilts. In fact just this weekend I realized I needed a great variety of 1 1/2" strips.
I store my scraps in Sterlite shoe boxes and the next size up (shirt box?). In my larger boxes I have strings, 1 1/2" strips, and 2 1/2" 'dark' strips. In the shoe boxes I have 2 1/2" 'light' strips; 2" strips; 1 1/2" pieces shorter than 6"; 2 x 2 squares and 2 x 3 1/2" rectangles; and 2 1/2" x 2 1/2" squares and 2 1/2" x 4 1/2" rectangles.
A few years ago I spent several months - 15 or 20 minutes here and there getting my scraps under control. I am so glad that I did, as I'm now USING my scraps instead of storing them. Of course, this system doesn't work for everyone and it has to be maintained. Generally, after I finish a quilt I cut up my scraps, although there was one point where everything went into a basket. I really need to work on those before too much longer.