After finding 27 needles and 16 straight pins in an old pincushion, I have a different place for my needles. Now if I want to put a needle into a pincushion, I put it in at the side in such a say that if it gets pushed way in, it will come out the other side. Works slick.
A few weeks ago, I was sewing something for my daughter and started playing with her knit pincushion. (It is strips of garter stitch, sewn into a circle, folded in half the long way, and tucked into ever larger circles. The first strip is only about 1 inch long, and four or five circles make a pincushion of 8 or 10 layers on each side and is a really cute pincushion.) She was surprised at the number of pins I found in there. Those circles can be taken apart easily and put back together again. The circles are not sewn together.