The way my mind works is I would need a leader for my leader, so I use a spider, that is a bit of fabric that you start sewing on. This helps especially if you are sewing triangles to not drop the points of the fabric down into the bobbin area. You reuse the same piece repeatedly, making the legs on the spider.
The other day when I cleaned off my sewing area, I didn't have any little bits out, so I used a bit of paper towel. Lately I've just been using the paper towel to adjust my stitches, I find I have very little to improve on when I switch to fabric, and I can see the plain white much better!
I have gotten my new sewing machine but I haven't worked with it yet. But one of the few options I really wanted was a thread cutter and I got one on this new machine. Is amazing how much less threads I have on my pants and such. I am also much more likely to work on projects that have partial seams with a thread cutter.