Good for you. I feel the same way.

Someone gave me and my daughter about 5 garbage bags full of fabric,they said it was nice fabric, and they wanted a queen sized quilt in return.We opened the bags at home and well we gave them back the next day.It was tiny awful thin smelly and nothing worty of a free queen sized quilt.

I'm the one who ALWAYS gets (and loves), the leftovers. Part of it is I get to use things that are not what I would have picked (due to price or colors or prints), but it gives me a chance to try different things. It also makes me think outside of the box. It also allows me to save my money for special fabrics and patterns or classes. This has also made me learn to work with (and not always run to LQS for the newest or biggest or most expensive items), what I have (just as our mothers and grandmothers before us).
When I'm given fabric it is put into groups - small things - used for crazy quilting, to make bindings, etc... Med things - these can be used to help finish UFO's, making mug rugs, etc... Large things - these go into to groups - LOVE - will use on quilts, bags, etc... DON'T LIKE - if it's Polyester (you know the stuff from the 60's and 70's - it NEVER dies) - I will use it in place of batting (it's warm) - it also makes great stuffing in dog and cat beds too.
Like others on this board I will give to senior centers and kids learning to sew and quilt.
So yes I'm one who is never to proud to take others cast offs, because I can find lots of uses for these items. I never feel obligated, I just always see it as fun and a challenge. And as a quilter I'm always open to a good challenge.

Goodwill takes fabric, too. I've been given fabric and my husband keeps asking when I'm going to do something with it. I appreciate it, frankly. I can make things I probably wouldn't have made.
Dodee

I so agree with you. I say thanks for thinking of me and just get rid of what I don't want/can't use. Any OK fabric gets donated if I don't want it, scraps go to my guild for dog beds and some actually gets trashed (took me a long time to be able to throw out fabric!). I have started doing this with all sorts of things that are gifted to me, not just fabric. People mean well but they give you all sorts of stuff that isn't your taste or you can't use and if I kept it all I would be drowning in STUFF. My college-age children don't understand this but I've told them you get to a point in your life where you realize that you just don't need so many possessions and it's better that I get rid of it now than that they have to sort through it after I'm gone.

In my area, trucks from charities come around frequently picking up usable items. It's so easy, just note the date they will be on my street, put it in the bag they supply, put at curb and it's gone. I hate trashing anything that someone might be able to use. Some things just have to go to the trash bin though.

And me too!!!!

I am talking about things like the cut off pieces from shortening a pair of pants, worn out fiberglass curtains, a worn out flannel sheet that is thin and pilled, a warped blanket ( suposeely for batting), fabric that was stored in mothballs, used faded clothing, etc.

Ah, bear, l know what you mean. I recently learned that my favorite thrift store wants those fabrics also. They bundle any unusable fabrics and sell them by the pound for recycling.

I have been "gifted" with stained t-shirts, musty bedsheets with beer cans printed on them, vintage linens with 40-year-old stains, and wool suiting fabric. You should only keep what you want, set the rest free if you can find it a new home! Or just chop it up for rags and boy have I got plenty of those!