Preschools, churches, vacation bible schools, keep these types of things for future projects. Does your town have a teachers supply store? My store has all kinds of things like plastic strawberry baskets, corks, styrofoam trays, yarn, etc.

I saw a doll bed made out of wooden ones. It was soooo cute, I now can't throw any of them away. :?

I just brought some wooden spools at a flea market, I am going to put red, white and blue fabric around the spool from my scraps and put them in a large clear vase for 4th of July decoration.

When I was much younger, I heard someone say they went to an estate auction and there was a bushel basket full of empty spools. They thought that was impossible to do. So I started saving them, and if I put all my boxes full all into a bushel basket, I would probably have a couple bushels full. Someone can laugh at me when my kids have my estate sale.

My DH fastened them to a beautiful piece of maple at regular intervals, and hung it for a curtain rod in my sewing studio. I made curtains with cute little ties and hung the tie onto each spool - turned out cute :-)

When I was little, my brother and I put one on a long string and hung it from a beam in our kitchen- we used it to play our version of ping pong. The best part was the "ball" never hit the floor!

Yup, garbage. Life's too short to save all the garbage just because it might have a use sometime in the future if you think long enough about what that use might be. :shock: :lol:

Thanks for all the good ideas. My granddaughter just got her first doll house. I think I'm making doll furniture. Oh, btw, I save them. Can't toss them.

Members of our guild save all kinds of thread spools for a fellow member who passes them on to her sister who is a kindergarten teacher - they can be used for all kinds of kiddie crafts!

I remember making one of these in Vacation Bible School way back in the mid-50's. The shelves had already been cut out and holes drilled in corners. Made a cute little 3 tier shelf. Don't know what ever happend to it. Seems it was a bit wobbily but I am thinking now that one could run quarter inch dowels down the holes and that would make it more stable. For any of you who are handi-type folks.

Would sure love a picture of that!

Great post and great ideas. Thanks Krystyna for the websites.
Would love to see pictures of this. I've been throwing them away except for the wooden ones.

Try Boys and Girls clubs, Kid Stop other groups in your area. They can use them for crafts etc. Also bag them up and donate them to Goodwill.

I make Christmas ornaments out of them. I wrap a long string of fabric around them and then take another string about 10 inches long, double it, feed the two ends through the hole, tie a knot at the end, and use the looped end as the hanger. Then I take a charm of a thimble, scissors,anything that has to do with sewing, and tack it on to the wound fabric as a deco-you know, the charms that are in the craft stores in the bead and jewelry findings dept. They turn out to be darling. Make a "quilt themed" Christmas tree next year and invite your quilting friends over for some cookies! I have even used these as favors at
a ladies luncheon. Everyone loved them!

I have many of the old wooden ones and some plastic ones. My uncle made end table legs out of them one time. Don't know if he put anything in the spool centers or just glued them together. He also made lots of doll furniture and stuff from clip/spring type clothes pins and some things from the other kind also. My spools are in a big glass jar on a shelf.

My cat loves those empty spools and it keeps her off my quilting work area. Wish I could empty one a week!

Just sent you a PM about this.

To all you ladies with wooden spools who don't know what to do with them. PM me about what you would sell them for pricewise. I use them for craft work. They must be wooden though.

You can make little dolls, with fabric legs, arms and head, you could even use fabric for hair. The kind of dolls that sit on shelves. Also you can make a necklace wth fabric knotted inbetween for kids to play. They also make good playing blocks for kids. Glue a round wooden circle on top and then sit a small figurine on it. Decorate a picture frame.,etc.

Absolutely awesome on the shelf idea. Down here in Sth Am I was looking for a way to organize dishclothes etc under the sink and refused to pay the outrageous prices they charge for plastic shelves. We pay the 'real' cost of Chinese goods here I gather :( So now will save up ,get out my drill and solve an obnoxious problem. Thanks

They become cat toys.

I make Christmas ornaments & binding buddies with them.

The Girl Scout Brownies was whom I gave them to for there projects. Try them.

I have a collection of wooden ones for show, and use the others to wrap embroidery floss that I use for hand embroidery

I just donated a large bag of them to an art teacher... she had all kinds of ideas for them.

Great idea!

I game mine to an elementary school art teacher.

I give my empty spools to pre-school centers . We have two in our town and the teachers are every happy to get them an d they do small projects with them.

Art classes can use them for imprints on clay, paper etc. Think scrap books to. Make great designs in cookie dough also. Finger dexterity for supervised play to string them with kids. The skinny ones, cut the caps off the ends and cut up into small beads for necklaces for kids crafts in vacation Bible schools, troop mtgs. etc. Not that I have done all of these, but these are some ideas off the top of my one brain cell I still have left. Another idea, try attaching them to a board to hang stuff (jewerly, small objects, keys) off of. Cut the cap off of one end and attach to a frame for weaving purposes (might work). Hope this helps anyone.

I recycle the plastic ones, kept a few in the Grand kids 'Art' box. Let the cat have one or two.... the wood ones go into a jar. The large cones make good funnels for getting that last bit of ketchup , syrup, liquid soap, whatever fits from old bottle to new bottle. cones work for holding thin bouquet together in vase.. Handles for bundles of sticks, wood... ( secure bundle, insert twine, thru cone, secure to other side of bundle, carry)

Right in line to toss as well! I have OTHER stuff worth saving....

I don't have any wooden ones but plenty of plastic ones that I throw away.

At this stage of my life the motto is: simplify. Out they go.

Half a dozen strung onto a rope make a great "snake" for the cat to "kill". This way they don't roll under the furniture and get lost. I bet animal shelters would love a few of these toys for their homeless kitties.

Donate them to a daycare for them to make things or string like beads.

Try donating them to a brownie troop with instructions on how to make dolls. They might Love them, I know my daughter's troop did 20 years ago.

Just finished reading page 1 so don't know if this has been mentioned or not. The cones could be Xhristmas trees. put glue on the cone slap coton balls on, little sparkles or beads and you'e a nice little Christmas deco. Can lightly spray paint green for real tree effect but think white would show up decoraions better. Can be given as little gifts.

Hi,
I use them for wrapping floss, but I don't sew enough to have extras. I could use a lot of wooden ones.

This is what I did with some old spools. I made it about 38 yrs. ago.

Sorry double post