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.