While some may say my husband is close to being a hoarder, actually I like to consider him a thrifty pack rat 
Some advantages to being a thrifty pack rack include helping the environment in some small way.
By saving odds and ends obtained from various products and situations, he and I are doing our part to help keep the landfills small.
Here are a few things we save that we get to re-use in our work shop and around the house and yard...
Wire ties - Lots of products come with wire ties. All that is needed is a small screw driver to pry the locking end up enough to salvage the tie rather than cutting them and throwing them in the trash.
Wire wraps - you know those wirey, plastic coated ties that come around breads and things. We save them, put them in a plastic jar (My husband won't allow glass in the garage/shop, all containers are clear or see through plastic). We then re-use them to tie up various wires, cords and the like around the shop
Plastic Containers - speaking of plastic containers, we save lots of these. The clear ones (like mayo jars) we use in the shop to store screws, nails, bolts, grommets and more... We also use them in the kitchen for storing and freezing food stuffs
Brown paper packing paper - We get a lot of this when orderering things online. It also comes in very large sheets. We have a roll of this paper we use to cover the main workbench for glue ups, but we also have smaller tables/benches and use the sheets for these smaller benches and tables
Bubble wrap - We've been saving this stuff for years. Mostly for packing things in containers for storage, but also for shipping things we sell. It also works really well for keeping paintings/framed pictures from getting damaged either when storing them or when shipping them or when undergoing construction/painting to wrap up and protect!
Glass Jars - We do a lot of cooking and freezing at our house, and we use quite a bit of low fat oil. Rather than pouring the oil down the sink, we strain the oil with cheesecloth and save it in jars (the only thing we save glass jars for is this). We can get multiple uses out of the oil and when it gets burned we throw away the whole jar. We don't have room for a compost or we would add it to the compost. We use the glass instead of plastic because glass will break down where plastic does not and glass is better in the landfills
Plastic Bags - Not only the resealable ones you buy, but also the ones that products are sent in as well. we re-use these in the shop and for selling items, storing items and mixing things
Pallet Wood - Lots of woodworkers cringe at re-using pallet wood for various reasons, but we use them for lots of things. We've made french cleats out of them in the shop, we've glued them together to make clocks and rolling tool carts, we've used them after the hurricane to keep our valuables off the ground in the yard and covered with tarps so as not to ruin anything, and now we're about to use more as flooring in our new portable garage! They really come in handy. We have a special tool my husband uses to break down a pallet which he can do in 15 mins or less.
Hard Drives - So whenever we have a computer fail, my husband pull out the hard drive, attaches a usb connector to it and uses it for external storage. While storage drives are very inexpensive at the moment, the pricing does vary periodically so having these connected to working computers is an easy back up solution for all our 'puters (of which we currently have 7 in full time use)
Basically, whenever I or he find something or think of something that we can re-use at some point we try to save it. He's turned me into his partner in crime of being a thrifty pack rat LOL!
I post this thinking maybe others can benefit from our thrifty pack rat ways or perhaps you have things you save or uses for things I haven't mentioned?
Thanks as always in advance for reading...
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