10 Things You Should Never Throw Away

If you're cleaning out your home office and come across a box of these butterfly-winged beauties, do not even THINK of throwing them away. In the life hacker community, binder clips are the go-to tool for a clever solution to any household problem.

Binder clips are prized for their strength — if you ever had a fingertip, earlobe or tongue caught in one of these suckers, you know what we mean. They're also flat on one side, enabling them to stand up with some degree of stability.

Among the many, many, many uses that have been dreamed up for binder clips, here are some of our favorites [source: Gordon]:

When Reynolds sold its first rolls of aluminum foil back in 1947, the company advertised it as the foil for "1,001 kitchen miracles." Foil exhibits some unique properties of metal — moisture-proof, odor-proof, able to withstand extreme temperatures — and adds the uncanny ability to be molded into any imaginable shape. Foil is also washable, making it the material with 1,001 lives.

Next time you use a sheet of foil to cover a plate of leftovers, rinse it off afterwards, and save it for one of these unexpected household uses [source: Stimpson]:

In the world of high-tech gadgets, it's a short trip from "next best thing!" to a child's plaything. Computers, TVs and cell phones fall out of fashion so fast that some folks have collections of old gadgets collecting dust in the basement. If you're tempted to drag yesterday's technology to the curb, check out these numbers about the benefits of recycling electronics [source Environmental Protection Agency]:

Visit the EPA donation and recycling website to search for local retailers who accept old TVs, computers and cell phones. There are also charitable organizations like Cell Phones for Soldiers and Hope Phones that will take your old flip phone put it in the hands of someone who will really appreciate it. Another cool organization is Music and Memory, a group that gives old iPods and other MP3 players to dementia patients.

Next time you pop open a nice full-bodied merlot or celebrate with a crisp bottle of Champagne, hold on to that cork. With some patience -- or some serious drinking – you'll collect enough corks to make dozens of cool DIY projects.

A simple bulletin board or corkboard is the classic project. Glue a hundred or so corks in an eye-catching pattern on a backing board or within a colorful frame. For a cork bath mat, slice the corks in half lengthwise and hot glue the flat sides to a sheet of shelf paper [source: Ewing].

Even if you only have a handful of corks, you can get creative. Make a floatable keychain by twisting a loop screw into a favorite cork. Carve a cool pattern into the end of a cork to make handy stamps [source: Puhala]. Or take thin slices of cork and glue them inside cabinet doors to make them slam-proof [source: Stimpson].

Step inside a fancy restaurant kitchen and alongside the expensive chef's knives and $200 All-Clad pans are cheap plastic squeeze bottles. Chefs fill squeeze bottles with olive oil, custom sauces and spicy condiments to add a controlled dash of flavor or color to a dish. You can buy the same squeeze bottles for your home kitchen or save a couple of bucks and raid the recycling bin.

The next time you make pancakes, fill a big squeezable ketchup bottle with the batter and squirt out perfect portions without drips or spills. Fill old salad dressing bottles with your own vinaigrette or wash out the Sriracha bottle (really well) and fill it with homemade Magic Shell ice cream topping [source: Trover].

Recycled squeeze bottles are equally useful outside of the kitchen. Fill old honey bear bottles with paint for the kids' art table or dispense hand soap from a former mustard bottle. It'll keep your guests guessing!

Far out in the Pacific Ocean floats an island of garbage twice the size of Texas. Known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, it's an accidental accumulation of millions of tons of floating debris — much of it plastic — trapped in a convergence of oceanic currents.

The single-use plastic grocery bag has been targeted by environmental groups as a ubiquitous symbol of waste. Discarded plastic bags can travel hundreds of miles on the wind and float along rivers and oceans, if they don't lodge in trees first. Every year, an estimated 100,000 marine mammals and 1 million sea birds die from ingesting plastic waste [source: Surfrider]. Several states are currently considering "ban the bag" laws [source: NCSL].

Part of the trouble is that most municipal recycling programs don't accept plastic grocery bags. Most grocery stores will take back used bags, or you can give them a second or third life through a number of household uses.

There are millions of adults and children in developing countries without access to prescription eyeglasses and bifocal reading glasses. Uncorrected vision effectively renders them uneducated and unemployed, driving them even deeper into poverty. There are a number of charitable organizations that accept donations of used glasses, sort them by prescription, and ship them to people who cannot afford the luxury of good vision.

Lions Club International has been doing this good work for decades. Local branches of the Lions Club distribute eyeglass collection boxes to community buildings like libraries and schools. You can also mail eyeglasses to one of 18 Lions Eyeglass Recycling Centers worldwide.

New Eyes is another organization that distributes used eyewear to the needy. In addition to prescription eyeglasses and reading glasses in good condition, New Eyes accepts sunglasses, metal eyewear in any condition, and watches and jewelry that the organization sells to raise money.

A favorite T-shirt is like an old friend. I have T-shirts that I've worn for 15 years and others that I should have stopped wearing a decade ago. When the holes on your favorite T-shirt are big enough to accidentally stick your arm through, it's time to consign your old friend to the rag drawer.

Cotton T-shirts make the best all-purpose rags for dusting, wiping off counters, washing cars. OK, that's not exactly true — old cloth diapers are the absolute champion of rags, but harder to find.

If you're a super-crafty DIY fashion type, check out these 50 ways to repurpose an old T-shirt including bracelets, hair wraps, tote bags, and rag rugs.

Rubber bands are a junk drawer staple (right next to the actual staples, coincidentally) and should never, under any circumstance, be thrown out. If you have small children, then you are familiar with the Parent's Rule of Rubber Bands and Tape, which states: "In the event that you should throw out a rubber band or finish a roll of Scotch tape, your children will immediately and desperately need said rubber band or tape for their school project."

Rubber bands are also a simple solution to loads of annoying household problems. Try these creative ideas [sources: Breyer and Reader's Digest]:

When American brothers Clarence and E. Irvin Scott invented the toilet paper roll in 1890, they created more than a convenient way to dispense an indispensable product; they ignited our collective obsession with the humble cardboard toilet paper tube [source: McRobbie]. For children, a handful of toilet paper tubes is fodder for hours of fun in the form binoculars, rockets, submarines — and that's without the addition of paper towel tubes.

They have adult uses too. Instead of throwing out those cardboard tubes, put them to work around the house with the following brilliant ideas [sources: Reader's Digest, Real Simple]:

For lots more tips for giving new life to old stuff, check out the related links on the next page.