I tossed a bunch of contact paper recently because I'd been storing it for a while and hadn't had anything to use it on. Just 2 weeks later I need contact paper! At least it's something I can buy more of.

What have you tossed?

It wasn't me that tossed it. Years ago some movers lost a box when we changed states. The box contained embroidery, needlepoint and crewel embroidery threads I had been collecting for years and half a knitted sweater. Worthless from the movers' point of view--priceless and irreplaceable to me. :-(

Message edited by its author, Mar 13, 2008, 11:14pm.

Jeez, that must have been painful, punxsygal.

Sadly, I'm not very good at discarding anything that might be potentially useful. I think it comes of having a Depression-era packrat dad, who very cleverly made things with scraps of wood and hardware. Except I accumulate fiber-y things. I have a new strategy that seems to help a little. I remind myself that I cannot have everything. I do not even have to have everything that is interesting/pretty/soft/unusual. It's ok if someone else has it. And then I ask myself: do I want to keep this because I like it and have ideas for using it? or do I have this because I think I should have it, just in case? If the latter, I try to be very brave and get rid of it.

Um - I guess I haven't answered the question. I know I've passed along yarn that I later thought of a use for. And I've given away knitting needles I liked to friends I was teaching to knit, then felt I should have given them others instead. Once a friend admired a scarf I was knitting, and, pleased, I told her she could have it when it was done (even though I sort of wanted it) - it looks better on her, though, and she's a dear friend so I don't regret giving it to her.

MaggieO you sound like me! Familial packrat nature.
Sometimes I think I sabotage myself with a perfect idea for something, after it leaves the house. Then nothing is allowed to go for quite some time. I think for me the process of deciding what to toss and what can be used gives rise to the creative- well, I could use it with.....
Scraps of stuff is exactly what I am missing now. I just had a major clear-out when i reorganized my work area. Of course I need just a few bits to sample with before I buy enough for the full project. I don't need the contact paper yet though, tossed that out.
The worst things I have lost though, were when someone else decided I didn't really mean to keep all that 'junk'. I still keep looking for squirreled items from years ago that were thrown out in a move.

Worst ever: I'd bought a cashmere fleece from a vendor, when $50 was a fortune to me. I had the smelly hair in a plastic bag on a bottom shelf in a garage, planning to handwash and spin the fleece later. The landlords I was renting a room from in the house thought it was just "old dog hair" they'd never thrown out, even though everything on that shelf was mine. Without asking, they threw it out. I was devestated, and I think I cried. I remember the mom scraped together $33, mostly in ones and probably without her husband's knowledge, and put it in a "I'm sorry" card and left it in my room.

:( That's horrible, cay!! I would have cried too! Who would keep dog hair anyway? I hope the $33 went to something fun -- replacement cashmere?

I'm sure the money just went to living -- at the time, every dollar was precious. I haven't run across the accidental supplier since then, although occasionally I look at what cashmere fleeces are going for online. But it's still in my "some day" list of projects. Right now the "do it now!" list is much longer. *Grin*