Confessions of a packrat...

[Mike Kolb]

Do you have odd stuff that (try as you might) you're unable to toss-out?  With me, it's little well-made shipping boxes and old string ends.

The boxes always come in handy for lots of things, but it's the old string ends that worry me.

I've often used the excuse that "well, they're handy for popping the clog on a little bottle of cyanoacrylate or something".  And then there's the ever-popular "they're handy for measuring nut slots". 

But the truth is, there's way too many of them for either of those rationalizations to hold much water, so I'll simply confess that I like the way they look in my empty Hershey's can!   OK... it's your turn.

[Glen H]

Cool.... and that gives me an idea for a new art media.  If Andy could do it with a soup can, guitar string balls should be a no-brainer.

[Jon Whitney]

Try a google image search for "Guitar String Ball End Jewelry"... plenty of ideas for emptying out that can.

[Allen L Wall]

OOO A String Bouquet! :)

[Russell Vance]

Our spray painter uses them to clear nozzles......I use them for wicking glue onto nut bases mainly......I also have a million of them in a can that I will never use......it took me five years to start throwing out worn out and busted pots and switches. If I get buried with my random tools and hoarded "essentials"  I will need a grave site the size of a football field. 

Virgos and luthiery/repair is not a good mix....Virgos and anything are not a good mix anywhere or anytime,  anyway.

Rusty.

[Mike Kolb]

....and so that would explain it, since I'm a Virgo as well :)

[Patrick Corrigan]

Reminds me of my can of thin wood strips saved to use a shims!

[Ron Frazier]

I save mine in a 15 gallon barel just to admire how many I use. At one time I offered them to any one on this list but no takers !

One day I had my left my dear wife at the store while I went some where and when i cam back my can full was gone ! On questioner her she said some one was looking for strings for their tattoo gun so she gave my priceless used strings away ! I wonder how many tattoos got a infection .

Anothr time I left her I had told her and every one elce that if it didn't have a price it was not for sale but some one found a french horn in a old junk case and no price so it went for $ 15.00! It looked like new but one valve string needed replacing. She told him he had to take the old case but he declined.

Another time when I was in the hospital she, my grand daughter, asked what the lest I would take for a tockmeny old solid wood that I had a price of $650.00 so told her use her own judgment and she sold it for $50.00. Free help is not free.

My grand daughter has moved away and My Wife passed a way 3 years ago.

Ron A wiser man I wish!

[Keith Somerville]

For a long time, I was saving ball-ends: not really sure why as I've very rarely found a use for them. But they are there! I hate chucking stuff, in general. I've a drawer full of old electric guitar pots. I will never ever use them. Scraps of old binding, weird bits of fretwire, old broken nuts. It's great when you eventually use one. The other day an old Teisco needed a weird saddle: and I had one in my little drawer full of weird odd saddles!

[LARRY KLOSE]

String clippings are perfect for clearing out solidified milk from the steam outlet on my espresso machine (I use it for Cappucino, imagine that!).  They are also good for cleaning a shower head when mineral deposits restrict the water flow.  I always keep a few around in different sizes.

[Patrick Corrigan]

What I really like about packrats is the creative uses for (or, if you will, justifications for keeping) the stuff we save that others would toss!