What do you guys do with all these leftover bits of thread?

I know I should probably just toss them, but the art student in me knows there must be some great use for them I just haven't thought of yet lol

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Be careful. When a thread king gets to a certain size, it may acquire sentience.
- Can confirm. Same thing happened to me, but with neurons. Do not recommend.
In the crafting world, these are called orts. And some people get super creative with them! I've seen them user to decorate cards, to make collage art, to fill little clear Christmas ornaments or felt animals, etc. I've been saving the ones from my current project because I want to take a picture of the finished cross stitch next to all its orts. It feels like a visual representation of "you can't make omelet without breaking a few eggs", you know?
- Should make a cloud out of them. It would be an ort cloud.
My current YouTube feed would recommend encasing it in epoxy, then using a lathe to make a bowl out of it.
- My cat would probably just eat them. Then I'd have to deal with them again when they come out the other side 😰
  
  Pulling poopy string out of butts is not fun. :{
  
  What are you doing with cat poop that would make this an issue lol
If you save enough, they actually make decent stuffing for throw pillows and similar projects.
take a lil nibble
Burn it. What else?
My wife and I started using a company called Ridwell so we could recycle things our municipal recycling doesn't take. Plastic film, light bulbs, batteries, and threads. From whole clothes that they will donate to tiny fragments. I'm not 100% sure what they do with the tiny bits without looking it up, but they'll take them.
I save up thread, yarn and fabric scraps that are too small to do anything with in a shoebox, and then use it to stuff small pillows and such.
Looks like they might be at a good length for making (multicolored) tassels, if you've got anything that might be improved by a few of those.
- I do have some homemade lampshades that could do with tassels... I'd need to save up a lot more bits of thread though! That may become the long term goal for these
I've been composting them at the end of each project.
I hoard my ORTs in a mason jar against the day I come up with a weird project for them. Considering putting them inside a set of handmade dice, maybe 🤔
- After reading some of the responses here I have also started an ort jar! If I save enough maybe I'll stuff a pillow with them 😀
  
  Ambitious, but you are a fast stitcher so who knows lol
Give it to your cat, if you don't have one, get one and give it all the pieces

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