I don't like to waste things that could be used again, either by myself or by somebody else, but often the result is that I end up housing lots of stuff that I will probably never use, because of the inconvenience to me of gathering it up and assisting it in meeting a new user.
Our pantry is full of #5 plastics, corks, and bottle tops that I will eventually take to one of the local stores that can recycle them (our city-wide curbside recycling service will not accept them). The pantry is also home to egg cartons and produce containers that can be reused by local farmers, if only Dan or I remember to take them all to the farmer's market and hand them over.
Several soaker hoses are coiled on the table on my patio, also waiting for delivery to a local farmer. By the time I get them to him, it will be far too late for this year's crops. There's always next year's beans, right?
Our wedding china lives in boxes in the attic. The last time I used it was when somebody made a sandwich for me a few days after my second son was born. She used a fancy plate, perhaps to make the meal a little more special. I'm not a terribly fancy person and when we moved, I didn't want to take up cabinet space with twelve place settings and various serving pieces. It needs a home where it can be appreciated. Ditto that for the end tables that fit in our old house but not in our new house, and reside next to the boxed china.
There are oodles of screws and bolts and nails and picture hangers and other odd bits of hardware in bins and drawers in my basement. The problem with hardware is that you can almost never use it up. Take a screw out of the wall and it's still a screw with as much life in it as it ever had. I hate throwing away screws and have a lifetime supply. The problem is, the supply is not for my lifetime, it's for somebody who uses screws way more than I do. I'm not even sure where I would donate them, and when I would ever have so little to do that "donate screws" would top my task list. Not to mention all the strange unused extra bits of hardware that came with particular assembly-required items. Maybe the preschool can use them. (My kids already have plenty of "beautiful stuff" to mes with.)
It's all being kept out of the landfill. Now I just need to get it out of my house.