How to Store and Dispose of Broken Sewing Pins and Needles
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Welcome to Day 30 of 31 Days of Getting Organized!
After tidying up my sewing corner, I started sewing.. but didn’t get very far because my needle broke…
Which reminded me that I wanted to ask you all how you store and dispose of your broken sewing needles and pins….
I don’t know about you, but I can’t bring myself to just put the broken needles straight in the bin. Maybe it is because here in the Middle East all the rubbish goes into a big skip on the road, and cats go in there to look for food… I worry that they might step on the pins and needles, or worse, eat them by accident.
So I started putting them in little jars like this one:
Then when DH was diagnosed with diabetes, he was given one of those yellow sharps disposable boxes (you may have seen them at the doctor’s or hospital), so I started putting my pins and needles in that instead. That is back in Australia, so I am starting over with this little jar.
I have no idea what I will do with the broken pins and needles once the sharps container is full (it’s about half full now)… I mean, do you think if I hand it in at a medical center or doctor they will accept it? Probably not what they would expect to find in a sharps container 🙂 But I will cross that bridge when I come to it.
For now I think when this jar is full I will toss it out and hope for the best….
So, that’s what I do…. how about you?  How do you store and dispose of your broken sewing pins and needles?
Great idea! I think the trash workers would appreciate this idea, too.
I put mine, the broken and the used, into an empty tablet container, and in all my longarming years, I have only ever filled one, and this went into the bin, with the lid on, so should be fairly safe I think.
I have a plastic toothpick container in my sewing room that I put all the bent pins and broken needles into and when that gets full I look for a small glass jar with a lid and transfer them to that before putting in the garbage. Or if I happen to have emptied a face cream jar I’ll use that to dispose of them.
Once the lid goes on those yellow sharps bins, they are never opened again, just incinerated. So, sad to say, no one will ever know your trash is more interesting than diabetic needles. 🙂 In the labs they end up with far worse in them than a few sewing needles anyway. Since your sharps are going into community waste, it is a great idea to contain them. Nearly done on your 31 days!
Yes, I feel the same about sharp things in rubbish. I use whatever I can find, small minty tins, my little dog used to have regular pills so the empty pill boxes are still going, cocktail stick bottles etc….
Hugz
I also use an empty toothpick container – I can just rotate the lid to put one in, then close it again. At work we use pill pottles for all our needles, etc. Before I emptied and started using my toothpick container I used to put my used sharps in the plastic case the cutting blades come in (labelled so I didn’t get muddled!) but it didn’t store very many and not as ‘safe’ to open up ….. they could fall out more easily.
Great idea with the jar, I sometimes use my little medication bottles too.
What about cutting blades? I’m always lost as to how to dispose of them safely.
Hi Joy, I like your idea of putting them in a little jar. I was just putting them into a piece of paper and throwing in the waste basket to go in the trash. Maybe not such a good idea. I like yours better! Nancy