Tchotchkes

Recently there was collection organized in Lake Bluff for repurposing old T-shirts.   

One of the habits in my prior life as a road warrior was to pick up a T-shirt from various cities and airports.   I had a pretty extensive collection -- from Malaysia to Sydney to Nice, etc.   They have basically sat in a drawer for the last twenty years.   I usually only wear a handful of worn T-shirts, that I really like, and the others just take up space. 

I was thrilled to learn that I could actually repurpose these shirts and hauled them over to the Lake Bluff Farmers Market a few weeks ago.

Which leads me to tchotchkes...   One of the most annoying things in corporate life were the trinkets that were handed out along the way.   Take real estate, for example...   Every year I was given this ugly plaque that highlighted sales achievements.   What am supposed to do with it?   I finally started throwing them out.   I have a whole trunk of things in the basement from my days at Andersen Consulting (Accenture).  Nobody wants them, yet I loathe the idea of adding them to some landfill. 

I laughed when I recently read this article:
I declutter homes for a living. I hate free stuff.

Any suggestions about what to do with tchotchkes?