What do you do with your model instructions?

[seadude]

Every time I finished a model kit, I would save the instruction sheet and file it away some place. But after years of building models, is it really worth it to hang onto the instructions any more? Should I just ditch them in the trash? Though what I am trying to do instead is scan all the instructions into my computer so that I have an "electronic copy" for future reference purposes. But even after scanning them, should I still keep the original sheets or just throw them away?
For example, I built the old Testor Stingbat LHX model ages ago. No sense hanging onto the instructions after all this time, right?

[TomZ]

I've kept them all in a big box. (Which is overflowing now....).
I don't know exactly why because I never look at them again.

I thought about scanning them but I think that's too much work.
So they stay in the box for now.

TomZ

[Steel Penguin]

the first copy of each gets kept, ( in case of dusting problems, cats, earthquake or bird-strike) after that binned, I may have instructions for kits I no longer have, but that's worth the ability to repair anything. 

[PR19_Kit]

As 90% of my modelling these days are Whiffs, the very last thing I need is the instructions, so I tend to throw them away BEFORE I start building the model. 

[Spey_Phantom]

depending on the model, i mostly throw them away, unless i keep decals and save the instructions for another similar model.
the only one ive kept is the one for the revell NH90-TTH (as its no longer available and the parts are also in the NFH boxing).

if i need paint instructions or otherwise, i can easely find them online (via Galaxykits.com, scalemates, revell, cybermodeller,...)

[McColm]

I keep mine, as they come in handy when I buy a secondhand kit that doesn't have instructions.
There's a group on Facebook that encourages their members to scan them and download them.

[kitnut617]

I keep them in a file folder, USA ones in one and the rest of the Western world in another (they're mostly 1/72 military subjects). Boxes on the other hand get trashed ----

[sandiego89]

Usually depends on if I keep the box, but that begs another question!! Which boxes do I keep? I tend to pick the more robust boxes that are usually the two part types, and if there are also lots of left overs on the sprues. I also can keep built models in some of these boxes (I don't display many). Flimsy one piece boxes tend to get crushed in the stash and are not useful for storage and get tossed.

[zenrat]

I put them in a box.
I also put them in a bag as reference material (along with a print out of the back story I wrote for here) if I enter anything into Model Expo.

[Nick]

I had a load that I sent to the IPMS UK Instructions Library. Which I hear is now looking for a new home capable of housing several large filing cabinets.

Scanning and sharing is the way to go. It should start with the kit makers putting copies on their websites.

I keep a few boxes but most of them get junked.

[Dizzyfugu]

I keep them, and archive them in (after 40+ years) several folders. Always helpful for references, and for checking the layout of potential donor kits. I do not keep the box, though.

[NARSES2]

Scanning and sharing is the way to go. It should start with the kit makers putting copies on their websites.

Some do, Eduard for instance. Downloaded a p.d.f. of their Spitfire instructions to go with the overtrees boxing's I bought at telford 

I keep all my instructions simply because I have an absolute aversion for throwing away the printed word,ne wspapers don't count for some reason. Always felt that way.

[The Wooksta!]

Bonfire.  Bollards to recycling and the hand wringing from the environmentalists.  I am doing precisely that - recycling them into fun for me.

[The Rat]

Bonfire.  Bollards to recycling and the hand wringing from the environmentalists.  I am doing precisely that - recycling them into fun for me.

Not meaning to get off-topic, but numerous studies have shown that recycling paper is perhaps more damaging to the environment than simply growing another tree. Metals are definitely more economical to recycle rather than mining more, and does less environmental damage, but paper is a renewable resource.