My office is getting over run by product samples. Some of these samples are old submittals and some are what the product reps have left behind.
How do I decide what to keep and what to toss? BTW, I am talking about samples that show how an item is constructed. Color and finish selection samples are left to the interior designer.
I always ask the client if they would like the submittal samples (often their Facility Manager has an interest in them).
If the client doesn’t want them, I dispose of them.
I try to keep submittal samples of project finishes that we want for future projects. Kind of like a lesson learned thing. If it is something I can get a sample of again from a manufacture and I do not need to keep it for file (+/-7 year thing) I throw it away or give it to the Owner, etc.
I also have a personal collection under my desk of items for reference to show young professionals that do not have much field experience. For instance I have a collection of flashings so I can show someone who is drawing a detail, but does not visually have an real idea of what they are drawing.
Do you have anything interesting for my collection?
Sure, I have a large pile of t-bar grid samples… 
Though it is potentially a problematic storage issue, I think that samples provided as a submittal should be kept with, and for the same amount of time, as all other submittals on the project. They are no less a part of the project record than the paper.
I treat office samples differently from project samples.
Office samples are similar to Julie Root’s and for the same reasons.
Project samples (contractor submittals) are used for preparing color boards for that project, so office samples are not depleted and incomplete. Also, submittals are more current and theoretically include only available colors so the designers can’t choose something they can’t have.
As soon as final finish selections are issued, the project samples are collected and sent to the job trailer for the inspector’s use to ensure that delivered colors match selected colors. Often, they do not.
At the completion of the project, the project samples leave in the jobsite dumpster. I believe there is no reason to retain them as the materials in the finished work have been inspected and found to match and no purpose is served in retaining little pieces when the Owner has a whole building made of the stuff.
This saves a lot of office space too.
Depending on the project type and the Owner’s needs, John Bunzick’s approach is also very appropriate.
One of my first jobs a longggg time ago was packing up and shipping all the samples for a VA Hospital. Somewhere in Washington is a huge warehouse filled with pieces of that building that probably will never be thrown away. Your tax dollars at work.
I agree with John’s comment above, however if storgae is an issue the samples could be photographed from several view points. Prints or digital files could then be archived with project files.
Saving samples for future projects is a waste of space unless the detail is a firm trademark…or the project has not yet closed…or a lawsuit is imminent.
Still I’d vote for digital image files over prints or sample storage any day.