Man Made DIY

Bowtie, tie, handkerchief/pocket square, rags, juggling balls, etc. 

I think they would make a great toy monster.

Use the fabric to add accents to your basic clothings, like those tshirts with floral pockets. Apply lightweight interfacing to help the fabric keep on keepin on, then sew the accents to your clothes like a checkered pocket on your basic tee, or a checkered accent on your jeans pocket (as a faux binding on the pocket edge, or on the exposed part of the pocket) maybe?

Make a kite.

Whenever I have small pieces of fabric with tiny patterns like your shorts, I usually turn them into fabric covered thumbtacks following How About Orange's tutorial: http://howaboutorange.blogspot.com/2007/03/thumb-tack-tutorial.html

It's a really easy and quick diy, you could try some of the other readers' sugestions and with the leftover pieces of fabric make yourself some of this little buddies for your corkboard...

Regardless of what you decide to do, post pictures of the final result! I'm curious now :)

If you have a child, make a nice soft ball.

Sign them and frame it like an autographed jersery.

And I mean just like that, you only need to fix them from the waist on the lamp frame.

They'd make an interesting lamp shade.

you can make a braided rug if you cut them into strips and use other fabric. see this step by step: http://www.abeautifulmess.com/2012/07/make-your-own-braided-rug.html

Cut up the strips and braid them into a braclet! You could add studs or spike, beads based on style. Or you could dye a couple pieces and make a multi color braid! 

I cut and sew the fabric into strips. Then I would braid them to make a bracelet. With the elastic waist, I would make a headband, and if I have some fabric left, I would make a flower to decorate it. So I would keep my favorite shorts and all the memories I have wearing them.

A bow tie! All you would need is some iron on stabalizer and your sewing machine. Looks like you should be able to patch enough peices together

shred it further and make paper from them, use the paper in a scrapbook with some photos from your swim meets or other adventures you had wearing them.

You could use the scraps as an accent fabric on a child's bib or for softie. (I can imagine a barn owl or squirrel with those colors.) 

Make tiny comforter and pillow set for a doll house.

Make a coffee coaster (I won't tell if you use it for your highballs.)

I think it is vital to use the wasteband portion of these for something because the fabric on that part of the shorts is rather unigue. If you were wanting to really go out of the box you could make a women's garter out of the elastic wasteband or even a really cool mens sweat band. It would be a simple sewing job, and it would leave the rest of the material to make into a cool tie. Personally I think that this design would work really well as a bow tie. In keeping up with using everything you could make the frayed portion into some form of a key chain. 

Patch together the good pieces in an interesting pattern, then replace the glass of a picture frame with a piece of cork wrapped in the fabric. Then you could add hooks or push pins to hang small items in the bedroom or at your desk.

What about a wallet?  Back in March last year you posted Noodlehead's tutorial on how to make one that looked neat.  Quiltish has a pretty cool tutorial as well: http://quiltish.blogspot.com/2010/05/tutorial-fathers-day-mens-wallet.html?m=1 

You could grab your journal, agenda or whatever book that you use daily or the book that you are reading right now and measure it.

Then see if with the fabric you can cut exactly the measure for a book cover if not what you can do is cut down several squares (pieces) of the fabric sew them together in order to form a cover that will fit the book you choose.

Finally paste it to the book and hide the borders inside it. It will be a different and unique book cover.

Do not throw the string instead grab it hold it around the book and measure it to see how much you need in order to create a fabric piece that will help you hold the book close by making pression. It would be an accessory that would match exactly to your book cover.

Yeah!

You should make a dog or cat (or both) bandana scarf.