I am a paladin. There are alot of things I pick up that I can't use, like most spells, thieves tools, wands, traps, etc. It seems I can't give them to my companion. Is there any reason to keep anything other than what I can use myself?

Does someone like Tomi gain anything from my carrying thieves tools?
Thanks

Thieves' tools are assigned to quickbar slots and used from there. However, you have no control of companion inventory in the OC, unless you install Tony K's companion mod. That said, Tomi can handle all locks and traps.

Paladins, and any character, can invest in the Open Lock skill as a cross-class skill (and the use Thieves' Tools to "buff" the skill), but it's expensive and pally's usually don't have the Intelligence to spare the skillpoints. Use Magic Device is also cross-class and lets you cast from some wands and spell scrolls (depends on how much you invest in it).

Thanks - so basically if my character can't use it, and because I can't give them to party members - sell it.

The Pretty Good Character Creator / Customizer PGC3, a module for managing your various characters for use in different campaigns, has a permanent stash chest that allows you to share items with your other characters. So in theory, if you find something really cool, you can export your character, load up the PGC3 with the exported character, put that item in the stash, and then load the module with a different character who is able to use it, take it out of the stash and export the character with the item in their inventory for use with another campaign/module (provided it let's you keep the item).

I say in theory, because I don't think it's really worth the trouble in most cases. So yeah, just sell the stuff you can't use, or don't even pick it up if it clutters your inventory too much.

Thanks for the tips