Collections sometimes do accidentally happen. Collections of marketing pens, collections of makeup samples, collections of spare buttons. They sneak up on you with their ‘I could be useful one day’ vibe and their ‘I’m so small, I won’t take up too much space’ promise. But once they group together they become problematic.
This post came about after a coincidental chat with a friend, who on the same weekend as me, was trying to decide what to do with her accidental spare button collection. We agreed that it seems like a considerate gesture of the clothing manufactures to include a spare button but we wondered if enough people actually use them to justify such an effort.
I think a poll is required!
Do you a) keep your spare buttons or b) throw them out along with the price tag?
If you tend to go with the first option, do you then a) keep them all in the one box or bag? or b) organise them?
If you didn’t follow the path of ‘all in together’ – how have you sorted them? We want to know! So please respond in the comments below 🙂
My friend and I both had the idea of making notes on the packaging and then attaching it to a coat hanger which would then be dedicated to the clothing item. This was deemed too time consuming and logistically problematic though. Jumping on Google, it was revealed that this is actually a genuine first world problem and many people do not know what to do with these button collections.
My search led to a few viable solutions but by far my favourite was from the website Modern Parents Messy Kids where they have a nifty free template to use in conjunction with easily obtainable business card pockets. Amazing!
In the end I decided that my collection was too far gone, I couldn’t recall what most of the buttons were for so I picked out the buttons that were recognisable and binned the rest. Decluttering wins once again my friends.
