How many times have you gone out and bought a new article of clothing, gotten it home and found little paper envelope containing a couple extra buttons for your new threads? Thankfully, my wife buys most of my clothes (really, it’s wonderful), so I rarely encounter this. But this past weekend, in preparation for a little cocktail/birthday party a friend was throwing, I picked up a nice new jacket. Got it home, cut off all the tags and whatnot and threw that badboy on for another look. Then, I discovered the buttons.
Now, whenever this has happened to me in the past, I’ve always had 2 conflicting thoughts (and I imagine some of you will recognize these):
- I should really keep these buttons – what would happen if a button came off of my [whatever]? I’d certainly want to have these guys around somewhere for an occasion like that!
- Yeah, these are as good as trash.
I’ve owned quite a few articles of clothing in my day, and a handful of them have been of high enough quality to include this little pocket of buttons add-on. Sitting here, I can’t recall a single instance where a button has fallen off of something I was wearing and I couldn’t find it, but that’s beside the point. If enough people need replacement buttons included with their new clothes, that’s what they’ll get.
Assuming you’ve decided to keep the buttons, what do you do with them? Most of the time, the packaging gives no information regarding the associated shirt/jacket, so you’re left with a whole bowl full of unmarked envelopes and small baggies that each contain 2-4 buttons, depending on the pocket they came in. How do you keep track of them? It struck me this evening – so simple, I’m certain several of you have been doing this for years…
Write the name/description of the clothing on the button envelope. The buttons from the aforementioned jacket are now labeled “Brett’s nice corduroy jacket” and sitting neatly in the filing cabinet with the rest of the buttons!
To recap, keep all your buttons in one place and write down a description of the clothing they go to on the side of the package.
Look, it’s after midnight on a weeknight and I’m feeling a little weird. More relevant content is coming, I promise 
Written by Brett Kelly
Hacking Life