I suppose most homemakers don’t have the amount of buttons I have – accumulated through inheritance and every other avenue possible. For quite some time, my buttons were kept in the giant glass salad dressing jar that held my mother’s buttons. It held a respectable amount of buttons – all akimbo!
My mother felt this was a good system, even though it required a tedious hunting and pecking effort to locate a single button, let alone several matching buttons. I, however, am not my mother. And I confess to being a tad, OK, a LOT more needy of organization than she was. While I won’t go so far as to say my “buttons were being pushed” – I admit to feeling anxious about them.
I was compelled to troll Pinterest in search of ideas. Alas, nothing was presented that would organize the gigantic amount and variety of buttons I had. The ideas ranged from spice racks to customized shelving. My penury nature resisted the idea of spending any money whatsoever.
Garage sales had yielded a bonanza of canning jars the previous summer – and I had my answer. By sorting the buttons into cute 4 oz. “quilted” jelly jars, I had my favorite things all at once. Organization – and thrift. For someone like me – this is organizing ecstasy. And since I have a large amount of white and off white buttons, those are divided by size as well. This solved all at once the huge amount of buttons, which was even greater than my mother’s had been. And they are easy to locate by color – without labeling. I love labeling as much as the next “organ-ista” but if I can avoid labels, I do, because to my way of thinking – it’s one less thing to spend money on. And – these jelly jars are readily available – should I need more (yikes!) or if one should break. I realize not everyone has this amount of buttons – but this will also work well with large beads and sequins! I do some sequin work when I make a costume or an evening gown – and they are difficult to store. They are so light in weight – and easily scatter all over the place. With the sequins in the jelly jars, I can just dip my beading needle into the jar, and come out with a sequin. Very smooth!
In this image you can only see the multi-colored sequins, but in other jars are iridescent, solid black, and solid white sequins, as well as specialty sequins shaped like stars and snowflakes. I do not however – use these jars to store beads – that is another topic entirely.
The next question was – where to put the twenty jelly jars so they would be largely out of the way, but still easily accessible? A trip to the attic revealed a dusty, black wire, two tiered fruit basket. I already have a combination wrought iron banana hangar with a fruit basket underneath – so the one from the attic was just taking up space. Viola! While the proportions in the picture are deceptive in size, I assure you that there are twenty jelly jars in that fruit basket. The height of the total basket is 17.5″ and the diameter of the large and deep bottom basket is 13.5.” More than enough space and easy to see. This whole thing is set on top of my grandmother’s extremely heavy wrought iron plant stand – which at this time I do not use for plants. Since buttons are not looked at as often as my other sewing notions – this arrangement keeps them out of they way in my work area, and makes a decorative display for the sewing space. The faceted “quilting” on the jelly jars makes beautiful buttons even more lovely. Dusting is easily accomplished with some kind of duster with a handle on it – like a Swiffer or one with lamb’s wool.
It is evident to me, from nature, that our God, is a God of order. He makes things beautiful and orderly. What a nice way to emulate our Creator! Living with order can create harmony and a sense of calmness in our homes. He is never careless with His creation – we should never be careless with what He has given us.
The Vine Vigil 