@needlenosedog wrote:
I am new to buttons too. And hope this becomes an active group too. I don't even know where to start in organizing all these things besides color. How are you organizing yours. Cleaning them too. What is the best way...plastic I mean. Any books that are and were helpful for you beside the bible, The big book of Buttons by Hughes.
Well, if they're all plastic, then I would group them by color. I tend to separate out unique shapes, such as flowers or butterflies or other obvious shape besides just round and put those together. The groupings just sort of happen naturally, lol, but looking right now over at my group of plastic buttons I have them separated into 12 different bins basically by color with one being of definite shapes (flowers, etc.). Plastic by itself cleans up with soap and water. If they're on a card that's a different story. Dab with Q-tip and water or alcohol. Have to be careful if the plastic is painted, then alcohol won't work. But for solid plastic should be ok. If the buttons are loose and you don't have anything fragile to worry about, I'd put them in a bowl of hot soapy water.
Storage. Mason jars work well but take up a lot of space if you have a lot of them. I keep my plastic buttons like I said in these neat stackable nesting plastic bins I found at the thrift store. They're about 4 inches tall, 3 inches wide, and 6-8 inches long with a lid that nests neatly inside, keeping the sides smooth so they can lay side by side with no gaps. I have 12 of them and they stack very neatly, I keep them stacked 4 containers tall and 3 containers wide, like this they fit perfectly in the shelf I keep them on, and are perfect for this very sort of thing. My better quality buttons are in little plastic baggies in a drawer. They're by material (glass, wood, shell, etc), and size, and color. Super organized, down to each pair or matching sets. Extra special buttons are in their own bag so as to protect them. The plastic buttons, on the other hand, are just loose in the plastic bins I described. Some are bagged in groups but not all.
You're making me want to get them out ..... lol..... oh lordy don't get me started.....!
