The Curious Case of Bags of Buttons

Speaking of those lil' bitty button bags we talked about yesterday... while we conquered the problem of the little plastic bag itself, we didn't address the buttons inside. But never fear my friends, Everyday Alternative has a solution for that too!

Problem #2 The Buttons

What to do, what to do with all those extra buttons? First, make sure you're not going to need them anymore. We kept 4 or 5 distinguishable buttons ..just in case.

Solution ...All-in-One Jewelry Storage System

We are total jewelry hags. We love the stuff. We're lucky that our husband is not only great at picking out jewelry on special occasions, but also very supportive of our habit. (phew!)

At the current time, however, we live in a very small space and so all our necklaces are crammed into this foot-tall, box shape, clear necklace storage thing. While it serves the purpose of storing the jewelry, it makes finding anything a nightmare of tangled necklaces. Plus, we often find ourselves just grabbing the easiest thing to grab and not really wearing what we want... or being able to see it for that matter.

So, we took all those extra buttons and super-glued them to an extra hanger we already had lying around. We made sure to glue the biggest buttons so that they left a "ledge" for hanging, along the long, straight (bottom) part of the hanger. Smaller buttons turned out to be perfect for hanging bracelets and poking earrings through. And it sure makes picking out jewelry in the mornings a whole lot easier...plus we can really see what we have.

Here's what it looked like while we were working on it:


And voila! Here's the end result:

Total time: Maybe 30 minutes, but let the glue dry over night before placing jewelry on it.

Alternative Options: More buttons, possibly using a hot glue gun, different sized buttons, more hangers

Let us know what you think if you try this out.

Lil' Bitty Button Bags

Don't know about you, but we always feel inclined to keep the buttons that come with clothes we buy. And, quite honestly, after taking inventory this evening, we have a plethora of buttons that we're pretty sure have no clothes to go with them anymore... seriously, we've been saving these things for years.

Problem #1: Button Bags

What are we supposed to do with all those lil' bitty button bags? They're plastic which we know is bad for the environment, but we clearly can't take our lunch to work in something this size.

Solution: Individual Pill Bags

We thought of this when our husband called and asked us to run some Advil out to him this evening. It didn't seem right to carry a handful of Advil out to the car and expect him to swallow them after ruminating in our sweaty palms. DING, the light went off! The button bags! This little guy made the perfect individual carrying case.

AND, we think it would be the perfect way to pack pills for a trip... at least so you didn't have to get one of those grandma pill-carrying cases that you buy at the drug store. You could simply put all your daily meds/vitamins/pills in a marked bag and have a quick grab at it, on the go!

And the best part is that they'll hold up time and again, we bet!

iPod Bit the Big One? No Tears, Just Lung Cancer!

Broken iPod? No need to get angry and throw it out the car window. Strip it of all its dignity and then make it into a cigarette case!

Welcome to Everyday Alternative!

While this blog is currently still under construction, you can look forward a world of information about taking your stuff and reusing it in new and useful ways. It's amazing how much stuff you can recycle into useable objects, tools, art, etc.

I can't wait to share with you all the ideas I find.

Please e-mail me at rockchalk1979@yahoo.com if you have an idea you'd like me to share. I'd love to hear from you!

Jennie Day-Burget