I was rummaging around in the garage looking for the key to an old bicycle lock when I came across this old button tin which I must have had for over thirty years 
Do people keep button tins any more?....I mean apart from the ladies who do dress-making professionally or as a hobby. Does the button tin have a place in today's home as remembering to cut buttons off old clothes now seems to be nought but a chore.
I seem to remember mum always had a tin and whenever the clothes which had been passed down from child to child were finally done, then the zips and buttons were cut out for future use. Not only was her button tin a storage container for buttons but it was also a means of keeping us children amused when it was too wet to play outside. Stories could be woven around the various buttons, the military ones, the sparkly ones even the plain shirt buttons.
We learned to add and subtract with buttons.
"How many red buttons?"
"If there are three red buttons and two yellow buttons, how many all told?"
"And if we take a red and a yellow button away, how many left?"
I must have carried on the tradition when I left home but I can't remember ever sewing the buttons which I had cut off from my jumble sale buys on to any other items of clothing 
I know people collect interesting buttons as a hobby but I never kept them for this reason...so why have I still got them after all these years 
Oh, I remember now..it's because I also throw obsolete keys in the tin too just in case I ever need them again
thehomelyyear
Pro 
I wouldn't be without my button tin. I do a lot of sewing so I'm always using them...and I must admit to cutting buttons off old clothes. Don't you think buttons are fascinating though? Like you, we spent hours playing with them when we were children...it was one of our favourite wet weather games.
Margaret and Noreen