So, I kept hearing this name, Mary Ambrose, popping up in some crafting forums I browse. Mostly about organizing little bits and bobs. My button jar was, well, let’s just say it was chaos. You know, dig around for ten minutes hoping to find a matching pair. So I thought, okay, let’s give this Mary Ambrose way a shot.
Getting Started
First thing, I had to figure out what this ‘method’ actually was. From what I gathered, it wasn’t rocket science. Just sorting things meticulously. For buttons, it seemed to be about sorting by color first, then by size within that color group. Sounded simple enough, maybe a bit tedious, but my button mess was getting on my nerves.
I went down to the basement and dug out all my button stashes. Had one big jar, a couple of old cookie tins, you name it. Dumped the whole lot onto an old bedsheet on the floor. Wow. Didn’t realize I had so many.
The Actual Sorting Part
Okay, this was the main job. I put on some music and just started sorting.
- Made piles for main colors: reds, blues, greens, yellows, whites, blacks, browns, and a ‘weird/multi-color’ pile.
- Then, tackled each color pile one by one. Separated the big buttons from the medium ones, and the tiny ones.
- This took… a while. Found some really old buttons, some quite nice ones I’d forgotten about. Also found a surprising number of single, lonely buttons. Story of my life, eh?
While sorting, I realized I needed containers. The idea was to see everything easily. I didn’t have fancy storage, so I just used some old clear jam jars I’d saved, and a few small plastic takeaway boxes I’d washed out. Not perfect, but good enough to start.
Putting It All Together
Once sorted, I started filling the jars and boxes. Little jars for the smaller size groups, bigger ones for the colors I had tons of (looking at you, white buttons). Then I tried arranging them on the shelf like Mary Ambrose apparently suggested – kind of like a rainbow. Reds into oranges, yellows, greens, blues, purples, then the neutrals like white, black, grey, brown.
Honestly, putting them on the shelf like that felt a bit fussy at first. But I did it anyway.
So, Did It Work?
Yeah, it actually did. Took an afternoon, mostly sorting, but now? Big difference. I can just glance at the shelf, grab the jar for ‘medium blue buttons’ or ‘small white buttons’, and find what I need in seconds. No more endless digging.
It looks pretty neat too, all sorted by color on the shelf. Maybe Mary Ambrose was onto something. It’s nothing revolutionary, just basic sorting, but taking the time to actually do it made a real difference to my crafting space. Definitely better than the chaos jar I had before. Still got a pile of ‘mystery singles’, but hey, that’s a problem for another day.
