Safety pins cost about $2 for a box of 45. That’s not a typo.

Most households shove them into junk drawers and forget they exist until Halloween rolls around and someone needs a last-minute costume fix on Sunday night. But that little metal loop earns its place in every bag, coat pocket, and car console you own, and here’s exactly why.

Start with zippers. Broken zipper pulls don’t mean a jacket is finished. Thread the pointed end of a safety pin through the zipper head, close it, and you’ve got a working pull again. Takes maybe 10 seconds. Sawyer, who fixes gear at a local shop off Woodward, said he’s seen people throw out perfectly good coats over a missing pull that costs nothing to replace. “It holds up through 20, 30 uses easy,” he said. That fix works on luggage, backpacks, kids’ hoodies, and coats, and a safety pin can also coax a jumped zipper back onto its teeth when it’s skipped the track from an overstuffed school bag.

Drawstrings are the other classic suburban headache. Every parent knows the Monday morning parking lot panic: a drawstring has vanished inside a waistband and there’s nothing to grab it with but a fingernail and a bad mood. According to tips compiled by Family Handyman, the move is simple. Fasten a safety pin to the end of the drawstring, push it into the channel opening, then inch it through slowly while gathering fabric behind it. Slow is the key word here. Rush it and you’ll lose the pin somewhere inside the waistband, which makes the whole situation worse.

Here’s one most people haven’t tried. Grammer, a seamstress who runs alterations out of a studio near 7 Mile, says a safety pin placed at the rear inner seam of a dress can pull in the fit and create a tailored silhouette without a single stitch. It’s not a permanent solution, but if the party starts at 7 and the tailor closed at 5, temporary covers the full distance you need.

Three more.

Static electricity turns January in a heated suburban house into a misery parade. You touch the car door and it’s like a small punishment. Clip a safety pin to the inside hem of your pants or skirt and the metal bleeds off the charge before it builds. It won’t kill every zap, Sawyer said, but it cuts down the frequency enough that you’ll notice.

Bra straps sliding off a shoulder and out from under a tank top can wreck an outfit fast. Pin them. A safety pin placed on the underside of the garment anchors the strap to the outer fabric and keeps it locked through a full day. You can also pin straps together at the back when wearing a racer-back top. No fashion tape that loses its grip by noon. Just a pin that stays put.

Jewelry is the last piece, and it’s a good one. Anyone who’s opened a suitcase after a flight to find their necklaces and bracelets fused into one knotted disaster knows the specific frustration. Lay each piece flat on a small strip of cloth, then fasten it near the clasp with its own safety pin. Longer necklaces get a second pin on the far end to keep them from sliding. Every piece stays separate, and you don’t spend 20 minutes at your destination trying to pull apart a chain knot with your thumbnail.

A box of 45 safety pins for $2 doesn’t sound like much. That’s because it doesn’t need to.