People are funny. They never seem to strike the right balance, with almost anything. Anyone who gets a new haircut has either gone too far or not been daring enough. Booking a holiday? Same thing. Buying a house? Choosing what to have for dinner? Choosing a birthday present for a loved one? Why do we ever bother choosing anything, it’s always not quite right. When it comes to eyeglasses, people tend to either restrict themselves to one all-round pair of everyday frames, or alternatively they choose to own about nine pairs of ever increasingly bizarre glasses, ostensibly so that they always have a pair of readers to hand in the car, or in the supermarket, or whatever.
Before you start to ponder the answers to questions like will round rims suit you, or will rectangle eyeglasses be the look you need for your interview, and before you decide to expand your collection of specs without planning it out, let’s look at how many pairs you actually need.
One pair is never enough – simply because of breakages
In life, accidents are inevitable. We, as humans, are prone to mistakes, whether we like it or not. That is why our most-used and valued objects are often also our most fragile. Things get trodden on, things get spilled on other things, things get smashed and snapped and sat on. There’s a lot going on. It could be our own mistake, or that of our significant others, or more often than not, our kids using our belongings as play toys.
As sensible and as careful as we try to be with our possessions, there’s always obstacles to overcome and we cannot guarantee their safety. Eyeglasses are high on the list of handheld objects that can be variously busted, shattered, or mangled. The upshot is that you definitely need more than one pair of glasses.
Consider your viewing ranges
Printed text is held closer to the face than a computer screen. This is an important consideration if you’re buying reading glasses, because you need a separate pair for different ranges (your optician can advise you). Furthermore, if we link this to the first tip of needing a spare pair, we’re already at a total of four pairs if you need two separate distances and spares. But wait…
Are your glasses on your face all day?
If you really don’t take your glasses off that much, you could conceivably scrap the above advice and instead stick to the rule of three: one pair for work, one pair for fun, and one pair for when you need to look your best. But even then, anyone who’s ever suffered a broken frame will tell you that at least one spare pair of all-round frames is solid planning.
