Buy a cheap pin cushion. With a pen mark off sections and write needle sizes in each section. When you take an 80/12 out of your machine, put it in the 80/12 section on the pin cushion. That way you can easily keep track of our "loose" needles.
I have a dickens of a time reading those darn numbers too, luckily I inherited a really small very strong magnifier from my grandfather that does the trick!