Label it!

Somewhere along my journey into adulthood, I decided to embrace my inner nerd.  This is who I am, so there's no point in fighting it.  Consequently, I get teased mercilessly for owning and using things like a label maker.

My brother says that you only have a label addiction problem if the place your label maker is stored has a label on it.

Uh oh.

I guess that means I have a problem.

Tackling the laundry room

Recently, I've been working at decluttering, with my biggest goals being to declutter the laundry room and master bedroom.  While I was working on the laundry room, I realized one reason why the previous organization didn't function well.

I didn't label.  

I had a basket for pet supplies and a basket for gardening, but they weren't labeled as such.  Consequently, nothing was where it belonged.  When I planted phlox in my front flower bed recently, I could not find a single pair of matching gardening gloves.  Not one.

I found the gloves while cleaning.  The problem was that some gloves were in with the pet supplies, so matching gloves were impossible.  Now I've got about 5 pair of matching work and gardening gloves for my husband and I.

It's hard enough to keep things clean when you know where everything belongs, but if you don't know?  You can forget about it!  Organization cannot happen where there's not a home for your belongings, and you'll make things a lot easier on yourself and others in your family if you label these homes.  

I don't care if you have a label maker or not.  Get old school with it.  Break out the masking tape and Sharpie, whatever gets the job done.  Label, label, label.  I still use wide masking tape and a Sharpie when storing things in the attic because it's much easier to read a huge label than a small one.  

If you want a label maker, by all means, get one.  I asked for one for my 29th birthday and my sister was happy to oblige.  I don't think it matters what brand you use, though I would keep the cost of replacement cartridges in mind when you buy one.  The cost of replacements for my Dymo machine is the same as buying a completely new label maker (with cartridge) from one of the cheaper brands.  I doubt it makes a difference.  If it prints labels, that's all that matters.

And my laundry room?  It's coming along nicely, and now we at least know where to put things.  Hopefully it'll function better for me this time around.  I'll be sure to post before and after pictures.

Do you use a label maker? Where have you found labeling to be the most helpful?