Organize Your Home With Customized Labels

I have Spring fever so badly. The kids have all been sick. I’ve been sick. Clay has been sick. I’m ready to crack open the windows, let some fresh air and sunshine in and get started on Spring cleaning! Out with the germs and in with the freshness! It’s been either warm and rainy or cold and nasty so that isn’t happening, yet. To get started, though, I’ve been organizing room by room with plastic containers and making customized labels. Once I get everything in it’s own, proper place, I go back and disinfect everything as much as I can with the windows closed.

It’s a start! And it’s actually made a really big difference.

I teamed up with Brother and received a complimentary P-touch Label Maker to help me get organized. I’ve really slacked off on picking things up and having a place for them all so this house needed it! I started in the bathrooms. They are the smallest rooms so I figured I’d get them out of the way first, then tackle the kitchen and then the bedrooms and closets. I’d already organized the linen closet in the same way but the others… yikes. They are a mess!

So, I started in the bathroom. I bought some plastic containers to hold items like cotton balls, dryer sheets and the ingredients to my homemade laundry soap. I have another for cosmetics and beauty items. I also had an old baby wipes container with a design on it that we use for cotton swabs. With the Brother P-touch Label Maker we can add cute icon symbols (pictographs), frames and even change the font.

14 fonts, 10 styles, 97 frames, and more than 600 symbols – 27 Useful templates (pre-designed labels): Simply type and print

There are tons of frames to choose from and for the bathroom I chose one with tiny flowers on the ends. On some of the labels, like the laundry soap, I also added a cute symbol to each end. The t-shirt was perfect. I think the labels added a really nice touch to the plastic containers and dressed them up, giving the bathroom sort of an old fashioned feel.

I really like the Brother P-touch Label Maker. It is small and easy to use. You can use different tape sizes, up to 12mm wide (approx. 1/2″) and they come in different colors like red, pink blues, etc. I have white tape with black text, white with red text and white with blue text but no colored tapes. I need to get some of those and also transparent if I can fid it.  Transparent will be great in the kitchen. For the bathroom, I used the white with black so they would go with any decor I use.

The label maker has an LCD screen so you can see what you are typing and even preview the label before you print it. It is a bit small and, for me, a little hard to make out all the details of the frames and fonts so I found myself using the instruction manual quite a bit in the beginning. It has all the frames, icons and fonts printed clearly so you can get a good idea of what each one looks like. Once I’d gone through them a few times I didn’t need the manual any more and could make out the designs easier.

There are several function buttons that make choosing and customizing a design very easy and it has a full QWERTY keyboard so it’s like typing on the computer.

A cutter is included on the back so when a label prints you can just push a button to cut the tape and release your label, them trim any excess you don’t need. Simple as that. You can change the margins and tape length but I’ve had a little trouble getting that set just right so I just leave it on auto and trim if I need to.

With this label printer you can save up to 30 different designs so you can go back and print more later. I use this feature to save a template of my design that I can edit with new text as needed. You can also print multiple at one time which it pretty cool. I like not having to go back and click print each time if I want more than 1 of any label.

I made all the labels I needed for the bathroom and got them on my containers. Clay had installed a shelf for me on the washer and dryer to keep things from falling behind. I still need to stain it but I’ve got all the containers on there with a couple baskets for hair brushes, hair ties, etc.

Then, I have the ones with laundry soap, Borax, and Washing Soda on a wire shelf above that. I made another for our Sick Day Survival Kit (post later this week). I think the labels look great! They help me keep the bathroom organized and teach the kids that everything can have a place of its own and where it goes.

The labels are peel and stick, very easy to apply, temporarily re-positionable until you press them firmly and seem to stay on really well.

Now on to the kitchen (then the bedrooms, closets and garage)! I’ve already made labels for the dog food container and pet treats. There’s a cat and a dog symbol. I had to!

The labels are self laminating. I plan on  using large Mason jars to store rice, beans and other small items and making cute labels for each one. I also have some little, tiny jars that will be perfect for storing spices! I can’t wait to get started on the kitchen!

With all the different colors of tape and all the symbols, fonts and frames, these labels also work great for gift tags, scrapbooking, crafts, homework, travel, etc… I’m working on labels for Valentine’s Day gifts as well as all our camping gear to keep it organized and separate. I’ll be able to look quickly and know which totes we need to grab for camping and which are for other things. There are palm tree symbols and mountains so I plan on making labels for the container that will hold some of our beach trip other travel supplies too!

I’m on a label making roll!!! I love making these customized labels!

You can purchase the P-touch Label Maker on Amazon.

Do you like to use labels to organize your home? What are some tips you have for labeling?