Get organised with these homemade label ideas

Spring’s arrived and that means lots of people clear out their cupboards and get organised as part of a spring clean.  I have to admit that’s not me, although I do have the intention of decluttering the larder and the bedroom. I definitely need to clear out some of the shelves in the larder, and maybe get some more baskets and stands to put groups of items in, so it’s easier to look in  a basket of goods rather than trying to get to the back of a shelf without knocking lots of items at the front.

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Having little baskets or containers, or even decanting foods like cereals and flour into tubs means it’s labelling time. I do love a pretty label, although the OH never seems to read them. He once tried to make pancakes using self-raising flour then wondered why they didn’t work like normal.  We tend to stick to functional Dymo labels for food containers, and plain white labels for N’s school uniform. But sometimes it’s nice to make prettier labels for supplies and make boring containers look more interesting.  You could even tie the colours into your decor

Here’s ideas for creating a good labelling system as part of your decluttering and spring cleaning.

Homemade label ideas

Dymo labels – I remember dymo machines from my youth, and they’re still going now. You can choose different fonts and labels, and they’re so quick and easy to use.

Pimp up plain labels – get out the sharpies, try some doodles of the item you’re doodling or just colour code the corners of the labels.

Stamp-tastic – theme your labels by using craft rubber stamps.  You can buy letter stamps straight onto sticky labels.

Layer up – use pretty background papers, use paper punches or craft die cutting machines to cut out label shapes from the paper, then cut smaller shapes from white paper to overlay.

Chalkboard labels – get chalkboard paint or labels and use on the side of mason jars or chunky flower pots.

Get creative online – try using design programmes like Canva or PicMonkey, or just make them using powerpoint or word (check out my pretty labels tutorial if you’re stuck how to).

Go retro with luggage labels and twine – use brown labels or white, plain twine or try raffia or ribbons instead.

Go chunky and try making salt dough tags to hang off baskets.

For labelling specific items

Christmas decorations – reuse old Christmas cards to create cards to hang from the boxes, or make stickers that match the item inside, e.g a bauble shape for baubles.

Lego – we store (mostly) by colour or types (people, little pieces, wheels etc) in ice cream cartons. Why not try cutting out Lego shapes from sticky paper to make labels.

Craft supplies – box up yarn or material by colour or type and match the label colour to what’s inside – try cotton reel shaped labels for sewing stuff, or stick to matching coloured label to the box

Best bought labels

School uniforms and water bottles – you need really good sticky labels that are going to stick. I don’t bother with iron on, we use Stikins which aren’t cheap but usually stay on for over a year.  We use them for shoes as well (just pop them on the underside of the tongue to avoid sweaty feet mucking them up.

Or go for more fun labels where you can design your own with fonts and pictures from somewhere like TinyMe.

I always find labelling items easier to find things, and it encourages me to keep things more tidy….well, for a while anyway.

How do you organise your things?  What kind of labels, if any, do you use?