Decluttering Your Home With Labels
Tackling home organisation can feel overwhelming, especially if you’re at the beginning of your decluttering journey. Where do you keep all your stuff? How do you find all your stuff?
Wouldn’t it be nice if we all had a Marie Kondo on call to help us organise our homes? Thankfully there’s a much simpler solution: blank labels. That’s right, the humble blank label can work wonders when it comes to home organisation. And if you know how to use blank labels properly, keeping on top of your home becomes a breeze. What’s a blank label you ask? A blank label is an adhesive label that be written or printed on and stuck on a box, container or jar.
You might have tried labelling with some masking tape and a sharpie in the past. But not only do blank labels look more aesthetically pleasing, they are built to last longer too. In this article, we’ll share our top tips for using labels to organise your home. Let’s get into it!
Tip One: Organise by category, not by room
One good way to approach home organisation is to start organising by category, not by room. For instance, you might want to start with all the books in the house. Gather some boxes and containers and organise your books by type. For example, recipe books, children’s books, travel books, and so on. Use a blank label for each type of book.
Not only will this method help with home organisation, but it will also allow you to see how much space you need for your newly organised and labelled things.
Tip Two: Don’t waste your blank labels
Decluttering and home organisation is all about assessing whether or not you actually need the stuff that you have. Holding on to stuff ‘for a rainy day’ is a recipe for a disorganised and overwhelming living environment.
Adopt the Marie Kondo approach and ask yourself, ‘Does this item spark joy?’. If it’s a yes, hold onto it, pop it in a box and label it! If it’s a no, time to let it go.
Tip Three: Keep one type of thing in one container
Using blank labels to organise your home is fairly straightforward once you know how. But things can get messy when you start putting all kinds of random things in a box or container simply because it ‘fits’.
For instance, I have a box at home that houses all my chargers for electronics. I used a blank label, fixed it to a box, and labelled it ‘Chargers’. But if I started throwing other things in like picture screws or fridge magnets, things would start getting disorganised and it would defeat the whole purpose of having the label system in the first place.
Tip Four: Use multiple blank label types
There’s no reason to limit yourself to one type of blank label. While you may wish to use white blank labels in the kitchen for labelling food items, it probably makes more sense to use waterproof blank labels for pool toys.
Metallic, coloured or kraft brown labels might add some some fun to your kids art room. And while you’re at it, get the kids in on the home organisation process!
Tip Five: Use custom labels for home organisation
Every family has different labelling needs, so it makes sense to get custom labels. At Avery, you can design your own labels in minutes using our online design tool. Who said home organisation had to be boring? Get creative with it!
Tip Six: Gather your boxes and assess your stuff
Home organisation is all about gathering as many boxes, containers, and folders to house your possessions and then organising them with blank labels. It can be helpful to get everything out in the open before you start assigning boxes and labels.
For instance, you might find that it doesn’t make sense to give every type of dried fruit in your pantry it’s own jar and blank label. Instead you might opt to pop the fruits in one sealed container and label it ‘Dried fruits for baking’.
Tip Seven: Don’t try and do everything at once
Decluttering and home organisation is a big job and if you try and do it all at once, you could find yourself quickly giving up. Instead, why not allocate 15-30 minutes each day to home organisation?
Setting a timer on your phone is a great way to beat procrastination and get things moving on your home organisation journey. And why not get the family involved too? See who can get the most home organisation completed by the time the alarm goes off. Winner gets an icecream!
Tip Eight: Don’t know where to start? Phone a friend
If home organisation is new to you, you might feel like it’s hard to even know where to begin. If that’s the case, it’s time to bring in a close family member or friend.
This can turn home organisation into a fun socialising activity instead of a boring chore. Your friend likely won’t have the same attachment to your stuff that you do either, meaning they might be able to help you get rid of some items that you no longer need.
This can help to speed up the process (along with your blank label system!). Thank your family member or friend with a small gift or a free meal.
Wrapping it up
Home organisation and decluttering can feel overwhelming, particularly if you have a lot of stuff that isn’t organised. Investing in some high quality labels that you can customise to suit your needs is a great way to start getting your home in order.
Remember, home organisation is a marathon, not a sprint. Start your decluttering process by category, not room by room. Set a timer and do a chunk each day so that you continue to make progress.
And when all else fails, get a friend over to help you get started!