Labeling Fun

I can’t believe its almost here, I am so ready to be done with this move. It has pretty much consumed our last few months. I am pretty much all ready to load the truck.

We don’t have a garage so our basement looks like this. Scary!

These are a collection of boxes I have used for our past 2 moves, we just saved them because we knew we would need them again, hence the reason they are all different sizes and shapes! While it would be nice for loading to have boxes all the same size, that just wasn’t realistic for us. I got these boxes from things I’ve ordered and for free off craigslist. What a great way to go green by sharing boxes! Plus, they are free. 🙂
Notice the crazy labels? We have usually 2 sets per box, numbers colored labels, and room type. It just makes life easier let me tell you. While it takes work up front, when your unpacking or looking for the “1” thing, you’ll know exactly which box its in without undoing all the boxes on the hunt for it. It keeps unpacking SOOOO much more organized. First off, I ordered some labels online at online labels, same size and type as the staples or avery brand at like half the price! You’ll need lots of labels, I do 5 per box, 1 for each side and the type. You never know how they’ll be stacked and it makes it easier to identify the boxes. I had to buy another printer cartridge as well because I used a lot of ink. (You can buy colored labels, but for the size I wanted I would have had to buy them separately because I used a different color for each room. This way I printed what I needed since some rooms only needed 2 or 3 sheets of that color)

Here are a few of them after I printed. Some are colored with black writing for easier viewing, some were dark printed colors so the numbers were kept white to cut down on ink.

I had the following colors/categories for our boxes. I based them on rooms and how things would be organized in our next house.
PINK– Decorations off all kinds(I am switching things up in the new house starting from scratch so I will be shopping from my selection as I re-use and re-paint items.) These do not include picture frames, those are all stacked in a tote that will ride in the car with me by my old windows and floral arrangements that I don’t want smashed!
YELLOW– Kitchen, anything that will go or is associated with the kitchen.
ORANGE– Office, computer supplies, anything to go in the office.
GREEN– My crafting supplies
BLUE– My son’s bedroom, toys, clothes, etc.
RED– Our master bedroom, clothes, etc, extra bedding items
BROWN– Cleaning supplies, bathroom related items
PURPLE-Electronics, XBOX, TV Cords, Modems, DVD’s and CD’s, XBOX games, etc.
Plain labels- Random stuff, garage, painting supplies, hubby’s ortho stuff, umbrella’s, etc.

Pretty much anything that goes in boxes goes in those categories. I normally number all my boxes and write down detailed contents of each box, which I did, however the color coded took this up a notch. 

 (I will type up these pages before we move since my handwriting is so sloppy!)
Mainly because I think it will be even easier for me to identify boxes quickly to let our volunteer movers know where to unload those boxes. I usually like to have most boxes set in garage or basement and unpack things slowly while leaving the house in order, however I am unable to lift boxes very easily so this should help to have them in the correct place. Trust me…this makes moving so much easier!