Have I told you how much I love labels?
As some of you know, I am a parent and a former teacher. As such, I find myself needing to organize and keep track of hundreds of items every single day. In at least one of my previous posts on my blog I professed my love of labels. As far as I’m concerned, if it isn’t moving, oily, or breathing, I just might try to label it!
There are many reasons for a parent and teacher to use labels at home and at work. In addition to using return address labels to identify the owner of something, such as a book or a box of crayons, labels can be used by busy parents to help young children to learn how to read. Do you remember back when you were too young to read your parents sitting down with you, reading bed-time stories like “Good night Moon” to you, or helping you learn to read with the classic Dick and Jane books? Many parents don’t have time for that now. Labels can help to pick up the slack in teaching children how to read.
At least once a month I get an envelope from some type of fund-raising organization with a lot of pre-addressed return address labels inside the envelope. I wish that I could afford to make a donation to every worthy cause, but to be honest I just don’t have that much disposable income. After all, I am a parent and a teacher, and teachers are not exactly in the top earners category of professional wage-earners!
I do, however, open the envelopes and take out the labels. Most of them have more than just the name and address on the label, they also usually have something decorative on the side. Depending on the season there could be American flags, flowers, snowmen, puppies, kittens….. a very wide variety. I like to use them as return address labels, naturally, but I also use them inside the covers of the hundreds of books that I have accumulated over the years. I also use them to label my DVDs, CDs, and even my VHS tapes. Yes, I still have hundreds of VHS tapes – and the tape players to watch them with!
The labels that have the pretty graphics I will often cut the pretty graphic off of the side of the label and bring them to school with me, using them as decorative stickers for the children to use in an arts and crafts project. They can make some really pretty collages with the stickers, putting them on empty Pringles cans and then using the decorative cans as pencil boxes!
When I take a dish to a pot-luck social I always use them to label my dishes, my crock-pot, my serving-ware, everything that I am going to want to bring home with me – even my insulated picnic ice-chest. There have been several times when ownership disputes have been resolved when I point out the return address label that I had affixed to some place on the item in dispute. Labels have saved the day on more than one occasion.
One of my favorite things to do is to carry some of the labels in my wallet so I can peel-and-stick them onto anything that I might end up having to provide my address on – like if I decide to purchase a raffle ticket that requires my name & address on the stub that the raffle host needs to keep. I love how fast and easy that is!
Have I told you how much I love labels?