Think of a Something Thursday!

I have never had to label things so much as since I’ve had kids.

My last year of junior high, I needed a new coat and I found a lovely hot pink one (ah … the hot colored eighties; quite a change from the autumnal seventies). It included a zip-out black and pink fleece check-pattern inner jacket/mini jacket/liner. Mom told me to put my name on it, but I didn’t want to. I assured her I would be careful, and keep track of it; putting my name it in was so grade schoool.

I see you nodding along there on the other side of the computer. And the answer is, I’d be surprised if I had it all for even two weeks. The outer coat was “too hot” one Friday afternoon so I hung it up on the rack at my after school hangout. Sure enough, by the next Monday it was gone.

I think I still have the inner jacket - stashed somewhere in the Garage of DoomTM.

My first trick of labeling things as a mobile pumper was the use of Post It flags. I had a TON of them from a previous co-worker who stuck them on every page to mark every change. I labeled the bottles simply, with numbers. The day-mommies fed the bottles to the kid in the order they were labeled. This was important because I’d send some fresh milk and some frozen milk, and I wanted the frozen milk to be served first. These durable, reusable labels were also great for home use and babysitters.

This last time around, for youngest, we needed to date and name each bottle every day. Enter 2-inch wide masking tape. I used a marker for the dates and names, one for each bottle, and we’re done. The bottles don’t need to be served in a particular order anymore (I didn’t really have much of a frozen stash, and this kid was more predictable milk-wise), but each bottle lined up in a cutlery tray marked with our name. The day-mommies simply pulled and served each bottle in order.

As for clothes, well …

I tried marking unders and casual wear with Sharpies. Lots of ink bleed and some colors just didn’t work (Teen Titan underpants have black bands … gah). The labels that come on the clothes might not have room, or might fall off. And the latest trend is to go “Taggless” … oh joy. Regular ink washed messily away.

At the same time multiple changes of clothing became needed at daycare (potty training time), I sewed up a bunch of short play pants up for the kid (sixteen pairs, if I recall correctly) and then had to label them. Hrm, thin play cotton, so … the kid could have a name on the seat of the pants in reverse when the marker bled through. Never mind the bright shark and animal prints that defy all but the most creative name tagging (maybe on the alternating white stripes on a zebra?). So I got lazy and used my Sharpie to make my own labels with ribbon.

Blurry, but doable. Now I see why folks pay good money for name tape.

For this latest round of clothes-labeling, I’ve bought name tapes. We are at a large daycare this summer, and two mobile messy kids to keep track of stuff for. Quite by accident, their first given names share a first initial, so all of the first lines of my labels have a first initial and their last name listed.

But the second line … has an email address. I went and set up a generic email address that forwards messages to me if something is found and we get emailed. I’ve had a few friends send test emails, and it works great.

The kids haven’t lost anything yet, which is good … because I haven’t actually gotten around to sewing those name tapes on everything yet. When I do break out the sewing machine, I’ll use light blue or light yellow or light green thread on one side, and thread that matches the fabric on the other (multiple bobbins for the win!). This also lets me see my stitches: then I can rip the labels out later if/when these clothes get handed across to the next cousin or friend.