Back 2 School Week - Day 4

My apologies for taking a short break in the back to school week. Something urgent came up and I was not able to post until now. I still have 2 more posts left in the series, so let's get started!

Parents spend so much money each year on new school supplies for the kids, and some of us try to minimize the costs by making some of the things ourselves. But the hardest part is to see your children come home without that brand new jacket or mittens. That's why I'm BIG on labels. I try to label everything my children bring to school so at least there's a chance of getting it back when it gets left behind.

I label everything from my kids' clothes, lunch bags, containers, backpacks, drink containers, shoes - everything! And I want to show you how I've labeled some of these items.

There are a few great companies that sell custom labels, and they really are the easiest way to labels your child's items. 

Labeled water bottle and bag tag

The company I used for these labels is called Mabel's Labels. I've used them for a year now and have had no complaints. Except maybe the price. They can be expensive, especially when you have to start buying for multiple children. They do offer package deals that include clothing labels, bag tags, container labels and even labels for inside of shoes! And boy do those babies ever stick! My labels have lasted (and stuck) through the laundry and even the dishwasher. They really are great and I'd say worth the expense.
  

Back of bag tag

But I also wanted to show you a few alternatives to save some money and make your own labels. 

There are many brands of fabric markers to choose from these days and they make it easy to add your child's name onto shirts. They are permanent and don't smear when you use them on tags like regular markers do. 

Sharpie washable marker

I used this brand to label my son's shoes:

They're not limited to black either. 

Fabric markers come in all sorts of colours.

And they're not just great for labels. How about using them to help your child learn their lefts from rights?!

If you want to label shirts that don't have tags on the inside, these iron-on adhesive labels work great. I bought this kit years ago and it even came with a pen and stencil!

Lastly, I like to avoid plastic bags as much as I can so I buy good quality containers for my kids' lunchboxes. But let's face it, you have to buy quite a few and they're not cheap! I always want to make sure they make it back home. I used to use a permanent marker to write my child's name on them but it eventually washes off. So this year, I used my brand new Silhouette machine with some heavy duty vinyl to create my own labels.

They've proven to be hand-washable, and I'm going to see how they fair in the dishwasher. Fingers crossed!

UPDATED: I've put these in the dishwasher a few times and they are still stuck on!

That's it for today, but come back tomorrow and I'll show you some cute - handmade - alternatives to plastic!