I love my new brother!

I have an illness.  I'm obsessed with organizing.  I showed traces of this condition while I was growing up -  organizing the family books, from tallest to shortest one week, and then by colour the next.  In my adult life, I have struggled, along with the rest of mankind, to keep all my "stuff" in order. Through much trial and error, I have discovered several ways to keep my home organized and functioning smoothly (though it's by no means exactly where I'd like it to be).  In the future, I'm sure I'll write about some of these systems, as they've really made my life easier (and they allow me to talk about this subject!).  But today, I want to introduce you to my new brother....yes, friends, I have a new brother.

Ah, yes, the Brother P-touch label maker.......this lovely baby had me at hello.  I purchased it at Staples for half price.  It is very user-friendly, prints a variety of font types, colours and sizes.  It is PC compatible and can be used plugged in or with batteries. Among other things, it has fed my insatiable appetite for containing my clutter.  Over the past couple of weeks, I have labelled the following (note that this is by NO means an exhaustive list, but will merely give you an idea of what I've been doing when I should be returning phone calls or exercising):

Labelling my fridge's freezer.  I find coralling things in baskets helps prevent the avalanche that occurs when everything is rammed in.  I used to open up the freezer, only to have a pound of hamburger fall out and slam onto my small toe. Definitely not my favourite way to start my day. Baskets also act as a big deterrent for me to put a "taboo" item in the basket. But anyway, back to my labelling....

Pantry items.  I store lots of my smaller bulk items (seeds, flax, bulgar, steel cut oats, walnuts, etc) in mason jars. By storing them on a pull out drawer in my pantry, and labelling the lids, I can see at a glance what I have on hand.  Sigh.

Toiletries and meds....no more "MOOOOOOOOOOM!  Do we have any more toothpaste?!"

Freezer meals.......yes, I know, masking tape and a sharpie work just as well, but there's something about seeing in a neat and tidy typed font that gives me this extra feeling of satisfaction- like maybe the food inside will taste better with a typed label than if it'd be scribbled by hand (I never said my obsession was logical).

I'm on my second 8-metre tape, in two weeks, so that gives you an idea of how "busy" I've been.  But enough about me....I'd love to hear how you label stuff.....or how you don't label stuff.  Anyone else out there who is sick, like me?