Getting Organized With The Brother P-Touch

A couple of months ago I shared with you the results of my Brother P-Touch Extreme Test Challenge, where I put labels from the Brother P-Touch labeler to the test under extreme conditions to see how they held up. The labels passed my tests, so the next test was to see if they could help me get organized (possibly an even bigger challenge than my extreme test!).

I try to be organized, really I do, but the truth is I am a pack rat and a piler. I can’t get rid of anything, and I “organize” by piling. (A bad combination for my OCD husband…) But I really want to be better, so I was up to the challenge of organizing my space.

For my challenge, I decided to tackle the “linen closet” in our master bathroom. I use linen closet loosly because, as you can see from the picture below, there really aren’t many linens in that closet. (There are actually towels on the top shelf, but they are folded nicely and not part of the problem.) I love our house, but there are some funny architectural features to this house that make me certain that a man, who has never been married or had kids, designed the house. One of those funny features — the linen closet in question. It is small and triangular shape. Yes, triangular. It came with the wire shelves, but as you can see there is tons of wasted space in this closet. The mess in this closet is, at least in part, to be blamed on the terrible design.

So, here is my project before (don’t judge people):

While I wasn’t able to find any triangular storage solutions (surprise, surprise), I did find that shoe box sized containers fit in the closet sideways. So, I based my storage solution on sideways boxes. First, I took everything out of the closet. Then, after taking stock of what I have, categorized my stuff into boxes to stacked on the floor of the closet. For the shelves, I found open bins of the same size to help keep my bottles up right (they were always falling over on the wire shelves).

The end result is a masterpiece, if I do say so myself:

You might be surprised to learn that nearly everything in the initial picture is still in this closet. There were a small few things that were tossed, but it pretty much all went back in.

I have to say that the most fun part of this project was playing with my labeler. Having never actually used a labeler before, I found the instructions quite daunting. (They are the kind that are printed on one giant, folded sheet of paper.) But after reading through them I found the labeler easy to use. The big key with the labler is remembering what all of the functions are, so I need to make sure that I don’t loose these instructions. (For this reason, I wish there was someway to attach the instructions to the labeler or download them to my computer as I feel certain I will loose them.)

Once I got going making labels, I wanted to label more! I actually walked around the house trying to find other things to label.

Before I started I read reviews that mentioned wasting a lot of tape, so I made sure I read the instructions about printing the labels. The labels print with an inch on either side of your words unless you tell it otherwise (other options are 1/2 inch and 1/6 inch). Since I hate waste, I made sure I printed with 1/6 inch on either side. Easy peasy, if you remember to change that setting before you get started.

There are two decorative modes on the Brother P-Touch labeler, one under functions and one under Deco Mode. I wasn’t a fan of the designs under Deco Mode, but I did like the function designs. As you can see in the photo, I went with stars. So pretty.

So now the linen closet is nice and organized… if only I can keep it that way.

I’m off to search for more things to label. But I will be back in a couple of months to let you know how the labels have held up, and if my closet stays organized. Wish me luck.

Disclosure – I wrote this review while participating in a campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Brother P-Touch and received product and a gift card to facilitate my review and a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.