We have been pretty fortunate not to lose anything really important of the kids’ so far but with the start of Kindergarten for Ethan this year I knew we needed to get busy labeling things. I had heard of Mabel’s Labels on a few blogs and was very excited to do a review for them too! They sent us their traditional Sticky Labels for all three of the kids to try and we are loving them. The boys each picked blue labels, Ethan chose the skateboard and Ben the hockey player (I love Canadian companies because they always include hockey in their sports designs! Mabel’s Labels also has a hockey skate design). Jamie is just 2 so I picked pink labels with a flower on them for her. I think I’ll need to get more once our new baby Jillian is born in only 8 weeks!

I was eager to see how these held up in the dishwasher since that is one of their claims to fame and of course they come out just like they went in (repeatedly)! We’ve only had them a few weeks but I am impressed with their durability so far (they are also UV resistant so they don’t fade). With our efforts to switch over to metal water bottles I am VERY happy to have these labels so that we don’t lose our expensive new bottles and the bottles look great with the labels. Some of the metal bottle designs are so popular that its great for keeping track of who belongs to which bottle when we’re with friends or in public.

I keep thinking of new things to put them on. I knew I wanted them for Ethan’s lunch accessories and school supplies but I hadn’t thought about how handy they’d be for the boys’ sports stuff. Every year at hockey the coach puts a piece of masking tape on their helmets with the kids’ names on it and now I can send them off with a nice looking label that won’t peel off instead (and of course Ben has his hockey guy on his so its really cute). Most of the kids have identical water bottles at hockey (there is just one that we’ve all found with a long spout so you can drink with your cage on) and now it will be very clear to our boys which is theirs. They just started flag football recently and even though they don’t use helmets they do wear mouth guards and I put the boys labels on the straps of those too so that they didn’t get them mixed up and share lots of germs. I hadn’t thought about other kids’ reactions to the labels but apparently they all thought they were cool and Ethan and Ben had a crowd of kids around them looking at the designs on their labels (I think I was the only mom at that point to think of putting names on the mouth guards). One older boy was impressed with Ethan’s skateboard design and surprised Ethan has a real skateboard too. If I had just written their names on all of these things there would be no compliments, I have terrible handwriting and those Sharpies fade right away in the dishwasher.

I’m sure I’ll find more uses for these great sticky labels but Mabel’s Labels makes a lot of other products too like clothing labels, shoe labels, return address labels and labels to help you organize your house! Mabel’s Labels also sells a great safety item: “my 411 wristbands” so that you can alert people to important health info about your child or have your cell phone numbers on them in case your child gets lost out in public.

For our growing family I like the idea of getting all the kids their own sticky labels (I think I’ll get some skinny minis next) and then getting clothing labels with just our last name and our phone number. Due to hand me downs and shared clothes I’d like our last name only on the clothes labels and then we could put our phone number too since they can easily leave their jackets out at the park or other places without lost and founds (plus then I can order just one set of clothes labels for all the kids). They have iron on clothes labels or peel and stick labels that go on the clothing tags (both pretty easy to use). Oh and those evil permanent markers always run when I use them on material so there is no way I’d ruin their clothes with them!

Until September 30, 2008 you can order an Ultimate Back to School Combo Pack which is $39.00 for a pack of 40 Skinny-Minis™, 50 Tag-Mates™, 16 Shoe Labels, 2 Bag Tags. Letting the kids design their own labels is a fun way for them to express themselves, look below for some examples but there are a lot of different icons to choose from when designing them.

Update 9/17 – Our labels are now on everything from water bottles to the bottom of the boys’ new hockey skates.  They stick wonderfully and have not faded or come loose at all when put through the dishwasher!

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.