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Encouraging Heroes. You can be one too.

I’m a person who loves to be organized. It makes me feel…more settled. Clutter stresses me out. That said, I’m also the mother of 4 boys who seem to have very little difficulty living with clutter. Plus, we’re just so darn busy around here, and it’s easy to let stuff pile up. Battling that clutter is a life-long occupation, it would seem. The good news is that I seem to at least be holding my own and it always feels good to clear an area out, make it more useful, or at least get it straightened out.

This year I’m deep into a project of digitizing all of the papers that are boxed and filed. I have all of the boys’ school papers, and having them on one or two CD-ROMs is far preferable to having 5 or 6 boxes (per child) of papers. I love it every time I get to dump out more paper! A friend of mine heats with a woodburning stove, and he is happy to use up our old paper for heating purposes, so everybody wins here.

Something else I love to do is label. I was never happier with my bathroom medicine cabinet than when I labeled each shelf. Now it’s easy to find things when we need them, and the boys have little excuse for putting things back in the wrong spot. I labeled my pantry as well, but that hasn’t been as successful. Oh well. I’ll see about fixing that one this summer.

I recently had the opportunity to get a new labeler from Staples.com, and I chose the Brother QL 700 label printer. It was ordered and came in the mail super fast, which was a delight. Running it has been a breeze so far. I just open up the interface, type in my words and click print and voila! The printer does its work quickly, cuts the label at the appropriate length, and SHOOTS it out at me. That is probably the most fun part, is this great label just bursting out, ready to be used.

Okay yes, I am a nerd. But you love me anyway, right?

I’ve got several uses in mind for this labeler, and I’m looking forward to getting some more sizes of label to use. Each size comes in a roll that just snaps into the printer, and I can get square, round, or continuous labels. Oh boy, can I have fun with that! One thing I frequently label is the storage shelves in various closets so that distracted boys can put items away properly and avoid a very frustrated mother who can’t find what she needs. Like scissors. Why on earth we can’t put them back in the drawer is beyond me. Sigh.

I probably shouldn’t label the actual children.

Even though that would be helpful. Seems like I can never get their names straight.

FTC Disclosure: I was given a labeler from Staples.com and asked for this review. Which I happily did because I love labeling, this is a good product, and Staples.com was easy to use with fast shipping. All opinions are my own.