Moving box and storage bin labels, ready to print

How to make storage bin labels

A storage bin only keeps things organized if you know what’s inside without opening it. Three rules are enough:

1. One category per bin. “Batteries and chargers”, not “electronics stuff”. If you can’t give what’s in the bin a short name, it’s holding too much.
2. The name on the front, on the side that faces out on the shelf, always at the same height. On a shelf with twenty bins, your eye reads one line, not twenty different spots.
3. Big letters. A label you have to pull the bin out to read is no use. That’s why, on the storage bin labels, the name sizes itself: the biggest that fits.

For storage bin labels in a garage or a storage room, where bins sit stacked and away from the light, use the medium or the large size. For small boxes in a drawer or a closet, the small one, with 21 labels per sheet.

On plastic bins and containers, stick the label on and run wide, clear packing tape over it: it protects the label from dust and damp, and peels off in one piece when you change what the bin holds.

Toy bin labels

Toy bins stay tidy when the kids themselves know where each thing goes. To make toy bin labels that work for them:

• A drawing or an emoji next to the name, for kids who can’t read yet. 🧱 next to “Lego”, 🚗 next to “Cars”.
• Broad categories. One bin for cars, another for dolls and figures, another for small pieces. With too many categories, nobody puts anything away.
• At their height. The bins they need every day down low; the ones they use now and then up high.

Moving box labels

On a move, what matters on a label is the number: it’s what makes each box unique, and what ties it to the list of what it holds. Then the room it goes to in the new house or the box’s name, the fragile, valuable and heavy marks, and a mark on the few boxes you’ll open first. Why each one matters, and where to put the labels, is in our guide on how to label moving boxes.

These are designed like the ones the app prints: the HomeItemFinder band across the top, the big number, the name, the QR code and the row of marks. It works like a template you fill in rather than write on by hand: each room gets as many boxes as you tell it, the numbers carry on from one room to the next, and each box gets one, two or four labels — one per side. If you need more boxes later, start the numbering where the first sheet left off.

The difference is the QR code: here it opens our website, because these boxes aren’t saved anywhere. On labels made in the app, the same code opens the box itself, with the photos of what it holds.

How to print the labels

• At 100%, on the paper you picked. In the print window, choose “Actual size” or “100%”, not “Fit to page” — otherwise the labels come out smaller than you saw them here. Then check that the print window has the same paper you picked above, A4 or Letter: the sheets are laid out for each size, so the bottom row isn’t cut off.
• Plain paper or sticker paper. On plain paper, cut along the dashed lines and stick the labels on with wide tape. On full-sheet sticker paper they become label stickers: cut and stick — no tape. The medium sheet splits the page into eight labels: 105 × 74 mm (about 4 × 3 in) on A4, like the app’s sheet, or 108 × 70 mm (about 4.25 × 2.75 in) on Letter. The app itself prints on A4 only.
• Color or black and white. The marks are easy to tell apart either way: a checked one is filled in, an unchecked one is just the outline.
• Nothing to download. These free printable labels are made in your browser, so there’s no file to download and no account to create. If you’d like a PDF — to print later, or from another computer — most browsers let you pick “Save as PDF” instead of a printer in the print window.