Labels are one of those things that fall into the category
a little extra work now, for a much easier life later.
Wouldn’t it be confusing if the grocery store didn’t have the products clearly marked? How would you tell the baking soda from the rice flour? (Just try shopping in a country where you don’t speak the language!)
This is true in our homes as well, and not just in the kitchen. We save ourselves a huge amount of time by labeling boxes before they go on the shelf, extra keys before we toss them in a drawer with others, and one of my personal favorites: electrical cords.
Quite often these days, they detach from their appliance, and they all look the same, so if you are moving or rearranging your video or sound system, games, or office, you will save a lot of time and trouble by identifying each one. I label the end of each cord that plugs into a power bar, so when I am moving just one piece, I know which to unplug. I also label the connecting cords- such as the one that hooks the cd player to the receiver, for easy replacement.
The cords that I have spent the most time sorting in other people’s homes belong to small electronics: cell phones, mp3 players, e-readers, and the like. They are difficult to tell apart and frequently get mixed up in a box. When the appliance is replaced, people often forget to send the cord to the recycling with it, and end up with an unidentifiable tangled nightmare in a box, a wire & plastic snake pit. A few minutes of prevention can save you an hour-long headache.
If you don’t have a label maker, the same effect can be accomplished with masking tape, a little strip of paper and scotch tape, or, if you can write very tiny, a bread tag.
This week’s rant about labels is inspired by the always fabulous Big Bang Theory. I close with a quote from Sheldon:
