The Fairy Gardener Quilts: Tangled

This is a picture of the designated “junk” drawer in my kitchen. Look familiar? I bet you have one too.

Every few months, it gets to me when I can’t find something that I KNOW is in there and I stop whatever else I’m doing at the moment and tear this drawer apart. I spend a lot of time organizing it all over again so that everything has a place and fits nicely. Well, that lasts for a few months and then it goes back to being a tangled mess.

Today was one of those days when I was looking for the USB cord for my Passport external hard drive. Its been about a month and a half since I got the new laptop and I wanted to back up some files. I keep all of the USB cords in the junk drawer, trouble is, they are all different and it takes time to figure out which one is the right USB cord because I still have all the USB cords for two cameras, an external DVD/R, my old GPS, a speaker for my iPhone and a few more gadgets that are all stored conveniently nearby in the junk drawer.

Today I solved this problem with the help of my Dymo Letratag hand-held label maker. I bought my label maker last fall on sale. It was kind of an impulse purchase but I have been labeling everything that sits still, since. I love it for labeling leftovers and frozen food. I have used it to organize my spices, storage boxes for Xmas decorations, tools, garden supplies and even my my sewing supplies. It really came in handy this past tax season when I reorganized all of my personal files. I was able to down-size from a beat-up and rusted two drawer file cabinet to one small file box. And my label maker is so much faster and economical than printing a whole sheet of labels when you only need one (you can print out multiple labels on the Dymo too). My label maker came with a paper label cassette and I purchased an additional plastic one that I used to label my USB cords. The paper labels work best for file folders, cardboard boxes, books, etc. Even though the Dymo uses 4 AA batteries, they last quite a long time.

There are many different models and makes of hand-held label makers like the Dymo to choose with various options. Mine has options that allow me to print labels with both upper and lower case fonts in different sizes along with symbols, multiple lines, dates and numbers. I have even given label makers as gifts and everyone is usually surprised at how many uses they can find for them.

My USB cords are all labeled now and I won’t have to empty out the junk drawer next time to find the right one.