Labelling and Organization
Next to safety awareness, efficiency is the second most important skill for daily living. Being able to find what you need, when you need it, is key to saving time and energy. Food, clothing and medication, for example, as well as mail, cleaning products and important documents are all used on a daily basis. As frustrating as blindness or vision impairment can be, it’s easier when things are labelled and organized.
Getting started
- Consider what type of labelling system is best for you—visual, tactile or both? You can buy special products like tactile labels, plastic Braille labelling sheets or Braille and large print labelling guns. But you can also use everyday items like elastic bands, safety pins, buttons, file cards, and labels cut from plastic report-cover sheets.
- Remember that less is more. Labelling every item is often unnecessary, especially if you use labelling in combination with placement as a way of identifying things. Assign different items to specific sections of shelves and drawers. Then put different numbers of elastic bands on each item, and in different positions. For example: two elastic bands on a can of corn and three on a can of beans. Record how your system works in case you forget.
Labelling medications
- Store medications according to how and when they should be taken. For example: put bedtime medicines in a bedside drawer; put medicines that need to be taken with food in a kitchen drawer, and so on.
- Put elastic bands around bottles of medication to indicate the number of pills you need to take. For example: one elastic band for one pill; two elastic bands for two pills, and so on. Use new elastic bands. If an older one breaks, the dosage will be inaccurate.
- Use “dosettes” to organize pills. Some have a compartment for each day of the week, while others have compartments for the number of times per day. Pharmacies will organize pills in dosettes or bubble packs for you, but shop around as some pharmacies charge for this service and others don't.
- Measure small amounts of liquid medication by using an eye dropper to count drops into a spoon.
Labelling food
- Place items on different shelves—soup on one shelf, for example, and canned fruit on another. Create rows or stacks of items and put a label at the beginning of each row or on top of each stack.
- Consider using magnetic tape for labelling cans. Magnetic tape can be embossed with Braille or large print.
- Try Loeb’s Labels for packages and cans. These labels come in the shape of fruits, vegetables and other food products. They also work well for labelling items for the freezer.
- Experiment with shaping pieces of pipe-cleaner into letters and taping them to cans and boxes. Your labelling system can be as innovative as your imagination.
To learn more about labelling food and kitchen items, see these other pages on our site: Getting Used to your Electric Stove and Oven, Small Kitchen Appliances, and Organizing your Kitchen.
Labelling clothing
- Attach safety pins or buttons of various sizes to clothing to identify coordinated outfits or colour groupings. Place them where they can't be seen—on the inside of a collar or behind the first button from the top, second button from the top, etc.
- Pin socks together to keep them paired while in the wash or buy plastic sock tuckers.
- Try Braille metal clothing tags. Keep in mind that they need to be sewn on. This can be time-consuming if you want to do your entire wardrobe.
- Consider using a colour identifier. When you hold the garment up to it, it announces the colour. By moving it to different locations on the garment, you can also identify patterns. Colour identifiers cost around $175.
Labelling other household items
- Almost anything can be labelled—C.D.s, various colours of thread, anything around the house you need to identify.
- Label the power supplies on portable devices. Connecting the wrong power supply can do permanent damage to expensive equipment.
- Remember that less is more with labelling. Create abbreviations for longer words.
- Use numbers to label the items you have a lot of—C.D.s or books, for example. Have a rolodex of cards in numerical order. Write more detailed descriptions on the cards.
Where to buy labelling materials
- the C.N.I.B. Online Store
- the Vision Aids store
- various U.S. suppliers such as Maxiaids or Independent Living Aids
- Dymo brand labelling tape is available in various widths and can be found at office supply stores.