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I absolutely LOVE to label my organizing systems around the house. If you saw my home tour video, you know I label like crazy. In this video, I’ll show you the exact label maker I use (Brother P-touch 1880) and have been using for 4-5 years. I also show you my favorite label tapes (colors, fonts, sizes, and shapes). Are you label maker fanatic? Do you have a label maker review? Are there any super secret labeling tricks that you do? If so, create a video response or leave a comment below.

Video Details

Hi everyone. It’s Alejandra. And I hope you guys are having a great week. If you ever requested a video on what type of label maker to use or recommendations for going out and buying a label maker then this video is for you.

My Favorite Label Maker- The Brother P-Touch 1880

My Favorite Label Maker- The Brother P-Touch 1880

So in the past five years, I have been using the same label maker. And it’s the Brother P-Touch 1880 and I bought it back in 2007 from Staples. I think it was like 50 bucks at the time. You can definitely buy a less expensive label maker. Like you don’t have to go out and spend 50 bucks.

Label Maker Review – How I Use my Brother P-Touch Labeler

So I went ahead and created lots of labels and stuck them to a folder. Now, I want to go ahead and explain some of my favorite colors, fonts, sizes, and shapes and then share with you guys a few tricks I do when I use my label maker. But first, I want to introduce you guys to the newest addition to our family. This is Mojo. Mojo is a 3-month-old Apricot Red Miniature poodle. And she’s asleep right now. She is so cute. She has the cutest face. Hopefully, when she wakes up or when she wakes up, I will show you guys her cute eyes and everything else when she wakes up.

But she has been so much fun to be with. And I’m going to do a pet organizing video sometime soon. I’m still getting her systems in place.

How I Use My Label Maker

How I Use My Label Maker, Label Examples


So back to the video. All right. So let me just start at the top of the list.The top two labels at the top are the 6-millimeter tape and it comes in black on white and black on clear. And I use this thin tape. This is actually the thinnest they make it. I use the thin tape to label really thin shelves or thin drawers, anything that’s thin that needs label, I’ll use the 6-millimeter and I use both the clear and the white probably just as much equally.

So, moving on to the most popular size and color, the 12-millimeter Black font on white. It is the standard most popular color because it’s black and white. It’s also the cheapest one. So if you’re looking for label tape and you have a certain budget in mind then you want to look for the black and white because it’s less expensive. If you start to get into some of the colors, it gets pretty pricey. But OK, most popular size and color. And most label makers, you’ll find, they come with a starter tape and they’d always come with this one.

The next label down is the 12-millimeter black with clear. I use this often when I don’t want to have the white as the background. This works well on wood or a colored box or a colored bin, it depends on what you’re labeling.

When you print a label from your label maker, it’s going to leave a one inch gap in the very beginning and a one inch gap at the very end. And that’s pretty standard. I don’t think there is a way to actually change that on your label maker. So what I do is I always cut off the extra inch because I think it just looks silly with so much white space. It kind of bothers me leaving the extra space it on. I don’t know why.

But OK, moving on. So, I really like the red font on white and I use it for all of my warning, caution, or like – yeah, warning and caution labels just because it kind of stands out. It kind of screams warning or it kind of screams emergency. This one is kind of pricey just because it has a red font. But I really like that one and I use it pretty sparingly, only for warning or caution labels.

The next one on the list is the black on yellow, I love the yellow tape. It’s nice and bright. It’s probably the brightest of all the labels and I use it for spaces that are really busy where I need the labels to stand out. And if you saw my home office supply drawer then you saw I have yellow labels because that whole drawer is like super busy. So when I have the yellow labels, it just stands out. And again, this is the 12-millimeter tape. This one is pretty pricey. I will warn you.

So the green, they came out with green about maybe like three years ago. And when I saw it, I was like, “Oh green, that’s so fun and bright.” But when I bought it and then I used it, I realized that having the white font on the green background is kind of hard to read. And so now, I have green cartridges that I don’t really use because it’s just hard to read. And it looks pretty clear here but when it’s on something else and it’s far away, it’s difficult to read. So I don’t really recommend green unless they decide to change the white font to black. If it was black, I would love it. But yeah, white not so much.

The pink label tape, I absolutely love. I love pink and there’s a lot of pink in my home office, in my closet, and so I love the pink tape. It’s white font on pink. They don’t make black. If they’d make black, it probably would be more readable. But they don’t. So the white works just as well.

How I Use My Label Maker, Label Examples

How I Use My Label Maker, Label Examples


Below the pink label, is the white font on black. And what I did here was show you guys how you can outline your label. So there are different styles like this is a candy wrapper. There is like vines, there’s flowers, there’s a circle. This is the circle or the round outline. That’s the candy wrapper and I thought it was pretty cute.

Next, you can see that this one is a little bit thicker than the 12-millimeter. Can you see? This is thicker than this. This is actually – I think this is the 18-millimeter and I think it’s the thickest that they make it. But this is white font on clear. And it’s actually pretty rare and hard to find the white font on clear. And when you do find it, it is expensive. I don’t know why. I’m guessing because the font is white and it’s clear. I don’t know. But I work well on dark surfaces. I use this exact label tape on my cherry wood drawers in my closet, my elfa drawers. It stands out really nicely and it just looks a lot cleaner than if I had black font on white.

Label Maker Fonts

So my label maker has two different types of font. There is the Helsinki and there’s Bohemia. And I like the Helsinki better than the Bohemia. I feel like the Helsinki is just more clean. But yeah, I just think it’s more clean than this one. I don’t like how this has like – I don’t really know why I don’t like this but yeah, I just like that one better. And you’ll notice that I use all caps when I label anything on my label maker. I just think it looks cleaner and yeah, it just looks cleaner so you’ll notice everything is caps here. And it’s also bold. I do Helsinki bold for all of my labels.

More Label Maker Features, Tips, & Tricks

And then down at the bottom of my labeling sample, I just want to show you guys that they have lots of symbols you can use. So if you’re having like a warning or caution label, you can go ahead and add one of these symbols or email or phone or poison or any of those. It’s kind of cool. And then down here, this is the 18-millimeter just like this one but it’s the black font on white.

And then you can also do vertical labels. So I did one here that says, “POODLES ROCK.” So that’s a vertical label. I don’t really use that one too often but I have used it before.

Label Tip: How to Save Label Tape

Another piece of advice is to type everything on your label before printing. You will save a lot of tape that way. So for example, if you are going to cut or you needed – let’s say, you needed four separate labels for most popular size and color. What I would do is I would print them all on line on your label maker, print them, and then cut them because when you do that, you’re not going to have the one inch gap before or after each word which wastes a lot of tape. So type everything at once and then print it out once and then just cut it.

Where to Purchase Label Maker Tape

So where do you get the label tape? So some office stores – well, most office stores sell label tape. You shouldn’t have a problem finding the 6-millimeter white and clear or the 12-millimeter white and clear. Like these four here, you can easily find at Staples or Office Depot. And these ones down here like these six right here, you are going to have – you are going to pay a premium to get any of these six labels. Office Depot does carry the green and the pink and I think it’s like – it’s pretty pricey. It’s like 20 bucks per label tape which is expensive.

But you won’t find like I have never seen the red or the yellow at Office Depot. I think they do have the black in the store. I’ve never seen that one in the store, that’s standard, standard. You might be able to buy that one in the store. I’m not really sure. If you go to BrotherUsa.com, you will see all the colors they carry. There are a lot more colors. Like there is a red with white font which is really cool. There is an orange. I think there is a purple. There is brown. There is gold. There is silver. Again, they’re a little more expensive and that’s why I haven’t ordered them. But they are pretty cool.

OK. So I showed you guys my favorite label maker or the label maker that I absolutely love. I showed you guys my favorite font, my favorite colors, the way I label. If you have a label maker and you absolutely love it, I would love to know what brand, what model it is. Create a video response or leave a comment below and let me know what it is. And if you have some kind of like super cool trick that I didn’t show in this video that you do when you use label maker, please share that because I would love see and I’m sure everybody else watching would love to see what it is as well.

So I will see you guys soon. Bye.

About Alejandra

About Alejandra

Since 2008, organizing expert & certified life coach, Alejandra Costello has taught thousands of students in 132 countries how to get organized through her video-based training programs. Her YouTube videos have been viewed 100+ million times. Named 1 of the 5 most organized people in America by HGTV and “The Decluttering Queen” by Good Morning America, Alejandra’s expertise has been featured in The New York Times, Oprah.com, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Good Housekeeping, Family Circle, Woman’s Day, Parents Magazine, and CBS. 

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