We Sorted Spices With A Bluetooth Label Maker. Will It Make Us Seasoned Organizers?
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My 1950s ranch-style home still has the original kitchen cabinets, which I loved when we bought the house but quickly discovered were bulky and difficult to manage. Since they were so huge and heavy, I wanted to consider open shelving. Now, I love my open shelving because it is so convenient. I can put away dishes while my husband makes breakfast without either of us dodging those giant cabinet doors. Of course, this meant everything in the cabinets needed to be tidy, and my spice cabinet was a mess. I wanted my seasonings to be easily accessible but reorganized to still look nice. I decided I needed some jars and a label maker, but I didn't want to spend a lot of money.
Then, I saw the Supvan E10 Bluetooth label maker for only $17.99 (though its regular price is $29.99) on Amazon, which promised to be the perfect solution. I spent a day cleaning out my spices and labeling everything, hoping this tiny handheld label maker would help me. I haven't had a label maker since they were huge, round things where you moved the letters around to punch each one and the tape didn't actually stick to anything. (Anyone else remember those?) I really hoped this would be much easier to use.
Gathering supplies to organize my spices
For this project, I wanted to reuse old glass jars. Yes, I'm a jar hoarder, but for this purpose, I'm glad I had a selection that included many options perfect for storing the bulk spices I get from the natural food store and local markets. I washed and dried my jars then settled in to learn how to use my label maker. As I removed it from the box, I realized the brand name on Amazon, Supvan, was different from the name listed on the box, which was Katasymbol. I know this is pretty common with Amazon products, and it looked exactly like the product I ordered, so I wasn't concerned.
The label maker package included a 19-foot roll of printing tape already installed along with a charger, two unidentifiable orange things, and instructions. I never figured out what the orange things were for and they weren't mentioned in the instructions, but they didn't have anything to do with how the label maker functioned. Setup only involved charging the label maker and downloading the app. Thankfully, the instructions included a QR code that made the app easy to find and download. The setup was super quick and easy, and the app was surprisingly intuitive. It connected to my phone's Bluetooth with no problem, and I was ready to start making labels for my spices about 10 minutes after the label maker was charged.
There's an app for that
The laborious, yet satisfying, part of this task was cleaning out the cabinet. I got rid of expired spice containers, dumped the seasonings we never use, pulled everything off the shelf, and gave it a good scrub. I also put some spices in jars that were similar in size and had lids that matched my overall kitchen decor. The goal of this reorganization was to reduce kitchen cabinet clutter while keeping everything I need easily accessible.
Once the spices I wanted to keep were in clean containers, it was time for the fun part: making labels! It took a little bit of time to learn how to use the app to adjust formatting. For such a simple label maker, it has a lot of options. You can use existing templates or make your own. The format is very much like an early 2000s word processor — simple but effective. While I was cleaning, I made a list of every label I needed. I sat down with my list, made the first label, printed it using the app, and sliced it off with the installed cutter. Once I chose a template, it just took a few seconds to make and print each label. This process was exceptionally satisfying.
Printed labels brought everything together
I could not be happier with this little label maker. While the device itself is perfectly simple, the app offers so many options that I have barely gotten started with all of the design opportunities. Yes, that means I am constantly looking for things to label. That's my new hobby now. I keep my little label maker nearby in case of a label-making emergency.
The tape adhered well to my glass jars, and I've used it a bit to organize my wooden pantry shelves. The tape backing is super easy to remove, making the process of adding labels to almost anything super easy. I don't have to worry about damaging the label.
If there's one downside I can find, it's that the refill tape is a little pricey. Still, I think this roll will last a while, and when I'm out, it will definitely be worth the price to be able to label anything I want quickly and easily.