Get Sharp

Maybe you haven’t been ‘carded’ lately, but as your family’s Chief Identification Officer, it’s your job to make sure everything (and we mean everything) has the right ID. You want to avoid mix-ups and ensure important items always make their way back home again.

Pre-printed labels are handy and label machines definitely add to your arsenal, but when you need to ID on the fly, there’s nothing more flexible than a fine-pointed indelible-ink marker (aka Sharpie). And it’s definitely for more than just labelling packages. Here’s how our SavvyMoms like to make their mark.

Media

• Label DVDs (use a silver Sharpie) with your family name inside the front cover so there’s no question of ownership when swapping movies with friends.
• Label blank CDs with the contents—a CD may be full of beautiful photos but it doesn’t mean you can tell from the outside.
• Draw a line or other mark on the right earbud of your iPod so that when you put them on you can quickly see which is the ‘right’ one.

Sports

• Write your family name on every piece of sports equipment that leaves your house—bikes, balls, skipping rope, hockey sticks, skis, etc. That way it might make it home.
• For the golf nut, draw a line around the circumference of your golf balls to help with alignment when putting.

Holiday

• Rather than using messy dye cups, invest in a multi-pack of colourful markers and use them for decorating Easter eggs.
• When gifting, scratch out the price without eliminating the UPC code, to help with returns if needed.
• Mark the remaining balance on the back of gift cards you have used so you remember how much you have left to spend.

Around the House

• Write the date opened on the top of baby food jars to make sure you don’t keep them in the fridge for more than the requisite three days.
• Write cooking or storage directions on plastic wrap or aluminum foil covering food that you take to a neighbor or new mom.
• Colour in accidental bleach spots on your favourite clothes with coloured markers—keep a multi-coloured stash on hand for laundry mishaps so you can match the original colour of the piece of clothing. (This trick works particularly well on scuffed heels of shoes and other accessories.)
• Similarly, use markers to disguise nicks in furniture (typically black or brown, or whatever colour matches the piece in need of a touch up).

Out & About

• Personalize luggage tags with a unique symbol for any piece that will ride an airport carousel to avoid airport mix-up.
• Add initials to paper cups or plates at parties, picnics or restaurants to avoid mix-ups (the low-tech version of a wine charm).
• Write your cell phone number on your children’s stomachs when going to amusement parks and fairs and teach them to show the number to someone who can help them if they get lost.

Mom Stuff

• Make a small kissing heart on your little ones’ palms, marking the spot where you gave them a kiss that they could carry with them all day (comes in ‘handy’ on the first day of kindergarten).
• Add inconspicuous but identifying marks (such as initials) to any toy that gets brought out of the house—to daycare or on a playdate—to avoid mix-ups (using the marker you always keep in your bag).
• Keep a tally on a medicine bottle to remember how many doses you have given (mark a letter for each day the medicine is to be given on the top of the bottle and then mark a line under each once a dose has been given).

So make like a celebrity and remember stash some Sharpies in your bag and around the house —you never know when your autograph will be needed.

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