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.