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Cheap, easy labels for marking kids or visitors bathroom space!

We have been hosting international students for the last couple of years which we really enjoy. They all stay for different lengths of time and as they come and go I have developed a system to help them figure out what is their space easily and to know that its ok to use it.

Here's what I did...




I went to the local $2 shop and bought an Australian animal sticker book - you know the ones with a page of stickers that is repeated over and over on each page and also a set of coasters with corresponding animals on it as I need a single larger picture for this project.


To make the tags for the bathroom - I cut up a take away container lid...


Like so...


And stuck the stickers on to each piece.


The ones that were going in the showers got a coat of PVA glue on each side to waterproof them and then got a hole punched in them to hang off the shower hooks 


The stickers were a bit small for the drawer markers but I stuck them to a piece of card with a bush scene on it and gave them a coat of PVA glue as well since the bathroom is a damp place for paper and card board.
 

So I ended up with a set of Koala, Kangaroo and Kookaburra labels to mark their beds (the big picture coaster blu-taced to the wall behind their beds)  


So as each student moves in or out they just have to find the label that matches the one above their bed - handy when their English is not so good and easy for them to understand!


Their shower holder tag


A drawer each for all their bits and bobs.


You cant see the stickers very well in this picture but it also works on their school time table board I made as well. The names are blu-taced on and sometimes fall off. Even if they do - we know who each animal is anyway!

It works really well as we have some students here for weeks and others for months. Once they spot their animal or tag they know that this is space that they can use without having to ask. I have baskets in the pantry so they can buy their own food and every one knows not to eat it as well.

Using a similar naming system, my husband has proposed that we change the internet connections from each student name to the animal names!

I imagine this would work not only for people with a number of visitors coming through their house but simply as a way of identifying each child or teenagers space as well!

The book of stickers set me back $2 and the coaster $2.50. Having a few extra animals up my sleeve would be handy if we were to have more students than the three we currently host - but if nothing else, it gives you a back up if one goes missing or gets ruined somehow. If you have a printer you could always print off a load of the same animal pictures and glue them on instead of using stickers. That way you could size them and get exactly what you need.

Quick cheap and best of all, easy for everyone!

Score card: 
Green-ness: 3/5 for using some items I ready had but lose marks for buying new stuff...
Frugal-ness: 5/5 for spending less than $5 on this project
Time cost: about 1/2 an hour
Skill level: cutting and pasting as usual!
Fun -ness: Great fun and I think the students like the animal motif!

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