Labelling freezer drawers

[pamela]

I want to label the drawers on an upright freezer. They're transparent plastic with no insert for a label.

Are there any markers which will do the trick? None of the ones I tried work on the frozen drawer fronts. I would prefer not to thaw and dry out each drawer.

Alternatively the only freezer labels I can find are for food bags which I suspect might fall off the hard non-smooth plastic of the drawers.

I don't really fancy using small drill holes to mount a sign in case the drawers get weakened and crack.

Any ideas?

[Adrian Caspersz]

Crayon? China Marker? Chinagraph pencil?

Lipstick?

[ss]

Just a thought but as a short term measure paint the back of the label with water and it should freeze/stick to the drawer front until such time you defrost.

[Bob Eager]

Small rigid sign with a bracket to hang over the edge of the drawer? Bracket fashioned from something like coat hanger?

[alan_m]

Brother label machine see 7th post in this archive previous uk.d-i-y posting

$20brother$20label/uk.d-i-y/S4SdQ9UaNiQ/i_OOJ8GJAwAJ

or

[Graham.]

I just tried a fine tip Sharpie marker pen directly on the plastic and it seems to work very well. As a comparison I tried an generic permanent black marker and it hardly works at all.

[Brian Gaff]

Could something be put on the inside if they are transparent? Brian

[pamela]

I tried every permanent marker I could lay my hands on including branded ones such as Sharpie, Stabilo Write-4-All, Uniball Super Ink Marker, Pilot Super Color, plus some unnamed ones.

One of the best was a Stabilo overhead projector marker and the very best was the Write-4-All but all the results were far too poor. Maybe it's the texture and the plastic that's different.

[pamela]

Something in that illustration made me think of attaching a label using Velcro. I don't know if the adhesive on Velcro (or it's imitators) would still hold in freezing tempertaures but it could be worth a try.

[pamela]

Once upon a time I would have done that straight away but these days it's a bit too tricky for me to manage and it would need doing for too many drawers. (There are two upright freezers, each with no label slots, although I hadn't mentioned it.)

[DerbyBorn]

I would have thought an external label would be better as you wouldn't need to open the door before deciding which shelf you need to open. Also better for making ammendments.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

You can buy Dymo Label printers which work from your PC pretty cheaply these days. Clear backing with black print would look pretty good. You'll find lots of other uses too. ;-)

[Jeff Layman]

We label all our frozen food boxes (polythene) using masking tape. It sticks well, providing you remember to wipe any condensation off first, then use a biro or marker pen to label. We've had stuff labelled for a year without any change in the label, and the best thing is that once you've used the frozen food, the label peels off in a second without leaving any residue.

I just tried it on our bobble-surfaced plastic drawers and it seems to stick ok to those too.

[Chris J Dixon]

My freezer drawers are so full that if I tried to label them, I would very soon have to ignore my designations. ;-)

OTOH, I find that a Chinagraph pencil on the box lids is legible and durable, yet wipes off with a damp cloth.

Fortunately, the 3 smallest sizes of these boxes tessellate well in my drawers.

Chris

[Capitol]

Brother printed labels are both freezer and dishwasher proof IME.

[Thomas Prufer]

"Binder clip" over the edge of the drawer, holding on a label, and the arm folded down?

Come in small sizes, cheap...

Thomas Prufer

[DerbyBorn]

Best to minimise the time spent with the door open looking and labels.

Have an external map of the locations.

[Adrian Caspersz]

I was thinking of a hi-tech ceiling mounted laser projector, for safety mounted at a very sharp angle, shooting down mono-colour graphics on surfaces, additionally changing descriptive context as doors are opened, items picked up etc ...

Or just wear augmented reality glasses ...

[Huge]

We used to do that, but it got out of date so rapidly we reverted to the current scheme of random bags of unlabelled glop jammed into whatever spaces they will fit in no particular scheme that I can ascertain.

[Thomas Prufer]

Just call it "RCP" -- random close pack. Or "RCP packing", to bait the pendants:-)

Works for me.

Thomas Prufer