assembly instructions

[Electric Comet]

may be shipping a piece that will require assembly as some parts are too long to ship economically

have seen very very thin plastic sheets used for labeling parts where they adhere only thru static forces or van der waals

but mostly that was for flat pieces

tape is too messy and post it notes fall off

this is not something i have had to do or thought much about

looking for cheap and reliable solutions that would mean they stay on in shipping and unpacking and can be easily removed once assembled

i imagine ikea probably has a large team that does nothing but figure out how to make fool proof assembly instructions but even then there are assemblers that will do it for you

[DerbyDad03]

Who is it for? A customer who will consider your work to be shoddy if the "tape is too messy" or friend/family member will just put it together and never even think about the quality of the labeling?

Try blue painters tape, neatly affixed. Either tape on printed labels or use a Sharpie directly on the tape.

A few years back I sent my daughter back to college with a full size bed that I built for her. The design requirements were that it was tall enough that those 18 gallon totes could be stored underneath, but more importantly it had to be in small enough pieces that she fit it all in the back of her station wagon, carry the pieces into her house by herself and then assemble it.

I numbered each piece in an inconspicuous spot with a sharpie and took pictures of the bed as I assembled it. I then put the pictures in a PowerPoint document and added step-by-step text instructions.

She's moved the bed 3 times since I built it and has never had any trouble taking it apart or putting it back together because she has the "illustrated instruction manual."

[Electric Comet]

not a bad idea

might be good enough

not as fancy as ikea but will be explicit enough

will include an 800 number too in case of assembly problems