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I was riffling through my mom’s basement, looking for old children’s books to put in our nursery, when I thought I struck gold. There, tucked behind Christmas decorations and photo albums, was a label maker. Having watched one too many TikTok videos of first-time moms organizing their baby’s dressers, I was itching to create a system of my own. “Take it!” my mom told me. I shouldn’t have been shocked when I finally powered up the 15-year-old machine, only to be met with angry noises. I initiated plan B: Buy a new label maker on Amazon.
The portable, mini, bluetooth-enabled Nelko P21 was the first product to pop up, and its $18 price tag, 4.5 stars, and 18,000-plus reviews were enough to convince me to add it to my cart. Overall, customers seemed pleasantly surprised by the tool. “I looked at this for so long before I bought it and now I wish I had it sooner,” one shopper wrote. “I’ve been using it for three months and haven’t had to charge it yet,” another rejoiced. Someone else called it “da bomb.”
Nelko P21 Label Maker
I, too, ended up loving the Nelko printer. First off, it arrives ready to roll with a solid charge and tape included. There are only three buttons: one for powering it on, another for lifting the lid where you drop in the tape, and a third for cutting off the labels. The steps are all clearly outlined in the manual, the most important one being to calibrate the label before you print it, or else your creation will end up wonky and off center.
The second reason to get yourself the Nelko label maker? All of the design work happens on an app on your phone. I will admit that the amount of templates, borders, icons, and font styles is a little overwhelming for someone like me who is just trying to sort dresser drawers. But after you’ve toyed around with all the features, all you have to do is hit print and a crisp, dry label pops out. Don’t tug on it! Pull the cutting lever and it’ll come right off.
I soon started toting my Nelko from room to room, looking for new shelves and bins to name. Knowing that we’re going to have a lot of guests in the next few months—many of them eager to lend a hand—I went on an organizing frenzy in the kitchen, noting where everything from the whisks to the cheese grater live. And even though my husband knows where his T-shirts and gym shorts go in our shared closet, I stuck some labels onto the shelves to encourage him to actually put them there. Is there such a thing as too many labels? I think not.