The case of the missing ___________ (insert any clothing item you want). SOLVED.

For as long as my kids have been going to preschool we’ve had casualties. You know, personal items that went to school with them and then never came back.

Last Summer it was a favorite bathing suit that went missing at the end of June. Cost? A sad camper for basically all of an Idaho Summer (July and August) and a tired-out mom as a result. (everyone knows listening and enduring whining is very tiring.) And this Winter is was numerous gloves, and it always seemed to be the left one so we couldn’t even mix and match. The tipping point was a missing sparkle shoe…

So, after some frustrating losses and expensive replacements I decided some sort of action was in order. I went on eBay and bought some iron on “transfers” with our last name on them and spent an hour or two applying them to all the items that we definitely didn’t want lost – snow suits, jackets, etc. It was okay for things that didn’t get washed much, like jackets, etc. but the labels fell right off everything else after the second wash (if not the first). So, I resigned myself to thinking that we would just lose some things… until I happened across one of my best finds ever.

The labels from Stuck on You are fun and they were specifically created and designed for kids’ clothing, shoes, and other belongings. They had identification labels and nametags for everything imaginable…backpack tags, vinyl stickers for shoes and/or lunchboxes, allergy labels and, of course, iron on name labels. They were cute, and I was desperate. So I ordered two sets of clothing dots, basically iron on labels ($18.95 per set of 50) and one set of sticky dots shoe dots ($18.95 for a set of 20).

It may seem a lot to pay for some “stickers”. Instead, the transfers are one of the best investments I’ve made “AK” (After Kids). The Summer Program at our preschool isn’t exactly staffed by the elite like it is in the Fall, and so lost items during this season are usually at a peak. And despite the fact that we used to lose about one item a week (some would find their way back and others lost in the abyss forever), so far this summer we haven’t had one lost one thing. Everything has found its way back into the appropriate cubby by day’s end and I have to think it’s because everything has been labeled and ownership is obvious.

I’ve never done an “official” product review before this, but these labels are something I can definitely put my seal of approval on. If you have a kid that goes to daycare/school somewhere outside of your home, I highly recommend the Stuck on You labels.