How to Label Your Craft Materials: 7 Tips for a Tidy Workshop
Stop hunting for materials mid-production. These 7 practical tips show you how to label your craft supplies with SKUs, QR codes, and bin locations to keep your workshop actually organised.
You’re mid-production, running low on something, and you cannot find the right jar of fragrance oil to save your life. Every container looks the same. You’re pretty sure the one you need is somewhere behind the stack of boxes in the corner. Twenty minutes later, you’ve found it and completely broken your flow.
Sound familiar? Good labelling is the fix. Not glamorous, but genuinely one of the highest-return things you can do for your workshop. Here are 7 practical tips for building a labelling system that actually holds up when things get busy.
What is a labelling system?
A labelling system is a consistent method for identifying and locating your materials using physical labels or tags. It can be as low-tech as a sharpie on masking tape, or as thorough as printed cards with QR codes linked to your inventory system.
The exact method matters less than the consistency. Whatever you choose, it needs to work the same way across every shelf, box, and drawer in your workspace.
1. Choose the system that suits how you actually work
Before you print a single label, think about your setup. How many different materials do you stock? Do you have a dedicated workspace or are you working from a spare room? Are you the only one who needs to navigate it, or do others help?
A soap maker with 80 ingredients needs something different from a jeweller with 20 bead types. A laminated card system makes sense for a proper workshop; hand-written index cards work fine if you’re still getting started.
The key here is to pick something you’ll actually maintain. A perfect system abandoned after three weeks is worse than a simple system used consistently.
One thing that genuinely matters early on: don’t let your system evolve into three different methods running in parallel. That’s how you end up with half your materials labelled one way and half labelled another, with no reliable way to find anything quickly.
2. Aim for readability above all else
Your label needs to be readable at a glance, ideally from a metre or two away. Fancy design is irrelevant if you’re squinting at it under workshop lighting.
A few practical notes:
- Black text on white is almost always your best bet. Colours fade, especially with cheaper label stock. If you want colour coding, add a small coloured dot sticker rather than printing in colour.
- Avoid cursive or decorative fonts. They look nice; they’re hard to read quickly. Stick with a clean sans-serif.
- Size your text for the distance. If labels live on shelves you’ll view from standing height, your SKU code should be large enough to read without picking the container up.
3. Put your SKU code front and centre
The most useful thing on any material label is a short, unique code. This is called a SKU (stock keeping unit), and it’s what lets you reference a material consistently across your labels, purchase orders, inventory software, and any spreadsheets you use.
A good material SKU is around 5-8 characters and ideally means something at a glance. For example:
LYE-001for lye (first entry)FO-LAV-001for lavender fragrance oilDYE-RED-001for red liquid dye
The exact format doesn’t matter. What matters is that every material has one, it never changes, and everyone who uses your workspace knows what it means.
Want more detail on creating a naming system? How to think about inventory codes for your maker business.
4. Add a short description to catch errors
Right below your SKU, add a brief plain-language description of the material. Something like:
LYE-001/ Sodium Hydroxide (Lye) / 500g bag
This is an error-prevention measure, not redundancy. When you’re rushing through a manufacture and grabbing materials by habit, a glance at the description confirms you’ve got the right thing before you use it. One wrong ingredient in a batch can ruin the whole lot. A two-second double-check is worth it.
Keep descriptions short. You don’t need vendor details or batch numbers here; that information lives in your inventory software, not on the physical label.
5. Consider QR codes for instant detail
Most smartphones can scan a QR code without a separate app these days. That makes QR codes genuinely practical for workshop labels.
The most useful approach: generate a QR code that links directly to the material’s page in your inventory management software. Scan it while standing at the shelf and you get the full stock history, cost data, and supplier details instantly. No logging in, no searching.
This works especially well for materials you reorder frequently or ones with variable pricing. You can see at a glance whether you’ve bought it cheaper before and from whom.
Learn more about using QR codes in your inventory system.
If QR codes feel like overkill for your setup, you can also use regular barcodes. They’re useful if you want to connect your materials to a barcode scanner or an existing system. The trade-off is that barcodes need a scanner to read, whereas QR codes work from any phone.
How to generate UPC barcodes for your materials.
6. Include your bin location on the label
If you use a bin location system (and I’d encourage you to), the bin code belongs on the label.
A bin location is a short code that tells you exactly where a material lives in your storage. Something like A-03-02 might mean Row A, Shelf 3, Position 2. When you’re returning a material after use, you just match the code on the label to the code on the shelf. No thinking required.
This pays off particularly well when someone else is helping you in your workshop. You can say “grab me LYE-001, it’s in A-03-02” and they can find it without knowing your system inside-out.
7. Pick your printing method and stick with it
The most basic option: handwrite your labels on index cards, cover with clear sticky tape, attach to containers. It works. It costs almost nothing.
If you’re managing a larger inventory, a label printer (the DYMO LabelWriter is a popular choice for home workshops) makes life much easier. You can print batches of labels quickly, they’re self-adhesive, and they look consistent. Label printers also double up for printing price tags on finished products.
For materials stored anywhere near moisture or outdoor exposure, consider a laminator. Laminated cards hold up to spills and humidity in ways that paper labels simply don’t.
One tip: whatever method you start with, don’t mix methods mid-inventory. If you start with handwritten cards, stick with those until you’re ready to switch everything over at once. Hybrid systems are harder to maintain than you’d think.
Frequently Asked Questions
What information should I put on a craft material label?
At minimum, every craft material label needs a unique SKU code and a short plain-language description. Add a bin location code if you use a storage system, and a QR code if you want quick access to full stock details via your phone. Vendor names and pricing don't belong on the physical label; keep that data in your inventory software or a spreadsheet you can cross-reference.
Do I need a label printer for my craft supplies?
No. Handwritten labels on index cards with clear tape work perfectly well, especially when you're starting out. A label printer like the DYMO LabelWriter becomes worth it when you have a large inventory (50+ materials) or when labels need to look consistent and professional. If your materials are exposed to moisture or humidity, laminated cards will outlast paper labels significantly.
What's the difference between a SKU and a bin location?
A SKU (stock keeping unit) identifies what a material is. It's a unique code that follows the material everywhere: across your labels, purchase orders, and inventory system. A bin location identifies where the material is stored, something like A-03-02 for Row A, Shelf 3, Position 2. Your label should include both: the SKU so you know what you're looking at, and the bin code so you know where to return it.
Can I use QR codes on my material labels?
Yes, and they're genuinely useful. Most smartphones now scan QR codes without a separate app. The most practical approach is to link each QR code to the material's page in your inventory software. Scan it while standing at the shelf and you get full stock history, cost data, and supplier info instantly. Craftybase supports this workflow, so makers using it can link directly to their material records.
Making labels work with your inventory system
Labels solve the physical problem of finding materials in your workspace. But they’re only one piece of the puzzle.
The other piece is tracking what you actually have. How much lye is left? When did you last order fragrance oil? Are you about to run out of something mid-batch?
That’s where inventory management software comes in. Craftybase is built specifically for makers who manufacture products from raw materials. It tracks your material stock levels automatically as you use them in manufactures, calculates cost per unit, and generates the COGS reports you need for tax time.
Some of the things makers find most useful:
- Automatic stock level tracking with no manual counting required
- Cost of goods sold calculations so you know exactly what each product costs to make
- Inventory reorder alerts so you’re restocking before you run out, not after
- Material location tracking with bin locations built right in
If you’d like to try it, there’s a free 14-day trial with no credit card required. Start your free Craftybase trial.
The final word
A good labelling system won’t fix a disorganised business, but it will get you out of that frantic “where did I put it?” loop that eats up more time than most makers realise. Start simple, stay consistent, and add complexity (QR codes, bin locations) only when you genuinely need it.
Labels are the foundation. Good inventory tracking is the system that makes them count.
