Back to School with Phomemo D30 Label Maker

After the Christmas break L was excited to get back to school and I was excited to get back a bit of normality, but it wasn’t to be. Well they went back for a day didn’t they! Depending on where you are in the country you’ll have faced differing messages and rules about the return to school but for us, we got one day back in the classrooms and then a mad scramble to arrange childcare and homeschooling. At least I was going to be organised with the Phomemo D30 Label Maker.

This lockdown the homeschooling provision from the school has been far more intense. Last summer it was a Google Classroom to chat and share some ideas but mainly we were left to our own devices, printing out resources found on the internet that interested L I just got on with it. That’s not the case now! We have daily work set, rolling weekly work, spelling tests, twice daily video chats and expectation to get everything completed and on time, regardless of what you are juggling at home.

It’s a minefield and the only way I have got through it is to be super organised, so say hello to my new best friend, the Phomemo D30 Label Maker. I cannot express to you the joy this little beauty has bought me. A sense of calm organisation amongst the swirling chaos that is my life.

Just before Christmas we’d spoken about this review and how handy it would be as a back to school tool, I was picturing myself designing and printing off labels for L’s stationery that goes into school with him and his lunch box and water bottle. You know, all the things you have to label or lose within 30 seconds of them reaching school property, but oh how things changed.

L went back to school Monday. He was home with me on Tuesday as I was trying to workout what the school’s plan were in regards to keyworkers, what work might allow me to do in regards to my hours and what would work for us a family. On Wednesday, my birthday, midst Google Meets and stressed messages amongst my friends about how to access said meets, my Phomemo D30 Label Maker arrived and since then I have been busy organising.

We have a set of draws that has been used to store all of L’s lockdown learning materials. Over the summer it was literally just storage and of no real importance, not this time though. It is all marked up with draws for phonics, handwriting, crafts and equipment. Making the handover between me and my husband easier as he’ll be taking over learning responsibilities one day a fortnight. The folders of work that will at some point be heading back to school have been marked up with L’s name and the week it relates to. Blank workbooks have been neatly named and categorized. It’s been a dream.

It hasn’t stopped at just making sure we were back to school ready though, the Christmas decoration boxes were labelled before they went back in to the loft and having ordered the folders we’re about to go through all our home, car and banking paperwork and get that popped away neatly.

I’ve always fancied owning a label maker, I thought it would be useful for me, but I didn’t realise how much joy it would bring.

I think that’s because the Phomemo D30 is so easy to use and has so many cute functions, I can change the font style and size, add borders and even little pictures. The labels themselves can even come in different colours and designs. I’ve got plain white, see through and gold. Though so far I’ve only used the white ones, I feel the gold should be saved for something special, I’m very protective of my stationery, just ask my husband about the time he used my animal shaped paperclips instead of the normal ones. The clear ones will come into play when I go through the kitchen cupboards and label up some of the jars.

As we all know L loves a Giraffe so I’ve designed him name labels with a cartoon giraffe head and his his school things have a space theme. All within the Phomemo App’s simple user interface and the great print quality of the D30.

It is very simple to set up, just install the app on your phone, turn on your bluetooth and turn on the printer. You add the printer with a click of a button and then get to label making. I haven’t had the pleasure of an easier tech set up ever. You then select the label size you have and get creating.

You can add text, select all kinds of images from the icon button and they are nicely categorized to make finding the right one easy, you can add borders, a time stamp, print barcodes or QR codes, go freestyle using the lines function or add a variety of shapes, there’s even an excel function though I haven’t explored that. You can even upload and print your own pictures, though with the D30 designed for smaller labels I wasn’t too successful with this. The small size didn’t give much room for any image detail, though it would be awesome with one of the Phomemo Pocket printers.

The prints are fast and because it’s a thermal printing system there’s no dry time on the ink and nothing to smudge. Just an immediate label ready for use. I’ve found the stickers to be great quality and they adhere well to smooth, hard surfaces. I don’t think they’d last well on clothing and with things like water bottles you’d probably need to replace them every now and then just through use, but as you can save designs after you’ve created them that’s going to be easy to do.

Honestly, this has made such a difference to me and just given me a little feeling of actually still being in control during this crazy and out of control time we find ourselves in.

Disclosure – I was gifted my printer in return for this review. All thoughts, opinions and images are my own. Article contains affiliate links.

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