Organizing My Utility Closet With Cricut Smart Materials

Learn how to organize your home using Cricut Smart Materials and Cricut Joy to add customized labels to every space of your home with this fun floral tag idea. Sponsored by Cricut

Oops I did it again, I organized another closet using my Cricut Joy! And I’m not even sorry about it! Ever since I got Cricut Joy, I’ve been on a mission to label my whole house with fancy customized tags. I’ve been doing a lot of spring cleaning lately, and my utility closet was looking pretty drab. It’s basically a random closet in the kitchen that still has the original ’70s built-in shelving with a dingy coat of off-white paint over it. I decided to spruce up the utility closet with fun floral patterns to make my constant grabbing of cleaning supplies a little prettier. And what better way to do that than deck out all the bins with Cricut Smart Materials?!

What You Need To Make Floral Label Tags

• Cricut Joy
• Cricut Joy 12″ Light Grip Mat
• Cricut Joy Adhesive Backed Deluxe Paper
• Cricut Joy Smart Label Writable Paper
• Cricut Joy Pen in black
• Cricut Design Space (this project can’t be done in the Cricut Joy App)

To make the labels, I used Cricut Joy Adhesive Backed Deluxe Paper. I am in love with this sticker paper because it’s SO thick and sturdy! I picked the floral pattern pack from Anna Griffin. I also used the Cricut Joy Smart Label Writable Paper in brown. I have used Smart Label Writable Vinyl a lot, but this was my first time using the paper option. I think it may be even better than Smart Label Writable Vinyl, but that’s just my own personal opinion.

Some of the labels I was making were going to stick right onto the plastic baskets, but others were going to be put on bin clips first. So I measured the bin clips and wrote down that size, then reduced those measurements by 1/4 inch to get the floral label cut size. Then I reduced that size again by 1/4 inch to get the brown paper label size.

Once I had my sizing right, I just chose the rounded rectangle shape in Cricut Design Space set the larger size, duplicated it, then shrunk the second one down to the second size I needed. For the smaller one, I added text using the font Telegram Text on top, then grouped and attached. Then I just duplicated these and changed the text for all the labels I needed.

Once I was ready to get rolling, it was time for my BFF Joy to do her thing. It started the process by cutting all the larger rectangles, which were my floral patterns. Cricut Joy Adhesive Backed Deluxe Paper does need a mat, even though it’s a Joy product. So I loaded them up one by one onto my light grip mat.

Once those were done, I loaded the Cricut Joy Smart Label Writable Paper into the Joy, no mat needed. Since it’s a Smart material, it doesn’t need a mat at all. (PS: You can learn more about what Smart Materials are in this post)

Cricut Joy always writes first, so if you’re doing this project at home, always remember to load the pen first. I chose to use the Cricut Joy Fine Point Black Pen and I think it shows up really well on the brown paper. (Cool hack, the top right part of the Cricut Joy has a magnet for your blade tool to hang out safely while the pen is at work!)

Once all the labels are written, you’ll be instructed to swap the pen for the Cricut Joy blade. These labels are super fast and easy to make, so you can crank out a bunch in a short amount of time. I made 28 total, and it took about 20 minutes, which is crazy fast! Especially since it had to write all the text.

And the best part is, Cricut Joy doesn’t really need me around while she’s doing her magic. I was able to let her run in the background while I organized all the baskets in the closet. Yay for multitasking!

Installation is also really fast and easy. The adhesive backed paper and the writable label paper both go on just like a sticker, and you don’t need any special tools to remove them from their backing. No weeding tools, no tweezers, and no scrapers. This really is a great beginner project for those that haven’t stocked up on tools yet.

The final part of the process was to apply the labels to the tags and baskets. I just can’t get over how cute they are! Even though the floral pattern is very minimal, it adds a pop of color and fun to an otherwise very boring utility closet.

Look how thick and sturdy this paper is! You can really see the thickness in this photo from the side. This is good quality paper and I can already tell it’s going to last a long time and hold up to a lot of use.

I took my floral pattern a little further by covering some plain plastic pegboards with Cricut vinyl. This was another really simple project and didn’t even involve using a Cricut machine at all.

I just applied the vinyl to the pegboards, poked pilot holes with my Weeding tool, and poked full holes with an ink pen. You can see the full tutorial here with step-by-step instructions and details here.

It’s crazy how something as small as labels can really transform a storage closet, isn’t it? No joke, I had a guest over last week and I actually said to her “let me show you my utility closet!” You know, like a crazy person. But I guess she’s crazy, too, because she was already ordering the floral Adhesive Backed Deluxe Paper on her phone before she even left my house. I think that means this project was a success!

Now that my utility closet is clean and organized, I can get back to Spring Cleaning. Next up on my list is the guest bedroom. What’s on YOUR cleaning list this week?