Print your own
You almost certainly own the labels already.
Every template below is laid out to the millimetre for a sheet you can buy at any newsagent, or for plain paper and a pair of scissors. Pick one, print it, and your codes are working before the postie would have got out of bed.
Create a free account to fill these sheets with your own codes. Below is what each one looks like.
Any printer, any paper
Plain A4 with cut lines
Twenty-four codes on an ordinary sheet with dashed cut lines. Print, cut, and stick down with clear tape or a glue stick.
24 per A4 sheet
Open the sheetAvery L7160 / 5160, 21 per sheet
Avery L7160 address labels
The address label sheet in most home offices. Three across, seven down, with the code and the finder line side by side.
21 per A4 sheet . Plus
Open the sheetAvery L7651, 65 per sheet
Avery L7651 mini labels
Sixty-five tiny labels. The right size for pens, chargers, earbud cases and the inside of a lunch box lid.
65 per A4 sheet . Plus
Open the sheetAvery L7165, 8 per sheet
Avery L7165 shipping labels
Eight big labels with a full instruction line. Good for cases, prams, toolboxes and anything that gets left in a hall.
8 per A4 sheet . Plus
Open the sheetAvery L7120, 45 mm round, 24 per sheet
Avery L7120 round labels
Round stickers that sit neatly on a drink bottle or a helmet without a corner to peel.
24 per A4 sheet . Plus
Open the sheetAny A4 transfer paper for light fabric
Iron-on transfer sheet
Mirrored so it reads correctly once pressed. Twelve labels sized for a collar or a seam.
24 per A4 sheet . Mirrored for transfer paper . Plus
Open the sheetCard stock, 6 per sheet
Luggage swing tags
Fold-over tags with a punch mark, sized for a suitcase handle. Print on 200 gsm and laminate if you can.
10 per A4 sheet . Plus
Open the sheetAny paper, cut into strips
Gear strips
Long thin strips for wrapping around a bike frame, a tent pole, a charger cable or a hockey stick.
11 per A4 sheet . Plus
Open the sheet
Print at actual size
In the print dialog choose A4 and set scale to 100 percent. “Fit to page” shrinks everything by a few millimetres and the rows walk off the label sheet by the bottom.
Make paper survive
A single turn of clear packing tape over a paper label is close to waterproof and stops the ink lifting. Book-covering film is even better.
Test one first
Print a sheet on plain paper, hold it against the label sheet at a window, and check the alignment before you spend the good labels.