5 Fresh Ideas for Organizing Your Gardening Supplies

Expert organization tips for maximizing storage and labeling outdoors

Spring has sprung, and that means we all want more time in the garden. Spend more time cultivating and less time combating clutter with tips that make it easy to organize your gardening supplies (and keep them that way).

Jump into the season and get started now. We’ve got new organizing tips, updates that improve upon classics, how to make sure your labels last outdoors and tips for infusing garden organization with your own personal style.

To get your seed collection under control, use photo page sheet protectors like we’ve used here and store them in a durable binder you can carry around outside.

1) Next-level gardening hack: how to organize your seed packets

Seed packets are one of the most difficult things to organize. It’s so easy to fall into the seed-drawer or seed-box trap, accumulating tons of tiny packets because you can’t see what you already have. Not to mention the mess if the packets get spilled.  

Sheet protectors originally designed for photos, trading cards and business cards are a genius way to get all your garden seeds in one accessible place. Everything is easy to see so you can avoid buying repeat packets, and you can even add dividers or use tabs to organize by planting season or type of plant.

Your seed binder is also the perfect place to keep a gardening calendar with planting dates. You can put it in a sheet protector or just slip it in the binder cover and you’re good to go.

If you’re feeling extra ambitious you can turn your seed binder into a garden journal by adding extra pages at the back for garden planning and making daily entries.

Update your garden aesthetic with cute homemade plant markers and durable printable labels you can personalize.

2) Update your gardening aesthetic with simple and cute garden markers

Channel your inner artist for a fun afternoon project that’s creative and relaxing but not too involved. Using simple paint stir sticks and permanent markers you can create your own unique garden markers.

You can usually find paint stir sticks for free at your local hardware store. Jumbo wooden craft sticks also work. Use a combination of bullet-tip and ultra-fine permanent markers so that you have options for lettering and drawing delicate details for each plant.

3) Upgrade to waterproof labels for organizing garden supplies

Working outdoors can be messy. Traditional paper labels simply aren’t designed for standing up to water, dirt and other outdoor elements in the garden. When it comes to paper labels vs. film labels, film labels win hands down for organizing gardening supplies.

Avery film labels come in several different varieties, but the best for gardening are waterproof rather than water-resistant. Waterproof labels are also resistant to oils and common household chemicals so you can take containers out in the sunny, damp garden, get messy and wipe them down, no problem.

When you shop blank waterproof labels by the sheet you can order as little as one sheet of labels and there’s over one hundred shape and size combinations. We created a cheat sheet of the best waterproof labels for common garden organization:

For outdoor spray bottles, think outside of the box. Printable labels for industrial use, actually make fantastic garden spray labels because they’re tested to stand up to tough environments

4) How to label and organize your DIY gardening insecticides and sprays

Our favorite way to store spray bottles for the garden are on pegboard hooks, or hanging on a simple towel rack. Both options are super easy to install and can keep your DIY garden sprays safely out of reach of pets and kids.

On that note, it’s always a good idea to label homemade insecticides and garden sprays so they don’t get sprayed somewhere they shouldn’t. Including a label on the back, with the ingredients and concentration, is an easy way to remind yourself of the recipe and also handy information in case of an accident.

Industrial labels designed for labeling chemical containers are actually the perfect label for using on DIY garden spray bottles. Especially to avoid bottles of “mystery chemicals.” The labels are engineered to last in extreme marine environments, so basically anything your garden can throw at them, they can take.

Our UtlraDuty industrial labels are engineered to be waterproof (certified to last 90 days submerged in sea water!), and resist scratches, tearing, UV rays and chemicals (such as oils). They can easily stand up to garden sprays with essential oils and other natural chemical substances like vinegar and Castile soap.

Pro tip: To make sure your garden labels don’t smear or smudge, even in the messy garden, make sure you’re always using the right kind of label for your printer. Laser-printable labels used with a laser printer, inkjet-printable labels used with inkjet printers.

Using vertical space for storing gardening tools makes everything easy to see, easy to get to, and most importantly, easy to put away.

5) Make use of vertical space for gardening tools and equipment

Pegboard and spring-grip wall mounts are perfect for maximizing garden storage by using vertical space for garden tools that are varied shapes and sizes. Sort large tools like hoes, shovels and rakes for wall-mount storage and small items like trowels, weeders and gloves for pegboard storage.

To really make the most of vertical space, experiment with the layout to keep like items together and make sure there’s room for all your garden tools and equipment. Lay the items out on the floor first, to give yourself a good idea of where to put your wall mounts and pegboard hooks.

Once you have everything puzzled together for the most efficient layout, label where each item belongs so that it’s easy to put garden tools back when you’re finished using them. Not only are printable waterproof labels going to hold up well in the garage or garden shed, but you can personalize them too.  

Use our free Avery Design and Print Online (ADPO) software to create garden labels with a fresh springtime feel. You can choose from tons of flower and plant images to add to labels using the Avery Gallery in ADPO.

Pro Tip: Learn how to add images to any project in Avery Design and Print Online with detailed, step-by-step instructions. You'll be able to add a personal touch to everything from garden labels to holiday cards.

Get organized and spend more time in the garden

They say organization is a practice, not a project… but that’s only true to an extent. You have to have a good system in place so that it’s easy to put items away and you don’t have to waste time constantly re-organizing.

Getting your gardening supplies organized is no different. From storing seed packets in an easy-to-access binder, to knowing how and where supplies fit in vertical storage, to making sure your garden labels last.

Enjoying the look of your freshly organized garden supplies doesn’t hurt either. Loving the aesthetic of your space is a powerful motivator to keep it organized. 

How are you getting organized in the garden? Connect with us on Instagram to share your favorite gardening tips and aesthetics.