Stuff Bag Tags

[Guest]

This started as an ID method for the food stuff bags in the blue barrel; one each for breakfast, lunch/snacks, dinner and stove/cookware. The stuff bags are different colors, but I am really colorblind, so that didn’t help me much; I was constantly extracting random stuff bags to peer inside. Nope, not that one, chose again.

The first ID tag try was using printed tags laminated between clear packing tape. We have a couple of similar tents and tarps that are hard to ID in storage, those needed labels as well. Meh, that worked, but they became unreadable wrinkled and some eventually tore off.



I found some tiny plastic ID tags in a rural Walmart fishing section. Three packs for 89 cents IIRC. Perfect, and easy to swap out the label if desired.



I really should have bought a couple dozen and not just six. The mountain of tripping truck stuff bagged gear needs tags for easy ID, and it wouldn’t hurt to have them on the sundry tents and tarps.

Maybe even on the sleeping bag stuff sacks; we have a closet full of sleeping bags, each hung loose with its appropriate stuff bag. Winter bags, three season bags, summer bags, down and synthetic. One son packed what seemed to be a light summer bag for an August trip.

Uh, that was a new 20F down bag. Sweaty nights.

 

[Boatman53]

Look in any store that makes keys. They look like key tags to me. I've got quite a few for the houses I watch.
Jim

 

[wgiles]

I've been using the tags that auto service shops put on your keys when you bring your car in. They come in sheets of about 9 and hold up fairly well. I first got a sheet from the shop that I use and then found some for sale on eBay.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Tags-Arrow-...m3d1d81d725:m:mUHhTGyZQ7F04f7265TW9xw&vxp=mtr

 

[Grandpa Paddler]

I just use the tags from the bulk food section at the grocery store.

 

[rpg51]

I always end up having to dig through all the bags and I find what I need in the last one.

 

[Guest]

Look in any store that makes keys. They look like key tags to me. I've got quite a few for the houses I watch.

I think we have a winner, key tags. Thanks.

I am relieved to see that other folks tag their stuff bags, I was starting to feel more anal than usual.

Not that anal, really. Just seeking as much colorblind efficiency as possible. Food bag digging in the barrel was a daily challenge. The back of the tripping truck when travelling probably has a dozen stuff bags in it, more if traveling with a companion, so being able to grab and read a tag helps prevent frustration and disorder.

The tags help for home organization/gear selection as well. Our tarps live loosely in expanded compression bags and I can grab the right one off the shelf at a glance. Different tent bags look awfully similar to one another. Or identical tent bags; old worn Hubba Hubba vs new, near pristine Hubba Hubba. Good luck with that. I recall tales from folks oops-wrong-tent trips.

Suggesting gear when my sons are packing for a trip “ If you are sharing the tent I’d take the 3-man Sierra Designs ”. Read the tag son. See also selecting a 20F down bag in mid-summer.

One truck camping trick for sleeping bags and stuff sacks. I bring an extra stuff bag considerably larger than the one containing my truck sleeping bag. In winter that is often a massive zero degree Wiggys rectangle, which is a special PITA to restuff every morning, especially in the coated nylon compression bag that it came with.

After that Wiggys bag comes out of the tightly compressed bag at night it goes into an easier to stuff and less compressed state in a giant, slick stuffing, uncoated nylon, it isn’t getting wet in the back of the truck stuff sack in the morning. Same goes for the down bags in truck camping use; they don’t need to be compressed to the smallest possible size stuff bag for the day, or be moisture bound in an un-breathable water-resistant coated bag. Probably better for them in the long run to let ‘em fluff out and breathe a bit.

I usually have at least two different temperature range bags in the truck when travelling, which can become a mess of unidentified and/or unoccupied stuff bags.

I always end up having to dig through all the bags and I find what I need in the last one.

Hopefully the last one is when you stop looking. If you are young enough to remember what it was you were looking for.

I expect to spend the better part of a day pulling out every sleeping bag, tent, tarp, FIAC bag and etc, writing down contents, printing and cutting label slips and attaching those key tags to everydamn thing. I’m gonna try to do them all at once and never have to ponder what is in a stuff bag again. Eventually the time spent making IDs for stuff bags will exceed the time wasted looking for the right one in camp or truck.

TMI Truck Camping stuff bag trick II.
I bring an old stuff bag (soon to be labeled) for dirty clothes. That helps prevent the dreaded sniff-test when last weeks skivvies inadvertently went into the clean clothes bag.

 

[Bothwell Voyageur]

Best tags are the type they put on cow's ears.

For temporary tags we use flagging tape and label with a sharpie. These can be as large as you want so it is possible to be quite detailed should you wish.

 

[boatstall]

For temporary tags we use flagging tape and label with a sharpie. These can be as large as you want so it is possible to be quite detailed should you wish.

I like this idea! Simple. No split rings to catch threads and snag on lighter weight stuff sacks. No hard edges. And I already have several colors of flagging tape.
Especially for listing food items, and then being able to mark them off as they are consumed. And since I always carry a sharpie, noting restock needs, or what I wish I had included, repairs needed on this or that, what needs to be restitched, etc.
Gears already turning on the possibilities.
Thanks

 

[Guest]

I like this idea! Simple. No split rings to catch threads and snag on lighter weight stuff sacks. No hard edges. And I already have several colors of flagging tape.

We have used flagging tape to temporarily mark dry bags and packs on 4-boat family trips, so there is no repacking confusion about whose bag is which, containing what the next morning. I have surveyors tape in various colors (including polka dot), leftovers from setting up canoe orienteering courses. I carry some extra to flag tarp guy lines on family or group trips, for foot trip or garroting avoidance (and other weird reasons).

Temporarily. Flagging tape is better than using Sharpied duct tape stuck on the bag to ID whose, which and what; tape leaves a fugly residue on vinyl dry bags. But flagging tape doesn’t hold up well over time, it quickly gets scrunched up or rips off.

For stuff bags that always contain the same items; blue barrel food bags, custom sized stuff bags/compression sacks for sleeping bags, tripping truck gear bags, I’d rather make those little tags (those are 2 inch x ¾ inch, no beer can in the photo for comparative size) permanent, and make them but once.

A lot of the miscellaneous gear - water filter, microfiber sheet, rain gear - is in small three for $5 ditty bags, stored inside a dry bag or barrel, and I’d rather buy another three pack of ditty bags than remember to switch labels between trips, and then remember to switch them back.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Outdoor-Products-Ditty-Bags-3-Pack/36549837

A smaller ID tag would be better still, especially if I can print out a crisp label to slip in a wee plastic holder and avoid my sloppy handwriting, which seriously does not translate well to an 8 point font, even using non-smeary ink.

I agree about the split ring, and will eliminate those when I find the perfect tags and do a production run of stuff bag ID label making.

Especially for listing food items, and then being able to mark them off as they are consumed. And since I always carry a sharpie, noting restock needs, or what I wish I had included, repairs needed on this or that, what needs to be restitched, etc.

I am not likely to paddle out to a grocery store mid-trip when we run out of coffee, cheese or toilet paper. The other repair, adapt, alter or tweak stuff, and restocking needs - 1[SUP]st[/SUP] aid kit, batteries, stove fuel, beer – I write on the inside cover of my trip journal.

Those journal records actually makes for a fun read years later; I was using and doing what back then?

 

[boatstall]

The other repair, adapt, alter or tweak stuff, and restocking needs - 1[SUP]st[/SUP] aid kit, batteries, stove fuel, beer – I write on the inside cover of my trip journal.

Those journal records actually makes for a fun read years later; I was using and doing what back then?

Trip journal is definitely a habit that would assist my addled old brain. The thread on your field desk evolution reinforced in me the need to do the same.
Better late than never. Yours will be truely appreciated by your children and grandchildren down the road. Wish I had started earlier for sure!

 

[Bothwell Voyageur]

The idea of temporary tags comes from trips where we have flown from the UK to Canada. Although we brought our own selection of stuff sack and barrel organisers with us we had no idea how the food we would buy would be distributed into the various bags for a 10+ day trip. It also helped as we worked our way through the food and began to consolidate things down, and for us it allowed us to differentiate between the carnivore lunch bag and the veggie lunch bag.

 

[Kayak_Ken]

No Title

I like the idea of some form of label/tag for my drybags also. When I told my wife what I wanted and asked her to make me some she said do you realize how much work that would be. I wondered aloud how many kevlar canoes her sewing machines were worth and she responded with "how many tags do you want".
Here is a picture of our first attempt. The next try will be the same width but not as high. We will also use a reflective or glow in the dark thread to make easier to see in the dark. The tag is attached with velcro to make it easy to put on/take off as needed and embrodied on both sides so that if the tag flips over it would still be readable.

 

[latremorej]

I like the idea of some form of label/tag for my drybags also. When I told my wife what I wanted and asked her to make me some she said do you realize how much work that would be. I wondered aloud how many kevlar canoes her sewing machines were worth and she responded with "how many tags do you want".
Here is a picture of our first attempt. The next try will be the same width but not as high. We will also use a reflective or glow in the dark thread to make easier to see in the dark. The tag is attached with velcro to make it easy to put on/take off as needed and embrodied on both sides so that if the tag flips over it would still be readable.

Now that is the best tag I have seen! I wish I had an embroidery machine...

I like this thread. I think I'm going to peel off all that old duck tape and make up some proper labels one of these days!

Jason

 

[Guest]

I think we have a winner, key tags. Thanks.

Indeed we do.

My go-to hardware store had a bin of them near the key counter. Same 2 inch x ¾ inch size, same clear plastic window, same 30 cents apiece, but made with a more flexible plastic case.

I bought 24 of them. For $7 it will be worth it; if it lives in or has a specific stuff bag associated I’m tagging it.

 

[lowangle al]

I know exactly whats in each bag by the last day of a trip, so the trick is to get out again before you forget and you won't need tags.

I have used those plastic key ID tags for keys and they are a real PIA if you need to pull the paper out to change it.

 

[Guest]

Many labels to go

I outlined a text box, sized for those 1 ¼ x ¾ key tag ID’s to slip neatly behind the window, and went off to make a list of stuff sacked or compression bagged gear that always lives in, or goes in, the same bag.

There was a surprising amount of stuff in that always-in-the-same-bag ilk; stuff sacks that came with tents and sleeping bags (stored unstuffed, with the labeled bag on the hangers), small ditty bags for all manner of little stuff, and various compression bags proven to reduce something to perfect for dry bag, pack or tapered storage.

I especially like compression bags for storing shelved gear, left open/expanded, and then simply compressed in bag before a trip.

Or ditty bags right sized for raingear (also appropriately stuff bagged on the hanger). I have yet to find a “Stuffs in Its Own Pocket” raingear top or bottom storage design worth a crap. They are usually a pain to stuff, are a good way to kill a zipper and yet still end up more voluminous than necessary.

Better ditty bagged and labeled. Or mislabeled; my raingear pants are in a perfectly sized ditty bag from a “ToppleBlocks” kids game. Stamped in block letters on the bag; that at least, unlike colors, I can recognize and remember. Getting a tag anyway.

The blue barrel stuff bags are dedicated to food/stove storage use; food odors could be an issue in re-using those bags for other gear, but I mostly don’t want to have to hunt up four appropriately sized stuff sacks every dang time I go to pack the barrel. Those empty tagged bags live in the barrel. Or not empty; there is usually some unused freeze dry, Via coffee packs and other non-perishables in their respective meal bags; I start my food planning with those.

Dang, that was an interesting wander, and a lot of stuff. Family of 4 trippers, and we maintain our gear, so even the old replaced/loaner gear in stuff bags is in good working order. Tags to print (or reprint) for those always the same bags:

Hubba Hubba #1
Hubba Hubba & Gear Shed
Big Agnes 2-man
Big Agnes 4-man (kudos to Big Agnes, they ID the tent on their stuff bags in big letters. Still getting a drawstring tag)
Sierra Designs 3-man
Alpine Meadows 2-man
Alpine Meadows 4-man
Hennessy Hammock/straps (not in its original stuff sack)
Travel Hammock
Travel Hammock (we have two)
Eno Double hammock (can’t have too many day hammocks on a family trip)
Hammock bug screen (one, I call dibs)
Tundra Tarp
Parawing
Riverwing
Tarp apex windblock
Truck side-tarp
Truck cap door screen
Truck front window screen
Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner
Stove/cookwear
Billypot (I found a perfectly sized ditty bag)
Gravity filter
Pump filter
Cronje spray covers (black stuff bag, other cover and spray skirt ID’s are Sharpied on the stuff bags, those too may yet get tagged)
Zero degree bag
20F down bag
30/50 flip down bag (those stuff/compression sacks are very specific to each of those sleeping bags)
(I’m not concerned with the older synthetic 3-season bags. Yet)
Microfiber sheet (Yes, sometimes it is that insufferably hot)
Spare winter clothes (compression bagged to fit inside a small dry bag)
Dirty clothes (for truck camping segregation)
Raingear top
Raingear bottom

I know what I’m doing tomorrow. Sheesh, I never even got to the Alps folding table, or everyone’s favorite camp chair.

 

[Kayak_Ken]

No Title

Had an enjoyable afternoon with my wife making labels for my dry bags and getting ideas for future "do it together projects".

 

[Guest]

Had an enjoyable afternoon with my wife making labels for my dry bags and getting ideas for future "do it together projects".

I officially have stuff bag tag envy. The font on the little key tag ID’s is barely readable without my glasses. In daylight.

I had not thought about it, but for packing a kayak hatch, with bags in a specific best-fit order, but that easy read end ID seems handy in that guise as well.

I had 25 new keys tags and used every one. I need at least another 6 and will buy 12.



Like all projects this became more involved than necessary. It was easier to pull all of the gear and bags into the shop and do a production tagging run.



(Those Eno badged bags, like the ToppleBlocks, have been repurposed, and the hammocks are stored in larger ditty bags with straps)

Tagging the stuff bags and tent sacks I found a few that were in need of minor attention. Well, more than a few, but it was mostly dressing the ends of drawstring cords and adjusting knots.

The longer project this initiated was reorganizing the shelves in the gear room. I had already denuded a few shelves while tagging, and I’m packing for a trip, so now’s the time.

The resulting reorganization is much better, especially since all of the tent and tarp bags (and chairs and other long stuff) are shelved with the tag end facing out. Grab a tag, read it, pull the right piece of gear the first time.