Toiletry Bottle Labels

In an ongoing effort to reduce the weight of the stuff I schlep around, I’ve been setting up different sized bottles for the length of time I’ll be out. I have some 5ml bottles for anything lasting up to about 2 to 3 days, 15 ml bottles for anything lasting up to 1 week, and 25 ml bottles for anything lasting up to about 2 weeks.

Another refinement I’ve been contemplating is to have one large stuff sack with the things that I would use no matter how long the trip lasts – tooth brush, towel, nail clippers – and then have a second stuff sack with the consumables inside that.

A stuff sack I made for the smallest set up.

The (as yet incomplete) contents. Little container of shea butter (great to treat and prevent chafing - walk 40 clicks in 30°C weather and you’ll understand), sun block, bug repellent, hand sanitizer, Op Drops (for cleaning glasses), hand moisturizer, tooth paste and tooth brush. I’m also going to make tooth powder to use in lieu of tooth paste. That gooey gloppy mess that tooth paste makes is easy enough to wash out of the brush when you have the luxury of a tap with running water. When it takes a half liter of potable water to do the same out in the woods, it doesn’t seem like such a good thing. There are times when getting water is not that easy, and in those cases it is a really stupid waste of a valuable commodity.

I also need to score another little bottle that size for soap. I’ve been using a larger size bottle of soap but I want a smaller one.

The 25ml size bottles.

Since most of the dropper bottles are opaque and white, I figured it would be handy to put some labels on the outside to easily distinguish what’s what.

I quickly cobbled these together in Illustrator, pretty much just culling some things from the massive database of imagery I’ve accumulated over the last 20 years. Printed them out, laminated them, and taped them on. The tape may get a little grungy after a while, but the labels being laminated, I can just remove the tape and replace it. I have one for the soap, but all the bottles I’ve used for it have been clear, so it’s easy enough to distinguish it. And the sun screen I don’t even bother with the dropper part anymore. The stuff is so viscous that it’s impossible to squeeze through the small aperture of the dropper.