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Throughout our home’s painting needs, I’ve rarely had a can of paint that wasn’t used until the very last drop. As such, I haven’t had much of a need to properly store them until our laundry room paintover (posting soon!), which has left me with nearly half a can.
I’ve already had to do several patching jobs in this small room, so I thought it was actually quite perfect to have leftover paint. You never know when it might come in handy. But during my sloppy painting process, I managed to completely cover the label, brand, and finish by spilling the paint over the edges of the can. Even though this is the first can of paint we’ve managed to only use half of, I anticipate that there will be others, and I don’t want to be later faced with the “Which can belongs to which room?” dilemma. So, I took out my Sharpie and labeled the can with the Brand, name of the color, finish, and room the paint belongs to.
I assume that all of these paint fumes will eventually claim some brain cells, so I’m sure I’ll thank myself later for keeping track. Plus, the giant lettering makes it so much easier to find the right can when I’m hunting around for it in our garage. It’s hard enough to reach the shelf it’s on!
(Psst: Want more painting tips? See my Lessons Learned page for all of my tutorials!)
Practical, logical, easy. Thanks for that. And yes, we have plenty of orphan paint cans…opening the can doesn't give you any answers either. Sharpies are wonderful.
Thanks again, Sarah, for the tip about Paint.net–very useful!
No problem! Glad I could help!