A sorting system that makes perfect sense to the person who set it up often confuses everyone else in the household, leading to items ending up in whichever bin happens to be closest at the time. Clear labelling solves this problem almost immediately, turning a system only one person understands into one the whole household can follow without having to ask.
Simple word labels or small pictures work better than long explanations, since nobody wants to read a paragraph while standing in the kitchen holding a piece of rubbish. A label that can be understood at a glance gets followed far more consistently than detailed instructions taped to the wall nearby.
Involve the whole household in setting it up
Ask everyone in the house what confuses them about the current system, if one already exists, since the person who struggles most with sorting correctly usually has the clearest idea of what needs to change. This small conversation often reveals gaps that the person who set up the system hadn't noticed themselves.
Place the labels at eye level and in good lighting, rather than tucked away on the side or underneath a lid where they're easy to miss in a hurry. A label that's hard to see gets ignored just as often as no label at all.
Once labelled clearly, a sorting system tends to run itself, with far fewer items ending up in the wrong bin by accident. Visitors and children pick up the system quickly too, since they aren't relying on memory or guesswork to sort correctly.
