Originally I was going to label my wiring using plan English labels. Oil Pressure Sensor, Fuel Pressure Sensor, etc.  But the printable, heat shrink tubing is wicked expensive. And with the longer labels covering the wire, it made wires less flexible.

So I started searching for a different approach.  I found a Navy document that had a section on wire labels. I made some minor changes since I don’t have to accommodate 38 miles of wiring, heat seeking missiles, etc.

This is what I ended up with:

In this case, the wire above would be for the Autopilot Pitch Servo. Specifically, the power to the Pitch Servo. If the wire were to connect through a terminal, then on the other side of the terminal it would be C2-1B-18.

The only downside to this method is that there is now a document that lists out all of the categories, devices and wires. But now all the labels are a uniform length and relatively short.