diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index d52575a10d07..47ebff1ef50a 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -99,7 +99,18 @@ Issues that are tagged `question / support` or `needs reproduction` are great pl
 
 ### Triaging issues
 
-Once you've helped out on a few issues, if you'd like triage access, you can help label issues, and respond to reporters. New issues should be labelled as one of `bug`, `new feature`, `question / support` or `discussion`.
+Once you've helped out on a few issues, if you'd like triage access you can help label issues and respond to reporters.
+
+We use the following label scheme to categorize issues:
+- **type** - `bug`, `feature`, `question / support`, `discussion`, `greenkeeper`, `maintenance`.
+- **area** - `addon: x`, `addons-api`, `stories-api`, `ui`, etc.
+- **status** - `needs reproduction`, `needs PR`, `in progress`, etc.
+
+All issues should have a `type` label. `bug`/`feature`/`question`/`discussion` are self-explanatory. `greenkeeper` is for keeping package dependencies up to date. `maintenance` is a catch-all for any kind of cleanup or refactoring.
+
+They should also have one or more `area`/`status` labels. We use these labels to filter issues down so we can easily see all of the issues for a particular area, and keep the total number of open issues under control.
+
+For example, here is the list of [open, untyped issues](https://github.com/storybooks/storybook/issues?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=is%3Aissue%20is%3Aopen%20-label%3A%22bug%22%20-label%3A%22discussion%22%20-label%3A%22feature%22%20-label%3A%22maintenance%22%20-label%3A%22question%20%2F%20support%22%20-label%3A%22documentation%22%20-label%3A%22greenkeeper%22), or here is a list of [bugs that have not been modified since 2017-04-01](https://github.com/storybooks/storybook/issues?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=is%3Aissue%20is%3Aopen%20label%3A%22bug%22%20updated%3A%3C%3D2017-04-01%20). For more info see [searching issues](https://help.github.com/articles/searching-issues/) in the Github docs.
 
 If an issue is a `bug`, and it doesn't have a clear reproduction that you have personally confirmed, label it `needs reproduction` and ask the author to try and create a reproduction, or have a go yourself.
 
@@ -109,15 +120,14 @@ If an issue is a `bug`, and it doesn't have a clear reproduction that you have p
 
 - Unreproducible issues should be closed if it's not possible to reproduce them (if the reporter drops offline, it is reasonable to wait 2 weeks before closing).
 
-- `bug`s should be closed when the issue is fixed and merged to `master`
+- `bug`s should be labeled `merged` when merged, and be closed when the issue is fixed and released.
 
-- `new feature`s should be closed when merged or if the feature is deemed to be not appropriate.
+- `feature`s, `maintenance`s, `greenkeeper`s should be labeled `merged` when merged, and closed when released or if the feature is deemed not appropriate.
 
 - `question / support`s should be closed when the question has been answered. If the questioner drops offline, a reasonable period to wait is two weeks.
 
 - `discussion`s should be closed at a maintainer's discretion.
 
-
 ## Development Guide
 
 > If you want to work on a UI feature, refer to the [Storybook UI](https://github.com/storybooks/storybook/tree/master/packages/storybook-ui) project.