Best Results Organizing

Paper Doll loves her readers, so today’s post is all about goodies — freebies, coupons and special opportunities to try out something that can help you organize your life while saving money.

We begin with our old friends at Smead, who are making available free samples of their SuperTab Folders to those who click on a special link. Smead attempted to make it really simple for bloggers and social networkers to spread the word about this freebie, but longtime Paper Doll readers know that I’m an all or nothing kind of doll — someone else’s short blurb just wasn’t going to do it. So, first, I want you to know all about why the SuperTab Folder is nifty.

Smead’s SuperTab file folders have a 90% larger labeling area vs. standard manila folders, yielding multiple advantages.

You can:

1) Use Larger Text — This makes it easier to see labels from across the room, assists those with all variety of vision issues from aging eyes to macular degeneration, and ensures that offices with files bearing many similar-appearing labels (Johnson/Jonson/Johnsen) can be discerned with relative ease.

2) Use Multiple Lines of Description — Although brevity is the soul of wit, and although we professional organizers usually advise keeping file folder labels as simple as is serviceable, sometimes a label just has to say more.

Typical labeling style calls for going from the generic to the more specific — “Honda Fit: Blue” (as opposed to “Blue Honda Fit” in case you own multiple Hondas, or even multiple Honda Fits). However, filing systems should be customized to the needs of their users.

Indeed, professional organizer Judith Kolberg, founder of the National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization — now known as the Institute for Challenging Disorganization — discusses an alternative form of labeling, particularly for action files, in her landmark book Conquering Chronic Disorganization. Kolberg notes that for some people, folder labels work better when they are high concept and based on the “Muttering” method, reflecting the emotions brought up by different types of papers.

For example, instead of shorter traditional labels, a longer-length label might include, as Kolberg notes, “Things Clients Bug Me For,” “Stuff I Can Never Find When I Need It,” “Papers for the Tax Man” and “Stuff To Keep Me Out of Jail”. While these are labels that develop organically when working with chronically disorganized clients, one can imagine there are times in all of our lives when we need a few more words on our file labels, and that brevity, while the soul of wit, may need to yield to completion, the heart of comprehension.

3) Use Icons — In addition to labels, colored dots, stickers and other icons can be used to help categorize the content of a folder, and the larger the tab, such as with SuperTab folders, the more expansive the available space for adding definition and clarity.

Stickers can help you teach pre-literate children where to “file” the items they bring home. In an office setting, colored dots (such as are used for price tagging at yard sales) can identify information in-house without tipping off a problem client that a red dot means “whiner”.

Simply put, the bigger the tab, the more one can communicate.

The larger space makes it easier to create clear, vibrant labels with the use of a Sharpie or your favorite label maker. However, if you want to want to computerize professional-looking labels without having to invest in costly software, Smead has created two different free, downloadable, color-coded SuperTab templates. The Alpha Template style and the Blank Template format both work interactively with Word and are pre-set for multiple table use to ensure that labels will print properly on label stock paper.

In addition to the extra height of the SuperTab Folders, the tabs are also cut to extra-wide 1/3 cut (or 1/2 cut oversized) tabs. Depending on how heavy-duty a folder you need, SuperTab file folders are available in 9 1/2 pt. (standard), 11 pt. (reinforced) or 14 pt. (heavyweight) manila stock or 11 pt. (pastel) colored stock . The bottoms of the folders are scored for up to 3/4″ expansion, and all folders are made of 10% recycled content with 10% post-consumer material.

As a gift to you, Paper Doll readers, Smead is offering a free SuperTab Folder for organizing your paperwork. To get it, just go to www.smead.com/SuperTabSample and provide your contact information. Please hurry, though, because the Smead reps assure me that the samples won’t last long.
 
Oh, and two important legal-lingo notes. First, Smead wanted you to know that information submitted in the free sample form is confidential and won’t ever be shared with a third party. Also, this offer is available to US residents only. (Sorry to all you excellent and dedicated readers in Canada and elsewhere.)

Now, how about a sticky situation of the positive kind?

If you’ve already seen the commercials (with tot or puppy), you know what this product is about — and have spent time laughing at it over and over. If not, read on.

Post-it Brand has come out with Super Sticky Full Adhesive Notes. You know how typical Post-it pads have the adhesive only at the top centimeter or so of the reverse of each sheet? Those are satisfactory for labeling piles of papers that are likely to be kept flat or out of the way of heavy winds (or a parade of coworkers fluttering past your desk on the way to the birthday cake in the lunch room), but sometimes you need just a little more stick-to-it-ive-ness, and that’s where the Super Sticky Full Adhesive Notes come into the picture.

These Super Sticky Full Adhesive Notes were designed to provide versatility in use — they can stick reliably in a greater variety places. While traditional Post-it pads are great on the desktop, their portability can sometimes be problematic.

With a Post-it whose almost whole rear-view is fully adhesive, you can stick a pad (or sub-set of one) on the inside of a three-ring binder or the top of your laptop computer without fear of it falling off. The people of Post-it state that these new notes stick securely, but remove cleanly…which is pretty much all we’ve ever wanted, right?

Super Sticky Full Adhesive Notes come in 3″ x 3″ squares, with four pads to a block, in either the traditional electric yellow we all know or in assorted bright colors of yellow, green, blue and pink. Almost the entire reverse side of each note is adhesive — merely the lower half-inch or so is non-stick to provide an easily “grab-able” edge to allow the user to pull off one note at a time.

If you’re like me and really prefer to try new things only when you get a freebie or a coupon, you’ll like this. Just click to get a coupon for $1 off a purchase of Super Sticky Full Adhesive Notes worth $4 or more, or click here for multiple Post-it coupons.

Finally, research shows that we get greater satisfaction from experiences than from tangible objects. So, although this won’t organize your papers, per se, it’ll keep you out of the stores (so no receipts or clutter to amass) while giving you access to great works of art, science and history, many of which…are on paper! (Imagine that!)

This Saturday, September 24, 2011 is Free Museum Day, sponsored by Smithsonian Magazine. You can download and print your two free tickets, and then peruse the list of more than one thousand participating museums. Search by keyword or location to check out museums near you.

Find a buddy, take your kid, or just have an adventure. Then come back and report in the comments section on where you went and what you saw. Whether you get SuperTab Folders, Super Sticky Full Adhesive Notes or just have a Super Saturday, Paper Doll wishes you a superlative week!