Best Results Organizing

Readers will recall that I recently promised an ongoing, if irregular, series of reviews for our friends at cool office supply purveyor Shoplet, operator of the nifty and prolific Shoplet blog.

I was particularly pleased and intrigued by the package that recently arrived from Shoplet for my perusal, as it contained three different Sanford Brands writing tools:

• a four-pack of Paper Mate InkJoy 700 RT Ballpoint Pens (two black, one blue, and one red)
• a Sharpie Premium Pen
• a three-pack of Sharpie Gel Highlighters (yellow, orange, pink)

(Think you don’t know Sanford Brands? Sure you do — they’re part of the Newell Rubbermaid family.)

But first, are you familiar with IPS, or Icky Produce Syndrome? How often, after reading an article on the health benefits of some fabulous, if underutilized, fruit or vegetable, do you make a point of heading to the nearest grocery or farmer’s market to try the newest superfood?

You buy it, perhaps search the web for a recipe that will make the odd item seem more palatable, and maybe even try it, despite the dubious or perplexed reactions of your loved ones. (Seriously, have you ever seen a Buddha Hand?

It’s just freaky. And that’s before it spoils!)

The produce eventually hides in your fridge, moving ever farther into the recesses of the chill chest, until it reappears, days or weeks later, when you’ve given yourself over to a hearty clean-out, and find the item is dried up (at best) or moldy.

What does that have to do with writing implements? Everything! Office supplies can be addicting — like the superfoods, new writing tool holds the promise of a magic wand. To the student, it’s the thing standing between mediocrity and genius. To the list-maker, it has the potential for bringing those never-ending tasks to completion.

We buy with a flourish, but we are too often disappointed when the pens and pencils, highlighters and markers fall short of their promises, or of our expectations, and then they languish as clutter in our drawers, or the bottoms of our bags, or our pen mugs, ignored until the ink dries to dust. That’s why an inside look can be so important, and hence my delight at reviewing these office supplies.

When it comes to pens, Paper Doll is very picky. For more than fifteen years, I’ve primarily used one specific rollerball gel pen, with brief forays into the land of fine markers, or felt-tips. However, I love testing out alternative pens, because so many of my clients are on a lifetime search for the “perfect” pen — one with the right heft and balance, the ideal flow of ink, the preferred grip, and so on. Pens are very personal, as even in this digital age, so many of us take our first creative steps on any project with an old-fashioned (if newfangled) pen.

To be honest, I’m not much of a ballpoint pen kind of gal. I usually find them the wrong weight and shape, and most often, I find that the ink flows too weakly, forcing me to exert extra pressure to achieve the desired result, or intermittently, leaving blobs.

The Paper Mate InkJoy 700 RT Ballpoint Pen surprised me.

The InkJoy definitely has less heft that I would personally prefer, but that’s its only drawback. The retractable pen’s hourglass design is almost imperceptibly narrowed in the center of the barrel to make it rest more easily between the thumb and forefinger, and the rubber grip is a little shorter than might be expected, but satisfyingly smooth. The color of the ink is indicated, almost covertly, by a tiny, flat, colored disk at the top of the pen, perpendicular to the “clicker.”

The joyful aspect of the InkJoy is that the ink flows very smoothly, as though it were a gel pen, rather than a ballpoint. No extra pressure needs to be exerted, and the ink releases smoothly, gliding across the paper, without effort.

Again, the main advantage of the InkJoy for me is that it behaves more like a rollerball than a ballpoint, requiring less exertion. If you actually like putting your hand (or even shoulder) into it to make the paper “bumpy” on the reverse side, I suppose you can still do so.

The Sharpie Premium Pen is the newest in a line of nifty Sharpie advances. Although it wasn’t a rollerball, I was a fan of the original fine-point Sharpie pens that came out a few years ago. Functionally, they were dandy, and though the form was nicely streamlined (even skinny), the outer coating had a mild tendency to flake, and I wondered if Sharpie might create an upgrade in form. The Sharpie Premium is that upgrade.

Indeed, the Sharpie Premium Pen seems to take the best of two product worlds. First, it has the smooth dependability of the smear-resistant (when dry) Sharpie Pen; both also have the advantage of not bleeding through paper.

Second, the Premium Pen has a sleek look. When I eyeballed the Shoplet package, I was let down for a tiny second when I saw that the outer casing of the Sharpie Premium Pen was stainless steel. I’d loved the idea of the stainless steel traditional Sharpie marker a few years back, but that barrel, even thicker than those of regular sharpie permanent markers, was just too thick for my hand. Sharpie sidestepped that problem with the Premium Pen.

The refillable stainless steel barrel of the Sharpie Premium Pen is narrower than its marker predecessor, and the rubberized grip is smooth and has just the right amount of, well, grippiness. The one concern you might have is the same as with any fine felt-tip pen, and that is that one might press too hard and bend or damage the tip. I found that applying a natural amount of pressure yielded a smooth flow of ink, so unless you have a particularly heavy hand, this shouldn’t be a problem.

Finally, I got to try out the the Sharpie Gel Highlighter …and it is weird. Weird like the Buddha Hand. Which is to say not to say it’s bad, just that it takes some getting used to, and then you might find yourself singing its praises.

I’ve never used a gel highlighter (indeed, I’m not sure I knew they existed before this Sharpie version), and for want of an apt comparison, the functional aspect seems more like an roll-on anti-perspirant or the slick 1980’s lip gloss Kissing Potion than a highlighter.

It highlights brightly and cleanly, and thus far, seems to live up to its promise to neither bleed through paper nor smear across inkjet inks or anything written in marker or pen. Sharpie notes that it highlights text just as well, no matter the paper type, though I did find that the brightness of the highlighting somewhat decreased when used on glossy magazines.

From the form perspective, it’s atypical. The barrel is somewhat flattened, rather than rounded, and until I read the directions, I didn’t quite realize that the bottom of the highlighter should be twisted to advance the sturdy gel stick. Thus, unlike a traditional short-tipped highlighter that dies too quickly because it has dried out or absorbed the ink from the paper, this gel highlighter should be far longer lasting. Indeed, Sharpie claims that the Gel Highlighter may be left uncapped for days without drying out. (Paper Doll didn’t try that — the potential for drawing on myself or my clothes was too great.)

Don’t let your home or work office suffer from the writing tool version of Icky Produce Syndrome. Research your preferred qualities, and if something you buy turns out not to fit your needs, consider a one-to-one trade with a friend or colleague so you can keep testing, without excessive spending…or finding a dried up Buddha Hand in your pencil case.

Disclosure: I received these products for review purposes only, and was given no monetary compensation. The opinions, as always, are my own. (Who else would claim them?)