Paper Doll
Think Outside the (Storage) Box
Do you own three staplers but can never find one that works? Are you always searching for the three-hole punch? There’s a science to arranging your work tools so that you can find exactly what you seek. Start with three questions:
Why are you keeping it?
Uncertainty is often the driving force behind holding on to outdated gadgets or tools that are awkward to use. If you haven’t used it, don’t know how to use it, or could easily use a less spiffy alternative, donate or toss it. (Of course, longtime readers of Paper Doll know that uncertainty is the reason we hold on to papers, notes and formal documents, too, which is why it’s so important to have a good records retention schedule to guide the process.)
Who needs access to it?
In a home-based office, your storage system only needs to satisfy you, but in a communal office environment, territorial disputes abound. Reduce perceived inequities by selecting a neutral storage location that gives everyone equal access without cramping anyone’s workspace.
Office Space, @20th Century Fox
Also consider who should NOT have access to certain stored items. Personnel records, proprietary files, and other sensitive data should be stored in a location with controlled access, by key, combination lock, or password. For home offices, a lockable filing drawer can keep office supplies from becoming school supplies.
How often will you need it?
Frequency of access is inversely proportional to the distance between you and your storage. In other words…
Limit what you keep on your desktop to tools you access frequently throughout the day. Resources you use less often (have you really used that gigantic dispenser of Scotch® tape this month?) should be tucked away, sorted by category and separated by drawer dividers. (Rubbermaid has some nice, basic modular dividers.) Embrace creativity, but emphasize efficiency over form. An Elvis paperclip dispenser may be fun, but if it spills clips across the desk each time you use it, let it go.
Keep only a usable number of supplies at your desk to minimize clutter and maximize efficiency. You may instinctively hoard pens or Post-It® Notes out of fear being caught short, but it’s more efficient to “go shopping” at your private office supply store when you actually need something.
Create a main storage area for your business or home office, with everything from paper to toner, burnable discs to those scary looking devices for adding spiral binding to your presentations. Group related items together, so that all writing implements or inks, or all paper, copier, and printer supplies, are kept together. Keep the most-often accessed supplies at eye-level, and use shallow bins or dishpans to corral loose items. In an office without a lot of horizontal space, consider hanging clear shoe organizers or something like Christy Designs’ Simply Stashed, which works just as neatly in a workplace environment as it does at home.
Attach labels to the edges of shelves to make it easier to locate items or identify when supplies are out of place or running low.
In large offices, post a laminated master inventory supply list, including brands and vendor product codes, on the supply cabinet door. For home offices, keep a running list on your legal pad or favorite shopping app.
Finally, no matter how powerful the siren song of the office supply stores may be, don’t buy solutions for problems you don’t even have. It’s an invitation for chaos and clutter.
The above post contains material excerpted from my forthcoming book, 57 Secrets for Organizing Your Small Business, in the 57 Secrets series from Logical Expressions, Inc.
Organize Yourself for New Vistas
This was my view of the mountains and the labyrinth on my last day at Red Mountain Resort near St. George, Utah, where I spent my vacation last week.
“Adventure” resorts aren’t really Paper Doll‘s thing. I am not much for hiking, and “out” is not one of my favorite doors.
However, taking the better part of a week away in a completely different environment was eye-opening. I challenged myself — multiple exercise classes each day, getting up early, eating *vegetables* — and I also gave myself space — away from my computer, my client work, my committee projects, and the frustrating news stories of the day.
I’d been running on empty for a while, rushing to get things done, and get them done well and quickly. I needed to put a project away. But productivity isn’t just about getting things done quickly, just as organizing isn’t just about putting things away. The goals are to do the right things efficiently, and store only the things that are needed, and only where their accessibility is made easy. But that can take inspiration, motivation and clarity, elements we all occasionally (and sorely) lack.
I didn’t quite know it at first, but I needed a break. That might seem like a strange thing to say in my first post back after taking the summer off, but I spent the months finishing my upcoming book, 57 Secrets for Organizing Your Small Business, which the publisher informed me this morning was in the copy-editing stage and soon to be moving on to the layout stage. There were days this summer when I felt permanently welded to my desk chair. I’m not too proud to admit that there were floozies fluttering in my wake when I’d pace to try to find the right words. And poor Paper Mommy heard a lot of “I’d love to talk but I’ve got to finish this chapter…” By the time I turned in the manuscript earlier this month, my posture was wrecked and my brain was mush. (Apparently, even professional organizers fail to take their own advice sometimes.) I needed a break.
Taking a break can be scary for many of us. What if everyone realizes they’re getting along fine without you? What if you can’t get back into the work groove when you return? What if…
But no matter which mental hecklers try to boo you off the stage of your life, the truth is that just as we need sleep to recuperate from the day, we need vacations, weekends off and free time in each day to recharge our batteries. Whether it’s working out (or snuggling in), we need time to explore new vistas and get out of our own heads. In advertising page layout, it’s called white space and in organizing our schedules, we call it buffer time. We professional organizers advise our clients to fill filing cabinets and bookshelves and closets and drawers no more than 80% full; we need space to grow.
As I relearned on my vacation, sometimes, the best way to be organized and productive is to stand still and breathe deeply. Give yourself time. Grant yourself space. I did, and now I’m ready for adventure!
Organized Once Again: Your Paper Doll Archive Is Back!
Dear Paper Doll readers:
Thank you so much for your loyalty and patience as we’ve been striving to create this new home for the Paper Doll blog after the unexpected closure of OnlineOrganizing.com. Your support as new posts have launched is so gratifying — comments, emails, and even a few phone calls have provided a delightful re-entry after too many weeks away from blogging.
As you know, we’ve been carefully nurturing all of those gently-used classic posts, keeping them from inclement weather and nibbling creatures, safe in the vault, guarded by Paper Mommy, George Clooney and a representative selling Coffee Crisp candy bars. But now it’s time to blast the doors off this baby!
As of this week, almost the entire 5 1/2 year archive of Paper Doll posts has been resurrected — and they’re all ready for you to peruse. The search engine spiders are still in the process of indexing those posts at their new homes, so it might be a bit before you can Google something specific, but an on-site search box for finding specific tags is in the works.
A few caveats: Because all of the links referencing old OnlineOrganizing.com URLs (that is, links from one old post harkening back to an even older post) are linked to a black hole, it’s going to be necessary to manually re-do any pre-2013 internal links. That will roll out over time. (Of course, if you’re looking for something to do over the holiday weekend, you could just reread the entire archive for kicks! You’ll feel so much more organized!)
Occasionally on the really old posts, fonts may suddenly shrink or grow. If you see something completely wacky, please send me feedback. I want the blog to be quirky, but in a Zooey Deschanel manner, not in an Urkle kind of way.
Also, our IT team wasn’t able to transfer individual comments on old posts. Again, we may be able to manually enter them, but it’s not going to happen overnight. If you once made a brilliant comment about the content of a post, here’s your chance to share your genius anew! Comment! Reply! Opine!
Please feel free to share these “classic” Paper Doll posts on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and wherever else you tell people about funny cat videos and what you had for lunch…and, y’know, how to save time and money, reduce your stress and increase your productivity through organizing your paper and your life.
Love,
Paper Doll
Upright Expansion: Pendaflex® Vertical Reinforced Expanding Wallets and Files
Last time, when we delved into the “stand up” Smead Organized Up file folders, we talked about the advantages of vertical file folders. Organized Up’s bright folders were a bold stroke in Smead’s bevy of novel filing goodies, but this year’s National Association of Professional Organizers Annual Conference and Expo also had a sleeper product in the category of adjusting your vertical hold. (Paper Doll is suddenly aware that the term “vertical hold” is now wholly out of date. Let us pause while creaky bones gear up for the next paragraph.)
Perhaps lost in the haze and delight over new Esselte/Ampad products like the SimpleSort and Versa Crossover Notebook, a not-quite-as snazzy but no less hardworking product struggled to get attention. If Smead’s Organized Up folders were colorful social climbers, Esselte’s Pendaflex® line delivered two worker-bee classic products with updated styling: Vertical Reinforced Expanding Wallets and Files.
Normally, when you put papers into expanding folders, they’re horizontally arrayed, which means you have to reach into each section, pull out a stack of papers, turn them 90° and search for what you need. It’s not a world-ending problem, but it diminishes efficiency.
Pendaflex® Vertical Reinforced Expanding Wallet
Vertical alignment means that you can quickly let your fingers do the walking and assess files in the orientation in which you read your papers. With the Pendaflex® Reinforced Expanding Wallets, your documents are already standing at attention, ready for your perusal. And let’s face it — the main identifying characteristics of any document (logos, titles, dates) are most likely going to be found at the top.
Each wallet is one interior, acid-free, letter-sized pocket, expandable up to 3 1/2″, made of 10% recycled fiber and 10% post-consumer fiber. Rip-proof reinforced gussets keep the tops of the accordion-style expanding sides firmly attached. A scored flap with a hardy elastic closure lets you protect your documents as the wallet’s contents expand, keeping them safe from prying eyes and secure from accidental up-ending when your life simulates a bad comedy.
The expanding wallets are ideal for transporting papers in backpacks, enabling students to isolate and pull out the appropriate papers without having to remove the wallet from the pack and flip it vertically (as is necessary with standard accordion-style wallets).
In case you’d prefer something a little more pizazzified than the accordion-style default of attorney-friendly “redrope” red fiber material, the Vertical Reinforced Expanding Wallets also come in bright red, blue and yellow.
Pendaflex® Vertical Reinforced Expanding File
If the wallets are workhorses, the expanding files should be celebrities. That vertical orientation makes it easy to file and access papers, and the same full-size, scored flap with elastic closure and rip-resistant gussets keep this letter-sized tough guy going strong. But unlike the wallets, the expanding files are no mere expanding empty shell.
The Pendaflex® Reinforced Expanding Files come in three varieties:
- Alpha (A-Z) with 21 pockets
- Daily (1-31) with 31 pockets
- Monthly (January – December) with 12 pockets
Unfortunately, redrope is all you get, at least for now.
Whether you’re trying to tote client files or homework, create a vertical, fully-enclosed tickler file, or keep track of a year’s worth of lesson plans or club activities, Pendaflex® has you covered.
New Smead Organized Up Folders Stand At Attention
Like many professional organizers, I can be methodical and ritualistic. Sure, I like spontaneity as much as the next gal (OK, I really don’t, but let’s leave that aside), but when I go to the National Association of Professional Organizers Annual Conference and Expo, there are a few rituals I like to follow. After checking into the hotel, I like to head to the conference registration booth right away, pick up my conference bag and separate the read-and-recycle materials from the goodies and information I’ll need for the blog and organizing clients.
I have another ritual, related specifically to the Expo. As soon as it opens, I bypass my usual Shopping Mall Method for moving methodically through conference booths; that always has to wait until one essential task is completed.
A BELOVED VENDOR
Like a kid set free in a toy store, I make a run through the Expo until I find my personal North Star. That would be the Smead booth, occupied by my NAPO Expo boyfriend, the redoubtable Jim Riesterer!
Jim always makes sure that I get the low-down on the newest of the new Smead products, and in return, I share my opinions…loudly and with wild gesticulations. (Ignore the facial puffiness and flat hair. 2011 was a weird year.) Smead always knows I’m ready to offer my feedback.
Jim’s a stand-up guy, so I was delighted when he delivered the colorful and (literally) stand-up filing products in Smead’s new Organized Up™ line. Take a gander at the video and the new upright goodies.
The basic elements of the Organized Up™ system start with the Organized Up™ heavyweight vertical file folders. Since you read most papers in a portrait (uppy-downy) instead of landscape (lefty-right) orientation, doesn’t it sometimes make sense to file them that way, especially when you want to keep folders on your desktop without using up too much prime real estate?
It’s also helpful for students and others on-the-go to be able to tote file folders in backpacks, affix them to clipboards, or store them in drawers too narrow for letter-sized hanging folders. A vertical folder just makes sense in so many situations!
The Smead Organized Up folders impressed me with their durability. Paper Doll is a sucker for a heavy-duty folder, one that won’t flop over if you hold the bottom with just one hand. (Have you ever had a “dead-fish” handshake? A floppy folder disappoints in the same manner.) The heavyweight, water-resistant files should stand up to extensive, repeated use, and though the folder decor isn’t as fancy as some might prefer, Smead has a secret weapon — dual tabs!
The dual tabs let you label any folder for both vertical and horizontal use — assign labels to both edges up front, or be comforted that you can easily change the folder orientation if you want to switch to use them in traditional hanging folders vs. on your desktop, in a backpack, or in narrower, non-hanging file drawers.
The Organized Up™ folders also have a fold-down front. About two inches down the vertical front surface of each folder, there’s a crease, allowing you to fold the edge towards you and get a close-up look at the folder contents.
Each 9 7/8″ x 12″ coated stock folder is made of 100% recycled content, 30% post-consumer waste, and holds up to 25 sheets of paper. The Organized Up™ folders are closed on the bottom and on one side for extra security.
The Organized Up™ heavyweight vertical file folders come in two color schemes: Earth Tones (which I find dismal and depressing–leek, nutmeg and stonewash? Seriously?) and Bright Tones (Fuchsia, Orange & Peridot, which make me want to dance around my Paper Doll HQ office).
The folders may be found at various office supply retailers and on Amazon. While this is a nifty launch, prettier colors and a wider variety of patterns/styles would be nice once the line has gotten its footing. Also, I’d like to be able to buy the folders in 25-count boxes, rather than packages of six (two folders per color) as currently available. (A six-pack runs about $5-6.)
For those less likely to use a file riser, clipboard or notebook and who might be seeking an official file-box solution, the Organized Up™ folders can be used with Organized Up™ MO® Vertical File Cases. The brown diamond-themed case hold up to 600 sheets of paper. They’re made from a durable printed corrugate material and have die cut handles to allow for easy lifting and transporting. I must admit that the brown leatherette pattern isn’t my cup of tea. The color schemes and patterns for the horizontal Smead MO® system cases are much snazzier. This brown is just snoozier.
THE DAINTY COMPETITION
It should be noted, Smead wasn’t the first out of the starting gate with vertical file folders. That honor belongs to the Doyenne of Domesticity in her Martha Stewart Home Office with Avery Vertical File Folder line. (Whew, that’s a mouthful!)
Martha’s 1/2-cut, portrait style folders measure 9-1/8″ x 12″ and have a left-side seal to maintain paper security. (Understandably, vertically-arrayed papers are a bit more floppy than traditionally horizontally-positioned ones.) Martha’s folders were surely lovely, coming in 6-pack assortments of black and blue-green damask, aster and wave patterns, as well as a blue, grey and cappuccino solids with interior linen patterns.
Martha won points for being first, but not necessarily for being sturdy. Her vertical files are pretty, and nice enough for home and light office use, but lack the powerhouse sturdiness of the Smead Organized Up™ folders. Martha’s line also lacks fold-down flaps and dual-tab writing surfaces.
OTHER STAND-UP SOLUTIONS
Smead’s vertical assault on the filing realm didn’t stop with file folders. The Organized Up™ line includes the 9 3/4″ x 11 1/2 Smead Stackit™ One-Pocket folders
and the Smead Stackit™ Three Pocket Organizers
for when you need your presentation materials to be extra-secure on-the-go.
The Stackit™ One-Pocket is made from textured stock (in black, blue, green or red) or heavy-duty linen stock (in black, dark blue or grey) and comes five to a package for about $7. It can hold up to 100 sheets of paper.
The Stackit™ Three-Pocket Organizer has three tabbed divider-pockets, suitable for labeling, and each pocket holds up to 50 sheets each. It comes in (dark blue, grey or black) linen. Two organizers come in each package, for about $6.50. Both items include business card slots and a straight-cut flap that can be tucked in for securing contents.
File folders or presentation folders, heavy-duty or light-hearted patterns, I think we can all agree to stand up and cheer for more variety in our file folder options.
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