Best Results Organizing

So far, we’ve talked about the NAPO 2012 Conference, itself, and have explored some dreamy paper products, as well as meat-and-potato organizing essentials. Today, we’ll be looking at more NAPO 2012 Expo innovations — so get ready to pocket some organizing solutions.

CAPTURE THE WRITING ON THE WALL

The prettiest paper-related booth at this year’s Expo had to be 3M’s Post-It extravaganza. Post-It has come a long way from basic blocks of yellow, as we discussed in the Paper Doll Winter 2012 Carnival. Indeed, there was so much to discover, we’ll have to have a “stick ’em up” day to cover all of 3M’s sticky innovations. But today, the topic is pockets. (Trying saying THAT aloud three times, quickly.)

The first time I heard about Post-it Wall Pockets, I was jealous, and not just because a colleague had received a sample and I hadn’t. It was such a simple but brilliant idea, I kicked myself for not having come up with it!

Now that I’ve finally seen the product up close, I have not been disappointed. All varieties come with 3M’s durable adhesive-backed strips, which hold securely but remove cleanly. My curiosity as to whether the Post-it pockets would have the stamina to support multiple pieces of paper has been satisfied, and I can envision the wide variety of applications, including:

• Inside kitchen cabinets for keeping emergency numbers, cooking/measurement equivalencies, important dates, etc.
• On the interior of school locker doors for holding permission slips, ID cards, notes, photos, etc.
• Behind the garage door for keeping recycling and trash pick-up schedules handy

The pockets are designed to stick anywhere other than on wallpaper or delicate surfaces, though I can’t imagine you’d want to apply adhesive pockets on Great-Grandma’s antiques in the first place.

Post-it Translucent Greek Key Pockets — Don’t know what a Greek Key is? Neither did Paper Doll, but Google made clear that the 3M folks were talking about the decorative pattern on the colorful pocket fronts.

Longtime readers know what a fan I am of pink, but I have to say that the mossy green isn’t to my tastes. Paper Doll is hopeful that 3M will expand the line, as they’ve done with so many of their compellingly sticky products, to include blues, reds and other “serious” colors that might make these incredibly useful pockets more appealing to tough guys and bank-serious office-supply shoppers.

These designer pockets come in three distinct layouts:

Vertically arrayed for bills (5 3/8″ wide x 7 7/8″ high) so you can keep pending invoices and bills to be paid in one tidy spot, perhaps on the side of your filing cabinet next to your home office bill-paying center or in the information hub of your kitchen.

Horizontally arrayed for letters (9″ high x 12″ wide) to handle all letter-size invoices, handouts, flyers, etc.

Horizontally arrayed for organizing receipts and coupons (4″ high by 9″ wide) with a shorter vertical profile to prevent items falling out of reach.

The Greek Key pockets come two-to-a-pack (of the same dimensions) or in multi-packs (with three different shapes/sizes).

Post-it also has clear pockets in the same dimensions, in single packages or multi-packs, in case you’d rather have your pockets blend in to your home or office surroundings. These clear pockets have a delicate (but translucent) dotted pattern, allowing you to still see which documents are contained.

HOLD ON TO YOUR DIGITAL DEVICES

As we saw last week, folders are great for corralling presentation papers as well as academic materials. When all of your information is paper-bound, you’re set. But what happens when you need someplace to put your flash drives? Sure, most have a little plastic hole in the casing to let you attach a cord, but flash drives as jewelry aren’t always optimal.

Carrying them around in backpacks, purses and attach cases keep them relatively safe, but flash drives are tiny, and if you’re carrying multiples, it’s easy for the cords to get tangled or the drives to get lost in the bottom of your pack. Of course, keeping your digital files in the cloud (via Dropbox or a similar service) can make it easy to access your files, but as many of us at the NAPO 2012 conference learned, free (and even paid) internet access is not always dependable. It’s best to have your digital files close at hand.

Smead’s Self-Adhesive Poly USB Flash Drive Pocket solves that problem.

At a slim 2″ wide by 3 9/16″ high, this clear, acid-free, PVC-free, polypropylene pocket has a white peel-away liner which reveals a permanent adhesive backing.

Having pockets for your USB flash drives offers an efficient way to safely store your digital files with the corresponding hard copies. The pockets are sized to fit most common USB sizes, and feature a reclosable flap for added security. The Self-Adhesive Poly USB Flash Drive Pockets come in packages of 6.

POCKET YOUR PAPERS ON THE GO

There are lots of other times you might want to have a pocket handy. For example, the Smead Self-Adhesive Poly Corner Pockets may look like the beginning of an origami lesson, but they pack a powerful organizational punch.

Arranged with two clear, PVC- and acid-free polypropylene right triangles to a white liner sheet, the adhesive-backed pockets fit practically anywhere you might need to store full-sized pages, index cards, spare note cards, cheat sheets, etc. If you’ve got a flat surface, whether vertical or horizontal, you’ve got a way to keep things copacetic.

The great thing about the poly pockets (not to be confused with Polly Pocket) is that they can be quickly and easily added anywhere — inside a daily planner, file folder, three-ring binder, or wherever — to provide a safe place to tuck items away.

Just peel, stick the (permanent, water-based acrylic adhesive) pocket, and tuck your items in. The Self-Adhesive Poly Corner Pockets come in two sizes, small (4″ x 4″) and large (6″ x 6″), but only in 100-to-a-box cartons.

Smead also manufacturers similar poly pockets for business cards (3″ wide x 4″ high), CDs/DVDs (5″ x 5″) and documents (9″ wide x 6″ high) such as for packing slips attached to the outside of containers, all in packages of 10.

For something with a larger pocket profile, 3M’s Post-It line has created some nifty Notebook Pockets, available in two sizes: Small (5.5″ x 5.3/4″) and Large (5″ x 8″), sold three pockets to a package.

These are ideal for students, busy volunteers or professionals, for holding note cards, coins and cash for the vending machine, receipts, coupons, or schedules. The durable, clean-removing adhesive strips allow you put them in daily planners, notebooks or binders quickly and easily.

A dotted pattern on the front of the pocket affords attractive light security, and there’s a re-writeable stripe for labeling the pocket. 3M’s Dual Lock flap closure protects papers from sliding out — and it’s surely a nicer solution than taping a zip-lock bag to the inside of a notebook.

FINDING THE (K)NACK(it)!

No recap of the NAPO Expo’s pocket organizing solutions would be complete without mentioning our friends from NACKit, whose products Paper Doll reviewed at length a few years ago.

As you organize — as you purge non-essentials, group similar items together and tidily contain them —  the final key is knowing what’s living where. Labeling boxes is essential if you don’t want to lift, move and look through stacks of boxes to find what you want. But labels can be problematic — adhesive can dry up, ink exposed to the elements can fade, and people tend to just scribble new, sometimes indecipherable, labels on top of old ones.

NACKit! developed a refillable, re-usable labeling system based on a simple premise. Apply durable adhesive-backed pockets to any container and merely change out the NACKit! label card, as appropriate.

Each original NACKit! kit contains two dozen 4 3/4″ x 6″ self-adhesive vinyl pockets and 28 blank NACKit! cards with lined backs for listing contents. Mini kits contain three dozen 2 3/8″ x 3 3/4″ pockets and 40 blank cards. Original NACKit! kits are most suitable for packing boxes and storage tubs, while the Minis work best with smaller boxes, bins and totes.

Every Original kit includes 24 pre-printed label cards and four blank cards for customizing. Label any blank card by hand or use the NACKit! card template and Card Designer to create labels that fit your preferences and inimitable style.

Get the basic NACKit! for Everything (with all cards blank) or select a kit with pre-printed cards for popular categories.

• NACKit! for Home — with cards for Arts and Crafts Supplies, Baby Clothes, Books, Camping Supplies, Financial Papers, Holiday Decorations, Photographs, Shoes, Sports Stuff, Summer Clothes, Winter Clothes and Toys.
• NACKit! for Moving — with cards for Attic, Basement, Bathroom, Bedroom, Dining Room, Family Room, Garage, Kitchen, Laundry, Linens, Living Room and Master Bedroom.
• NACKit! for Office — with cards for Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Banking Documents, Clients/Patients, Contacts, Office Supplies and Tax Documents.

The NACKit! for Christmas includes 16 self-adhesive pockets as well as 16 red and green cards for Indoor Lights, Outdoor Lights, Tree Ornaments, Wrapping Supplies, Greeting Cards, Wreaths/Garland, Decorations and Holiday Dishes, and four blank cards.

You can also buy the NACKit! Origimini, which includes a combination package of one dozen original-size self-adhesive pockets and 16 original cards, as well as one dozen mini pockets and 20 mini cards. And if you’re setting up a new home, NACKit even sells a huge combination Toolkit, which includes two Everything kits, two Mini kits, two Origimini kits and one pre-printed kit of your choice.

Happily, you don’t need deep pockets to make use of any of today’s pocket-based organizing solutions. But if you’ve got money burning a hole in your pocket, be assured there are more nifty NAPO 2012 Expo product recaps to come.

An organized army travels on its stomach, and here at Paper Doll HQ, we like to set out a smrgasbord of organizing options to help readers do battle with paper clutter. Longtime readers know that the bread and butter of paper organizing tends to come from the two bigwigs of the industry, the butcher and baker, so to speak: 

&
 

Today, we’ll start with some innovations that each brought to the dining table at NAPO Expo 2012, and then follow up with some candy for dessert.

DIVIDE AND CONQUER

Typically, file containment falls into two categories — solo or bulky. Folders, whether 1/3- or 1/5-cut file are designed to work on their own. Sure, you can group a series of file folders in a hanging folder, or plop them in your briefcase, but they’re still distinct entities that can get separated from the group.

Conversely, accordion files tend to be bulky, and they’re designed to gather individual sheets together, even if sorted by category. They work best for specific types of projects, like collecting tax documents, but they’re not particularly attractive or efficient for presentations.

Also, most paper solutions are arrayed horizontally. Sure, the minute you pluck a file from a cabinet or a paper from the accordion file, you’re likely to turn it to display vertically…but what if you didn’t have to?

Smead’s Stackit™ Organizers offer an intriguing approach for projects and presentations. This letter size (9 3/4″ x 11 1/2″) vertically-arrayed organizer has three 5″ pockets (each of which are able to hold up to 50 sheets). The top-tabbed back panels of the first two pockets serve as dividers and are suitable for labeling. Because of the pocket styling, papers are protected from shifting, wrinkling or other damage during transport.

As with accordion files, the Stackit™ Organizer has a flap to secure documents and protect them from the elements (like a rain of coffee), and it’s even lightly scored (like the bottom of a file folder) to allow expansion. However, instead of requiring an elastic band to hold the flap in place, the cover flap neatly tucks in to the front pocket, creating a streamlined little package.

The Stackit™ is made of durable linen stock (available in black, dark blue and grey), from 40% recycled content/10% post-consumer material, with a reinforced bottom. It’s so new that it’s not yet listed at most of the major office supply stores, so keep your eyes open.

A sister product is the Stackit™ Folder in linen and textured stocks. These folders, which hold up to 100 pages, are also arrayed vertically, making them backpack-friendly. As with the Stackit™ Organizer, the pockets are 5″, safely securing the papers on three sides, preventing “floppiness” — and the folders bear the same fold-over, tuck-in flap. The front of the pocket is die-cut to hold a business card.

The linen Stackit™ Folders come in packages of five, in the same black, dark blue and grey as the Stackit™ Organizer; the textured versions come in black, red, green and light blue. Paper Doll envisions using a rainbow of Stackit™ Folders for separate elements of a larger project or for providing personalized presentation folders to each member of a board or committee.

Another divide-and-conquer advancement comes from Pendaflex. Readers may recall that Paper Doll reviewed an innovation in the NAPO Expo 2011 recap, the Pendaflex Divide-It-Up Multi-Section File Folder.

As that review indicated, the Divide-It-Up did as described, using an origami-ed folder to create sub-sections, making it ideal for travel documents and other itinerary-based papers. At the time of my Expo recap, I was pleased with the general concept, but not entirely thrilled with the execution.

The prototype felt flimsy and was available only in a drab manila, which, while suitable for general office filing, lacked pizzazz. Happily (though Paper Doll takes no credit for it), Pendaflex has radically improved the Divide-It-Up, creating a sturdier product. Plus, making it available in bright blue, yellow and red means it’s easier to locate and quickly retrieve from a check-in counter.

Better yet, by using the brighter material, the pockets alternate light and dark coloring, making it easier to differentiate the individual sections. The other features remain the same — four divided sections, or pockets, of elevating height, with 2 1/2″ tabs for the first three folders. One 5 1/2″ tab covers half the folder’s height (or width, depending on your vertical or horizontal layout) at the back.

LOCK AND LOAD

Remember the PeeChee folder from last week? When I shared it with colleagues, it started a vibrant conversation about pocket folders. (Yes, we professional organizers really do get excited about such things!)

In office settings, the standard is generally horizontally-arrayed top-tab manila folders. But a pocket folder definitely has its place — in board rooms for presentations, and in school rooms, lockers and backpacks, for academic papers. This year, Smead introduced multiple new lines of pocket folders, with the lion’s share of the attention focused on the Lockit line of two-pocket folders.

A basic two-pocket folder is just that: basic. One large piece of heavy-duty paper with the bottom edge folded up and a crease down the middle creates two pockets. Every other embellishment is gravy. (See, we’re still sticking with that meal metaphor!)

The biggest problem with two-pocket folders has always been the inability of the rough-and-tumble user to keep contents tidy. Mead’s middle-school standard-bearer, the Trapper Keeper, organizes folders by keeping the two-pockets corralled in a three-ring binder, and the pressure of the binder and other folders is usually (but not always) enough to keep errant papers from wiggling loose.

Smead’s Lockit Two-Pocket Folder works on the same basic principles, but brings something new to the table — a little loop. When raised, it makes the folder look like a prop briefcase for a third-grade production of Death of a Salesman.

When lowered, it locks the papers down! Tight!

The Lockit comes in boxes of 25 letter-size, textured (pebbled) black, blue, red and assorted color folders, as well as black, dark blue and maroon linen. Each 4 1/2″ pocket holds up to 100 sheets of paper. The pockets are die-cut; a business card fits on the left pocket, a CD or DVD on the right.

An even niftier advance is the Lockit SuperTab Two-Pocket Folder. It combines all the features of the standard Lockit with Smead’s patented SuperTab, so that when you’re done with your folder (at the end of the semester or after a project has been completed) you can label the tab and file it with traditional file folders.

As with all SuperTab products, the tabbing space is 90% larger than on standard folders, offering abundant room to label your contents. The extra-wide 1/3-cut tab is also advantageous; however, the tab is only available in the first (i.e., left) tab position, and I’d like to see Smead revisit this with tabbing at the center position, as well. The Lockit SuperTab Two-Pocket Folder is made of 11-point laminated stock, and comes in 5-packs of shiny black, blue, green and red. The pockets can accommodate 50 sheets, each.

STAND AT ATTENTION

It’s hard to be too innovative with hanging folders. Sure, we’ve looked at strengthening the hooks and firming up the rods, but there’s rarely BREAKING NEWS about hanging folders. Pendaflex has been trying to rectify that.

First, Pendaflex came out with the Ready-Tab Reinforced Hanging Folders. With these, instead of plastic inserts, the folders came with little tabs, in five positions, awaiting being folded up into place.

Should you choose to change placement, just fold the tab down and lift another tab upward. The durable polylaminate strips reinforce the top edges and the bottom fold, making it extra-sturdy for repeated use, and the boxes of 20 or 25 (depending on color selection — available in standard green, assorted, blue, red, yellow, violet, bright green or pink), all include a printer-ready insert sheet for labeling.

This year, Pendaflex added a new variation: the breathlessly-titled Ready-Tab Extra-Capacity Hanging Folders with Lift Tab™ Technology! The 2″ capacity letter-sized folders, available in standard green and a narrow assortment of colors, makes use of the stuffed-crust pizza metaphor for positioning tabs. Sturdy plastic-coated write-on/erase-off tabs (yes, you can erase pen marks) are tucked away inside the wrapping of the hanging rods. Just select one of five positions and pull upward on the tab. Change your mind, press it back into the pizza crust (I mean, hanging folder) and select a new tab.

AT EASE — WITH DESSERT

Man cannot live by bread (or meat and potatoes) alone. Paper supplies, particularly for filing, are the functional main course of organizing products, but just because something is useful doesn’t mean it can’t be yummy. That’s the belief, at least, of the enterprising women who shared some gorgeous wares at this year’s NAPO Expo.

Office Candy, a distribution company started by professional organizers Laurie Noelle Meek and Beth Schlatter,

 

asks, Why not have a little fun in your home office? Why not, indeed?

Office Candy has gathered a delightful collection of colorful, appealing organizing tools, from file folders and notebooks to clipboards and gadget holders. It’s a one-stop shop for pretty. The theory is simple — if you’re working with attractive tools, you’ll be more inclined to use them to their greatest benefit.

Office Candy carries some favorite brands, including Knock, Knock and Gallison, and has introduced Paper Doll to some new charms, including folders from Lady Jayne (seen below) and Cavallini.

 

The gals at Office Candy stock the classy Jamie Raquel mobile file totes I reviewed last year, as well as a variety of other fun, new products, like these Lilly Pulitzer notebooks.

 

Win the paper clutter war. Taste the rainbow.

Readers, I ask you to imagine the coolest shopping mall or bazaar you’ve ever encountered, but every product or service sold focuses on the wonders of organizing, and shopping hours are severely limited. Now imagine throngs of friends you haven’t seen in at least a year, circling around you, mingling and hugging and talking at an ever-elevating pitch. Throw in some delicious (looking) appetizers, and you have Paper Doll‘s experience at the Expo portion of the NAPO 2012 Conference and Expo.

Torn between researching the magnificent products, visiting with friends and delighting in the delicacies, I feel I gave everything short shrift, but over the next couple of posts, I hope to share with you some of my favorites of this year’s Expo — the innovations, the updates and even a few novelties.

At a point in time when technology seems to be the Belle of the Ball, Paper Doll is pleased to note that a variety of paper organizing products shone as stars at NAPO 2012. Indeed, today, we can start with the Arc of the Expo!

ORGANIZERS OF THE FLEXIBLE ARC

In every NAPO 2012 attendee’s conference bag this year, in addition to the itineraries and documents, was a lovely surprise — a leather notebook with five sturdy, colorful, re-positionable poly tab dividers and a three-pad stack of 50 task pads.

M by Staples’ Arc customizable notebook system is visually appealing. To be honest, having merely looked at the packaged product, Paper Doll didn’t quite understand the hubbub at first. Apparently, Arc is designed as a more affordable version of Levenger’s Circa, a high-end customizable notebook system. But I must say, Arc is plenty luxurious, without need for comparison, at affordable prices.

The intriguing aspect is how it’s put together. At first, before the unwrapping, it seemed to be another take on a daily planner, like my Franklin Covey Classic — a leather cover for a ringed notebook that holds a variety of pre-punched paper elements. Ah, how naive I was. Arc is actually much more like a Chinese menu, columns A, B and C from which you can pick a dizzying array of tasty options. To get an overview, check out the different demo videos of Arc personalities (Arlo, Alex, Reyna, Katie, Izzie and Emily).

The “spine” of the system is not, as it first appeared, the traditional metal ring. Rather, Arc employs solid plastic discs (though they’re called rings) which fit into the grooves in the front and rear panels to form the exterior of the notebooks.

The paper pages and other inserts fit snugly around the unusually-shaped ring edges. The M by Staples Arc system rings come in two sizes, 1″ and 1 1/2″, both in a sturdy, shiny black, priced about $2 for a package of twelve, so you can expand the girth of your system like a tailor might let out a pair of trousers.

The Arc System covers come in two styles, leather (from $14.99) and poly (from $7.99). The leather versions come in velvety, traditional blacks and browns, as well as modern brights, like red, pink, blue and a chartreuse-ish green. Although the official web site lists the leather notebooks available in two sizes, 6 3/4″ x 8 3/4″ and 9 1/2″ x 11 1/2″, my own red notebook measures 8.5″ x 5.5″, so it seems the marketing is just slightly lagging the innovation.

The durable poly versions come in solids (black, blue and green) and black-and-white patterns (flower, hibiscus and a mysteriously unnamed pattern), in two sizes, 6 3/4″ x 8 3/4″ and 9 3/4″ x 11 31/4″.

The Arc system is not just affordable and highly functional. It’s also customizable, making it highly flexible for multiple professional, academic and personal uses. The system offers a wide array of options for re-positionable pop-in insert accessories for the letter and junior-sized platforms:

—Stacks of 50 premium heavyweight pages, including narrow ruled paper, graph-ruled paper, project planners (with space for titles and dates, project elements and summary comments) and To Do pages ($3), as well as an assortment of weekly/monthly page options

–Sturdy poly pocket dividers with pockets cut on the diagonal for easy access ($3)

—Poly tab dividers, in packs of five, in black or assorted colors (with labels) ($3)

–Sturdy sheets bearing 200 adhesive page flags in assorted colors ($3)

—Task pads ($4), similar to the sturdy Franklin Covey “Weekly Compass” pages.

Other accessories include rulers ($1), and business card holder pages ($9 for a package of five). Arc also manufactures special hole-punches ($40) for achieving that Arc-style punch, which looks to Paper Doll to be best described as a sideways umbrella or mushroom.

I would recommend checking out the Arc system (either online or at your local Staples) for anyone who prefers upscale appearances and flexibility without an upscale price.

EVERYTHING IS JUST PEE-CHEE!

Longtime readers of Paper Doll will recall that about a year and a half ago, we talked about mysteries in the office supply aisle and discussed some back-to-school items of note. At the time, I recalled the warring popularity of Trapper Keeper folders vs. the individual two-pocket types of my youth, and mentioned my fascination when colleagues Brandie Kajino and Krista Colvin informed me that folks in the Pacific Northwest (and elsewhere to my far left, geography-wise), referred to folders by a particular nickname: PeeChee.

Imagine my surprise when Krista Colvin greeted me at the NAPO Expo with the declaration that she had something for me, and she produced my very own, 100% official, PeeChee All Season Portfolio, manufactured by Mead…the very same people who created the Trapper Keeper!

My new PeeChee, seen here, for scale, with my Arc notebook.

Mead was in the NAPO Expo hall this year, showing off their newest wares, including the At-A-Glance WallMates flexible, re-positionable dry-erase boards that I reviewed back in February.

PeeChees weren’t on display at the NAPO Expo, but I’m delighted to learn that PeeChees are still going strong. In fact, a quick perusal of Mead’s web site finds that the Wild West (well, Wild West to this native Buffalonian) back-to-school staple isn’t just peach-y, but is also blue-y, rose-y and green-y, now that Mead makes a Color-Talk line of PeeChee folders.

ALL YOU NEED IS (A FEW) DOLLARS AND AN ORGANIZING DREAM

Speaking of folders, I had to mention (even though we’re not nearly ready to talk about the big guns of the paper world) something nifty I saw at the Pendaflex booth. Below, Paper Doll‘s BFF — financial organizing maven and Professional Daily Money Manager Nanette Duffey — with Esselte/Pendaflex’s Rick Drish, are showing off a new kind of folder.

“New, Paper Doll? What’s new about it?” you might wonder.

“Oh, the color scheme?” you posit? Well, yes, I did think the idea of 1/3 cut file folders with a black exterior and white interior was nifty. Black and white is quite elegant, and for the fashionable set, turning the folder inside out provides double the artistry. Black with white interiors, or white with black interiors — you pick!

But no, that’s not what really got me going. You may (just barely) be able to see that the folder has a slight graininess, befitting recycled paper. And if you guessed that, you’d be getting warmer — it is a variation on Pendaflex’s multi-color 100% recycled file folders.

But what really gave me the giggles was the fact that these Black and White Recycled Folders aren’t just recycled — they’re recycled from used lottery ticket paper! This earth-friendly, snazzy-looking folder is made from 100% recycled fiber and 40% post-consumer fiber, and is acid-free. It can be purchased in boxes of 50 from office supply retailers, and is part of Esselte’s Pendaflex-Oxford-Ampad line of Earthwise products, of which we’ll be discussing more, closer to Earth Day.

Readers, that’s just a taste of what’s to come as we continue to recap the delicious fascinations of the NAPO 2012 Expo! (Which gives you more than I got in the Expo hall, as I never did get to taste any of the supposedly delicious hors d’oeuvres, busy as I was, playing intrepid reporter. Appreciative comments left below, and crab cakes packed in dry ice and sent to Paper Doll headquarters, will be acceptable recompense.) See you next time!

Hello, patient readers! Although I’ve been back from the National Association of Professional Organizers 2012 Conference and Expo in Baltimore for a week, it’s taken some time to get re-acclimated. It’s a heady experience to be surrounded by about 830 of the smartest (and loudest) organizing experts in the nation, all sizzling with excitement to gain knowledge, explore new organizing products and services, catch up with their colleagues…and eat.

And it was definitely exciting to find that while we were off filling our heads, hearts and tummies, our national president, Angela Wallace, was spreading the word about the professional organizing world.

THE BIG CHEESE and EDUCATIONAL FEASTS

NAPO 2012 was overseen by a conference committee headed by fearless leader Scott Roewer (seen here with financial organizer (and my conference roommate) Nanette Duffey and technology maven Lauren Halagarda).

Scott’s intrepid team reviewed and winnowed a mountain of educational proposals to select the final 30 breakout sessions, panel presentations and courses on a wide variety of topics of exceptional benefit to clients, including titles like:

• Lifekeeping, Not Just Bookkeeping: Advanced Financial Organizing for Seniors
• Stand Up & Be Counted: Support a Hoarding Task Force
• Helping Your Client Eat a Frog…Understanding the Causes, Consequences and Cures for Procrastination
• It’s 10 PM: Have You Done Your Homework Yet? (Tips, Tools and Tricks for Teaching Time Management to Students)
• Organizing the ADHD Brain Using Executive Functions
• Cleaning Clutter the “Fun” Shui Way
• The Photo Organizing Dilemma: Meeting the Needs of Your Overwhelmed Clients
• Digital Disorganization and New Organizing Skills

and the most popular organizing-themed breakout session at conference, Krista Colvin and Allison Carter‘s Organizer’s Favorite Things — Tools of the Trade for the Modern Home and Home Office!

Of course, not all of the classes focused on the art and science of developing organizing expertise. Professional organizers also flocked to two courses taught by the exemplary Rich Brooks, one on YouTube marketing and another on building business through blogging. Other popular classes included:

Speaking NAKED — Stripping Away the Barriers of Effective Public Speaking

In Good Company: Building Professional Collaborations and Organizer Teams

and Taking Your Organizing Products to the Market — What You Need to Know, taught by Clare Kumar, whose Pliio clothing-filing product

I reviewed in the NAPO conference 2011 recap. Coincidentally, the sale of Pliio went national via HSN a mere 48 hours before Clare’s presentation at NAPO.

EDUCATION ON A GRAND SCALE

NAPO’s educational foundation isn’t just built on the smaller breakout sessions, which attract anywhere from 50 to about 200 attendees, each. The whole kit and kaboodle of organizers (tidily) crammed themselves into standing-room-only ballrooms to hear stirring keynotes from the original Apprentice, Bill Rancic, who shared his ideas on How To Think Like an Entrepreneur and Joanne Lichten, PhD, RD (Dr. Jo), who imparted wisdom on How to Stay Focused, Energized and More Productive.

NAPOites like Paper Doll, who had been lucky enough to attend the 2002 NAPO conference in Atlanta were especially delighted to experience the return of our closing keynote speaker, Dan Thurmon. His inspirational keynote on personal growth and expanding your opportunities was accompanied by his impressive

acrobatic flips, juggling lessons and performance atop a 6 foot unicycle! He taught us how to be Off Balance On Purpose!

It wouldn’t be a NAPO conference without Ask the Organizer panels, and like last year, we had two, one led by Monica Ricci, Ask the Organizer’s creator and decade-long moderator, and another made up of NAPO’s Golden Circle veterans, led once again by Lisa Montanaro. There was also a first-timer orientation and two Golden Circle goal-planning sessions. Paper Doll, along with colleagues Helene Segura and the Board of Certification for Professional Organizers‘ reigning queen, Audrey Levine, led a Jeopardy-inspired presentation on the ins-and-outs of certification and re-certification.

PEOPLE-WATCHING

Conference is almost as much about who you get to know as what you learn, and 2012 was no different. There were (NAPO) presidents:

TV stars and published authors:

and celebrities of the blogosphere:

Peace of Mind Organizing‘s Janine Adams with Unclutterer‘s Erin Doland

Paper Doll, Jeri Dansky, Janine Adams

HEARTWARMING

NAPO values the heart as much as the intellect. In 2011, NAPO members helped collect over 168,000 pairs of shoes for non-profit partner Soles4Souls — watch the video for the full story.

At our conference, NAPO gave Organizing Excellence Awards to two Baltimore-based organizations. The first went to the House of Ruth, one of the nation’s leading domestic violence centers. The second award, to United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), brought tears to the eyes of many as Ellen Palestine delivered a deeply personal story of the role UNOS has played in her life. Readers, I urge you to watch the video and hear just a bit of what NAPO members heard that Saturday afternoon.

YUMMY TIMES

NAPO members cannot live by words alone — not even blog posts. In large groups and small ones, we ventured out into Baltimore to explore the Inner Harbor, Federal Hill, Fell’s Point and elsewhere in Charm City, share convivial conversation, and at least once, dine on-the-go when a fire alarm interrupted the salad course.

What? Paper Doll was hungry! I thought it was quite organized of me to carry my Caesar salad, napkin and coat through the rain, to safety, especially my when dining companions, including Professional Organizers in Canada‘s President Jacki Hollywood Brown and Vice President Carolyn Caldwell, and NAPO’s own Jeri Dansky, all left their beverages at the table! (This might all have involved the “luck of the Canadians”, as POC’s leaders encountered three fire alarms on this conference trip.)

THE EXPO

Over the coming posts, we’ll be exploring the great new organizing products (paper and otherwise) NAPO conference attendees saw this year. I don’t want to spoil the experience, but to tantalize you, here are a few thematic hints:

• All You Need Is (About) a Dollar and an Organizing Dream
• Pretty (and as Organized) as a Princess
• A New Way to Do Long Division
• Stick’em Up!

Until next time, happy organizing!

Recapping the NAPO conference and expo sometimes feels like the theme song from Gilligan’s Island. We’ve covered the millionaire (and his wife) and the movie star — our profession’s rock stars. The “I Feel Pretty” product reviews were certainly the Ginger and Maryanne of our industry. Then we talked about the good Goliaths, the big kahunas, the Gilligan & the Skipper of paper organizing (Smead and Pendaflex, or Pendaflex and Smead — let’s not take the metaphor too literally). Last week, I covered all the essential and nifty hanging things the castaways brought in their luggage and used to adorn the walls of their huts (though why they brought luggage on a three-hour tour has always remained a mystery).

While it would take the better part of a year to cover ALL of the vendors at the conference, there were three ingenious products that reminded me of the nifty inventions that dreamy Roy Hinkley (what, you didn’t know that was the Professor’s real name?) came up with on the island.

Today, I present you with the winners of the Paper Doll “Coconut Radio” Award for inventive organizing products, each of which, like the Professor’s creations, excels with regard to one or more of the following characteristics — they’re super-cool, technological or green (because, let’s face it, the Professor was all about natural products and re-purposing).

I rarely get giddy with excitement over organizing products, especially organizing products unrelated to managing paper. So, followers of my Facebook and Twitter posts suspected I was awfully intrigued by this next product. I couldn’t stop talking about my eagerness to see it in action after hearing about it from my colleague, Monica Ricci, who first reviewed Pliio at the 2011 International Home and Housewares Show in March.

Pliio is an organizing tool (or as the Pliio folks say, a clothing management system) that files your clothes. No, seriously. It helps you FILE your CLOTHES! How cool is that?

Pardon Paper Doll for gushing, but even with all my organizing skills in realms outside of the paper world, I’ve always envied the people whose drawers looked like the assistant manager at The Gap had just come through and tidied up. I’ve gazed longingly at the Flip-&-Fold style of laundry gadgets that let you fold each article of clothing to the same size. But until I saw Pliio, I didn’t realize what was missing…what I truly wanted was a magical tool for organizing clothes as if they were paper files!

Pliio is the brainchild of professional organizer Clare Kumar and industrial and graphic designer Yuriko Zakimi. Mechanically, the product is simple. A Pliio folding filer is a pad about the size of a small placemat, which is placed in the center of the article of clothing you wish to fold. You manually fold in the sides/sleeves to conform to the edges of the pad, and then fold the Pliio from one end to the other, essentially rolling the item like a soft taco until it is neatly arrayed in a package about the size of a woman’s wallet or a small clutch purse.

Then, fold your next article of clothing, and the next, lining up each vertical piece (with the Pliio remaining inside) next to the prior one, anywhere from a drawer (like a filing cabinet) to a shelf (like open filing at the doctor’s office) to a canvas sweater box (like a desk-top file box). I can definitely see it becoming a favorite for travelers seeking ways to consolidate space in luggage (as airline baggage fees continue to rise). But the best part of Pliio is that because you’re “filing” your clothing vertically, you can see each individual article of clothing, so nothing gets hidden or buried.

I initially imagined this would only be useful for filing t-shirts and polos, which would have been inventive enough, but Clare won me over at conference by showing how versatile the Pliio was for folding blouses and even dresses while keeping them wrinkle-free. (And don’t get my started on the too-cute-for-words mini-Pliio for folding baby clothes!)

To see the Pliio in action, take a peek at this video put together by my NAPO conference roomie, professional organizer and blogger Deb Lee:

As Clare says in the video, the system is designed to take you from piles of clothes to files of clothes. And what Paper Doll worth her salt wouldn’t love that?

The only downside? Pliio is not yet available in stores. Patience, Gilligan.

My first introduction to the The Tote Buddy name came at the start of this year’s conference, when we learned that our cantaloupe-colored conference tote bags were provided by The Tote Buddy. I mistakenly assumed the company made only environmentally-friendly grocery totes. Been there, done that, I thought, and relegated visiting the booth to the outskirts of my schedule.

Shame on Paper Doll!

Surely by now you’ve noticed that two decades of “paper or plastic?” have stepped aside, making way for “Will you need a bag or did you bring your own?” Even the least green among us are doing our part for the environment, carrying reusable tote bags to the grocery store and on errands in order to decrease the use of environmentally-unfriendly plastic bags and deforesting paper bags.

But it’s easy to forget to bring that bland black or grey tote into the store. Totes are generally branded with a store’s logo and are often not all that cute. And if you’re getting more than one bag’s worth of stuff, it’s unwieldy to carry a pile of totes at once.

The solution? The Tote Buddy, billed as the World’s First Reusable Bag Organizer, is a stylishly attractive tool for storing and carrying your totes, making it more likely that you’ll feel fashionable when carrying the totes…making it more likely you’ll enjoy using them…making it more likely you’ll actually remember to use them. Win! Win! Win!

The Tote Buddy people explain even better in their 6- (yes, six) second video how to get from having a mess of forgettable, unattractive bags to having a memorable, fashionable way to carry them:

The Tote Buddy is a portfolio-style case. Undo the Velcro fastener, unfold The Tote Buddy, and place your folded totes inside, with the handles facing out. Re-fasten the Velcro strap and use the totes’ own handles to carry the whole kit & caboodle. Using re-usable tote bags is good for the planet, and using a pretty carrying case is good for your mood.

The Tote Buddy measures 15 1/2″ W by 11 1/2″ H (when viewed with the spine facing downward), is made of 100% recyclable non-woven polypropylene with an adjustable Velcro closure, and comes in two styles, a lighthearted floral and a sleek black:

Each Tote Buddy holds up to ten totes and sells for $14.97. The Tote Buddy also sells spacious and attractive totes in floral and cantaloupe (OK, they call it orange, but PaperMommy can tell you how much I hate that color) for $7 and $3, respectively. Such selections ensure that your Tote Buddy handles are fashion-forward, as well.

I bet even the Skipper would get one for his Little Buddy.

Newcomer Grid-It!, from Cocoon Innovations, was the geeky (in a good way) belle of the ball at this year’s NAPO expo. It even won the NAPO Organizers’ Choice Award for Best Technology Product! This is all the more intriguing because the Grid-It! isn’t made of metal or plastic, requires no batteries or chargers to power it, and doesn’t have any moving parts!

Grid-It! is actually an organizing system for providing practically endless configurations to hold all of your digital devices, accessories and personal items in place. (How many configurations? Try the game to see for yourself.)

The design of Grid-It! is simple, yet brilliant. There’s a flat mat or pad-like base covered in rubberized woven elastic bands for firmly holding items in place…or, in the words of Cocoon Innovations, it’s an “object retention system for gadget organization.” Because of the vertical and horizontal placement of the elastic bands, you have a versatile array of possible configurations which can change easily, depending on what you’re trying carry with you. (The back can even double as a mouse pad!)

Whether you’re high tech or low tech, have iPads or doo-dads, there seems to be a useful Grid-It! solution. Instead of a purse, backpack, messenger bag or briefcase with a sea of gadgets and essentials swimming at the bottom, Grid-It! lets you configure your own pegboard-style layout for your Blackberry or iPhone, iPod, hand-held game, wireless mouse, ear buds, USB cords, memory cards, chargers for your cameras and phones, flash drives and more.

If you’re low-tech (or just need to carry some low-tech items along with the others), attach sunglasses, lipstick, business cards, chewing gum (unchewed and still wrapped, please), hand sanitizer, batteries, etc. And Grid-It! can be used just as well for office or school supplies, tools (a boon for professional organizers or computer repair specialists)

 and even cosmetics.

The Grid-It! isn’t just for everyday use carting around the essentials (and luxuries) of modern life. Imagine how much easier it would be to unload your airline carry-on for hand inspection when everything is attached to one rubberized pad.

There are multiple varieties of Grid-It!, from a tiny 7″ W by 5″ H grid for $9.99 to progressively longer and/or wider versions, up to the 15″ W by 11″ H luggage accessory style for $29.99.

They also make one with three metal-reinforced holes for storing in a three-ring binder and a sun visor Grid-It! for keeping your car organized.

The standard Grid-It! is black, although some sizes and styles come in alternate colors, including High Rise Gray, Royal Blue, Racing Red and Blush Pink.

The only negative thing I can say about Grid-It! is that I didn’t get one. The guys had them on display at their booth the night before the conference officially started, and by the time I meandered over to them on Thursday morning, they’d been picked clean of all their sample giveaways. (They did, however, offer a plethora of Juicy Fruit gum and Tic-Tacs, two items they’d been using so show the Grid-It!’s versatility.)

The Grid-It! certainly will help you keep essentials close at hand better than Gilligan’s tree sap pancake syrup boat glue!

Ah, the Professor. So, he could build a nuclear reactor out of sand and palm fronds but couldn’t fix a three-foot hole in the side of a boat? Can you imagine all he could have accomplished, if only he’d ever been to a NAPO conference and expo?