Best Results Organizing

Hanging around this year’s NAPO expo, I noticed a decided theme: hanging around!

HANGING CHADS

Who voted for annoying plastic hanging folder tabs? Heat, direct sunlight and age discolor them and make the tabs brittle. The “paper” cuts they yield are on par with those from a file folder. (Ouch!) They’re awkward to put in place, and every time you want to change the label, you must remove the old one and find the set of spare perforated labels.

Recently, there’s been a move towards built-in hanging-file tabs. Pendaflex came up with Ready-Tab Reinforced Hanging File Folders with pre-attached

reinforced polylaminate clear tabs. The tabs are build-in to the folders and pre-set in three or five tabbing positions for letter-sized hanging folders and six positions in legal sized. The tabs merely fold up into view and snap into place, so there’s no searching for lost plastic tabs, nor any struggling to position tabs into place. It’s an elegant solution that eliminates those annoying hard plastic tabs everyone hates. However, if you’ve got sausage fingers like Paper Doll‘s, you’ll still struggle to label and insert the tiny perforated papers into the little sleeves.

Pendaflex’s ReadyTab Reinforced Hanging Folders come in boxes of 25 olive green, blue, yellow, orange, red, bright green and violet and assorted colors (all of the previous except olive and violet) and in boxes of 20 in pink in support of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

Meanwhile, Smead created FasTab Hanging Folders with 1/3 cut oversized, reinforced labeling surfaces that look like jumbo manila folder tabs–they’re 20% larger than standard non-hanging folder label tabs. You can’t lose the tab because it’s all part of the folder, there’s no plastic involved, and there’s no struggling with those flimsy inserts.

However, there’s a limit to how many times the tab can be relabeled without losing aesthetic appeal, particularly if you tend to hand-write labels, whether with a pencil, pen or Sharpie. Plus, if you prefer using a label maker and affixing label tape, one imagines the structural integrity of the tab will have an only slightly longer life than that of a typical internal folder, unless you plan to layer label upon label as categories change.

FasTab Hanging Folders come in boxes of 20 moss, red, yellow, green, or blue and in boxes of 18 assorted colors. For those who prefer uniformity, they also come in boxes of 20 right-tab-only folders, in moss.

Both of the Big Guys’ solutions seek to reinvent the hanging folder, but a newcomer to this year’s expo reinvented the filing tab, itself.

Filertek Dry Erase Hanging File Tab, from Australia’s The Pencil Grip, Inc., is a new plastic hanging file tab with its own patented built-in writing surface. It obviates any need to keep track of those little perforated labels onto which it can be so hard to write.

With Filertek, you write directly on the tab with a dry erase pen, flip down the little visor-like cover (available in clear or assorted colors) and click it closed. Then, attach to hanging folders as normal. To reuse, simply flip the cover up, wipe the tab clean and create a new label. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Paper Doll likes the fact that the tabs aren’t made of that sharp, awkward stuff used for traditional plastic tabs. However, it is still plastic, so for those of you trying to answer the paper vs. plastic question for yourself, I can only suggest that these tabs will remain both aesthetically and functionally pleasing for longer than the traditional tabs. Of course, those icky tabs are free with the purchase of traditional hanging folders, while Filertek involves an additional purchase.

Filertek comes in packages of five color tabs, as well as packages of one dozen tabs and 50 tabs (white or assorted colors), each with a special odor-free, black Filertek dry erase pen.

HANGING ON FOR DEAR LIFE

The Get It Together Life In a Box was created by Hallie Hawkins, an attorney, and Shay Prosser, a financial planner. In the past, vendors have displayed numerous boxed hanging file systems at the NAPO conference. The main difference with this system is the expertise of the two women who have created a company centered around providing independent legal and financial education.

Their workshops and mentoring programs focus on subjects like credit report review and cash flow analysis, retirement and estate planning, understanding benefits, avoiding identity theft, and legal planning. From this, they developed a tangible system for handling the essential documents of life: birth and death certificates, wills, emergency information, insurance policies, car titles and property deeds…and all of the other VIP (Very Important Papers) we talk about here on a regular basis.

Life in a Box includes:

• Life in a Box Guide — This is a guide to the legal and financial reasoning behind the Life in a Box system, particularly useful for those attempting to organize their personal documents and information for the first time, perhaps without the assistance of a professional organizer.
• How to Get It Together — Today!, a 50+ page book of advice on financial and legal issues ranging from handling cash flow to estate planning.
• 30 labeled hanging file folders for maintaining financial and legal records — This system is pre-labeled with the specific document types one might forget. Thus, instead of an umbrella folder for legal documents, the system specifies will, Power of Attorney, Health Care Directive, etc. so that users can identify which specific legal or financial documents may be missing.
• A sturdy box for safely storing the paperwork

(Life in a Box: Basic, Executive, SuperSecure, Fireproof SuperSecure)

Pricing depends largely on the box type or system level selected, with price points ranging from $50 to $175. The basic Life in a Box uses a sturdy plastic file box with a flip-top lid, while the Executive version comes in a brown leatherette box with a velvety interior. For more security, the Life in a Box SuperSecure is housed in a black Vaultz cabinet with a combination lock, while the Fireproof SuperSecure includes a light grey Sentry-brand file box, fireproof up to 1550 Fahrenheit.

There’s also an Out of the Box version of Life in the Box for those who want all of the information and pre-defined folder labels but intend to store the information in their own pre-existing filing cabinet or storage system.

The physical system for the Life in a Box is not new, of course. It’s a container, file folders and labels — just like those we’ve reviewed previously. However, the added elements, including the financial and legal information provided by experts in their fields, are a novel twist.

HANGING OUT IN STYLE

Gear Pockets and Simply Stashed, under the Christy Designs umbrella, don’t make products for organizing paper, but last year, after I shared my delight about them with my newsletter readers, I realized they were too good to keep secret. And let’s face it, if you’re organized, you’ll save those little green pieces of paper.

The Original Stash is 19″ wide by 52″ long, running almost the full-length of a door to maximize vertical storage space without using up limited depth of space. All twenty pockets are identically sized and placed in five rows of four clear pockets. It’s suitable for storing everything from children’s clothes to accessories (belts, hosiery, etc.) to outerwear items (hats, gloves, scarves, etc.). The Variety Stash, pictured above (right), measures similarly, but has 14 differently sized pockets, to enable you to store items of mixed sizes, like school supplies, crafts, and more.

Gear Pockets, the sturdier “brother” line, is suited for garage, mud room and utility room storage of sports paraphernalia, gardening tools and “tough guy” stuff. Made of heavy duty 600 Denier polyester, with gussetted, industrial strength mesh, the 26″ wide by 48″ long Gear Pockets have rust-free stainless steel grommets positioned at 16″ and 24″ (to align with studs) and come with mounting hardware. Gear Pockets come in three styles — the Organizer and Sportsman styles, below,

and a nine-pocket Original version.

To receive a 10% discount on Simply Stashed or Gear Pockets, use the coupon code BESTRESULTS at checkout. (In the interest of full disclosure, as a member of the affiliate program, I’ll get brownie points if you make a purchase using that code. But hey, you get 10% off just for being a Paper Doll reader!)

Next week, we’ll finish our look back at the 2011 NAPO expo with intriguing, creative products that are just what you never knew you wanted!

Last week, we teased with some of the prettier ventures on display at the NAPO 2011 expo. Now, before I can even mention the sprightly upstarts in the David vs. Goliath field of paper management, I must deal with the heart and soul of the paper world. And foremost, that means talking about two equally wonderful elephants in the room.

Last year, I quoted from the musical Chess to make the point. For a professional organizer, especially one who blogs about paper, striking the balance in writing about Smead and Pendaflex so as not to show favoritism is like parenting twins. They’re similar in many ways, and yet intrinsically different, and require love, discipline and approbation in varying proportions. When they launch disparate products, it’s easier; when they compete head-to- head, it’s Sophie’s Choice.

A coin flip has determined the order of today’s product reviews.

Pendaflex’s big reveal this year was the Divide-It-Up multi-section file folder. If one looks at the Divide-It-Up as if it were still within a hanging folder, there are three side-by-side 2.25″ wide label tabs that sit below the 1/2 cut (5.5″) left/right tabbing, on what could be considered the outside front wall of each “pocket”. The letter-sized folders, whose outer dimensions match traditional folders and thus can be filed normally, allow users to subdivide materials into three separate pockets.

Sub-divide, label and access just what you need without flipping through items of different sizes, and because the pockets are closed not only on the folded filing bottom but also on one end (i.e., the right edge, once filed), there’s less worry papers will escape. The lowest pocket measures 4.5″ deep, making it ideal for handling receipts, boarding passes, parking garage tickets and other small items without them disappearing amid larger papers.

Paper Doll wanted to explain the physics of how the three interior pockets came to be, but my spatial orientation skills were no match for the folding frolics Pendaflex put in place, and I admit I had to thoroughly dismantle the sample version to figure out that basically, Pendaflex has cut the outline of two file folders, one a mirror image of the other. Then, they made sneaky slices and folded it all back together, affixing a tiny tabbed portion of what, unfolded, would be the bottom of the whole production, to the inside back of the folder, to create an origami-ed folder that can hold up to 75 sheets of paper. The folders come in packages of 12 or 24.

The main drawback of the Divide-It-Up is the paper selection — 11 pt or “standard weight” stock. Paper Doll is a fan of heavy-duty file folders, and this folder, while not really flimsy, is of a thinner, lighter variety than I’d like. My sample copy did not make it home from the conference, via Delta’s loving baggage processing, without gaining some tears at the edges.

Pendaflex didn’t launch a lot of entirely new products this year at the expo, instead choosing to refine extensions of other product lines. For example, we’ve previously discussed the Pendaflex SureHook hanging folder. This year, I got a closer look at two newer varieties in that line.

First, there’s the SureHook Hanging Box Files, with reinforced sides and box-bottoms. They have the same sturdy, non-bowing rods with built-in tension springs and longer (plastic) hooks (for smooth sliding on hanging rails) as the standard SureHook hanging folders. The poly-laminate sides and rod coverings are reinforced to strengthen and increase holding capacity, and with each folder a pressboard strip is included to reinforce the 2″ capacity box-bottom.

I particularly like that the side reinforcements run only two thirds of the way up the folder, allowing the top third of the front or back of the folders to pull down or “flop” over when not actually hanging, making it even easier to access the interior folders or documents.

The SureHook Hanging Box Files, also known as Extra Capacity Hanging Folders, come in two styles, with either traditional plastic tab labeling or snap-in-place Ready-Tab labeling. These are available in assorted colors (blue, yellow, orange, red and green) or traditional olive green, usually packaged twenty to a box.

Pendaflex also showed off the SureHook Hanging Folders with Dividers. (Dividing is big this year, apparently! “Divide and conquer,” anyone?). These have the same poly-laminate reinforced rod coverings, tension-spring rods and longer, plastic smooth-sliding rail hooks, but the sides are open, as with traditional hanging folders. However, in order to help users separate project papers into categories within the same hanging folder, Pendaflex has added interior dividers.

The bottom of the expandable-to-2″ frame is accordion-style, and reinforced with a rip-proof tape gusset. One or two (depending on the option selected) stiff, built-in kraft pressboard dividers are glued into the center accordion fold. The inserts have durable, coated, flexible fasteners, one on each face of the dividers, for attaching papers securely (as one often sees with medical paperwork).

Given that users generally place hanging folders in cabinets with the brand name stamp or logo facing the rear, I must admit to being vaguely puzzled by the placement of the fasteners on the right side of the divider, which becomes the bottom of the page when the folder is accessed and read “book style”, at least when read by right-handed filers.

The SureHook Hanging Folders With Dividers come with one or two divider pages, in letter or legal sizing, and are packaged 10 to a box, in olive green only.

Smead’s big tag line this year is “Think Differently”, and aside from earning Paper Doll Bonus Points for using the proper adverbial form, they captured my attention with a variety of new products and brand extensions, all with a focus on presentation style through design.

First, and this could certainly have fit with last week’s theme, Smead developed a line of Fashion File Folders. 1/3 cut and letter size, these folders might be like any other, except for the va-va-voom styling on heavier, more durable paper stock and a satin finish. Each set includes three separate patterns, with two of each design included in every set, as well as six self-adhesive labels. The folder wardrobes come in multiple themes including Circles (red, green and purple),

Vines & Flowers (orange, teal and lime),

Birds — but not angry ones — (mustard, orange and blue)

and the Professional Collection (black and khaki).

My sole complaint is that although Smead recognizes that many of us would prefer something more exciting that vanilla manila or the typical “assorted” colors (and even assorted neons or pastels), many filers want aesthetic appeal in bulk quantities. Even if the big box office supply stores might not be inclined to give up shelf space, I think many of us would prefer to buy a box of 100 Birds or Vines & Flowers rather than having to make do with six at a time.

Last year (click and scroll down, slightly) I made a big deal of Smead’s Easy Grip File Pockets. I still love them and their ability to make light work for those of us with wimpy wrists and heavy files, so much so that the Smead reps at the NAPO expo asked me to make this video to share my reasoning:

Since last year, Smead has expanded the Easy Grip line from the plain redrope, open top letter and legal sizes in 1 3/4″, 3 1/2″, or 5 1/4″ expansion widths to include variations on a theme. You can still get the patented Easy Grip surface with Tyvek-reinforced gussets to keep the sides from wearing out, but now filers can get a little more fashionable with File Drawer Pockets with Easy Grip in red, blue or green (and, sigh…redrope), but the gussets extend to the full height of the folders to prevent the sides from catching on the hanging rails as one lifts the folders out of filing cabinets. Pretty (well, prettier) and functional, too.

For those of you who want to feel extra-secure when toting those heavy files around courthouses, hospitals and office buildings, Smead now has Secure Pockets with Easy Grip. They’re almost exactly like the regular Easy Grip file pockets, but they have elastic straps to prevent documents from falling out. The straps can be conveniently positioned underneath or to the side for easy filing and then pulled up, suspender-style, to prevent papers from making a run for it.

Smead’s big push this year was the importance of presentation, but there were simply too many presentation folders, from “Poly Report Covers” to “Frame View Poly Report Covers with Fastener Closure or Swing Clip”, to fit into one post. And Pendaflex really upped their game with “Custom Gate Folios” and “Tri-Fold Pocket Folders”, too.

Indeed, there were so many presentation products in the vanguard from both of these stars that they deserve a full Paper Doll review of their own. And readers have asked for updated, feature-by-feature comparisons of Pendaflex’s SureHook and Smead’s TUFF Hanging Folders, and of Smead’s Easy Slide Tabs and Pendaflex’s ReadyTabs. There comes a time when one must let kids compete head-to-head. (Perhaps I’ll ask the parents of Serena and Venus Williams for some advice before penning such posts.)

I’m open to reader suggestions as to what we might call such a series. Organize-Off just sounds wrong, Tidy-Off seems like a cleaning product, and Declutter-Off sounds like a count in a tale told by a 19th century Russian novelist. (“Dostoyevsky and Paper Doll present the Declutter-Off!” Yes? No?) Expect to see this feature in coming months, whatever it is named.

Now that we’ve covered the Goliaths, next week we’ll sink our reviewing teeth into the fascinating products of the NAPO 2011 expo’s up-and-comers, the Davids, of the organizing world.

Last week, I shared a bit about the conference portion of the National Association of Professional Organizers’ 23rd Annual Conference and Organizing Exposition. From reader inquiries, it seems everyone is hankering for this year’s recap of all the nifty products, but requesting an added element. Maybe it’s springtime. Maybe it’s an attempt to escape the last gasp of a frustrating economy. But email after email, people are agreed: you all want something pretty.

You may recall that last year, I complained about the dearth of attractive paper filing options, especially those of the mobile variety. Sure, there are lots of little, lightweight portfolio cases, but for the stylish person on-the-go with a heavy-duty load of papers, fabulous solutions have been hard to come by.

Whether you’re a trendsetting mommy/PTA president/volunteer coordinator/investment club treasurer keeping all those (paper) balls in the air, or a mobile professional (pharmaceutical salesperson, real estate agent, community healthcare practitioner, event planners, outside sales rep, etc.), Paper Doll hears you loud and clear: you want something as aesthetically pleasing as it is functional.

Last year, in my NAPO 2010 Conference Expo Recap Part 1: Boxing It Up post, I noted that KC Streamline Concepts had launched multiple varieties in their Alpha-Omega Collection, including the stylish black zip-top Alpha Omega tote.

This year, the Alpha Omega Collection expanded, but in a different direction. The main products (the Standard and Executive desktop file boxes and the Alpha-Omega Tote) haven’t changed, but there’s a new little sibling.

Notable Xchange is a snazzy upgrade from old school assignment notebooks or even Moleskin notebooks, an analog departure from nouveau iEverything, and is designed for the modern networker. On the left side of the 4.25″ wide by 5.75″ high notebook, there’s a slot for keeping business cards and a pocket for keeping the cards you receive, parking vouchers or receipts. KC Streamline Concepts notes that smart phones will fit in that pocket, too. I didn’t have the chance to test that feature, in part because I don’t own a smart phone (don’t judge me!), but one assumes only a streamlined phone would fit.

In the center divider, there’s a place to keep your pen (which is included). To the right, a stack of fifty note cards helps you track (and follow up on) your brilliant ideas or note the Twitter ID of someone you encounter in real-world networking (who has neither brought along a card or who has thus far relied on using his or her cell phone’s “bump” feature).

The Notable Xchange comes in Black Iris (pictured above, closed), Black Iris with a faux croc finish, Terra (pictured above, open), Terra with a faux croc finish, Poppy, Bluebell, Sweatpea, Clover and Violet. To see the Clover in action, my colleague Jeri Dansky showed off her iPhone-matching acquisition in her own blog review. The introductory price is $24.95 and includes a subscription to KC Streamline Concept’s tip-laden organizing-themed newsletter.

When I last wrote about it, the Alpha-Omega Tote came in blackberry, cherry or coconut — currently the latter two colors are on a production hiatus. While I kvelled over it as the sole attractive paper toting option we’d seen in some time at the NAPO expo, I didn’t really talk about fashion.

Sure, I recognize that not everyone is interested in understated elegance. Some of us — OK, by which I mean myself — opt for black for almost every occasion. My colleague, Geralin Thomas, noted my all-black wardrobe in the hotel closet at the 2010 conference and dubbed me “the organizing nun”.

(Hey, being The Flying Nun didn’t do any damage to Sally Field’s career. And you like her. You really, really like her!)

But for those who want bright colors and a double-rainbow kind of wardrobe, there’s now a bold, colorful option.

JamieRaquel offers an entire line of stunningly fun leather(ish) LifeSTYLE file totes designed for the fashionable users I’ve described. Although I believe function trumps aesthetics in the long run, for the purposes of this post only, form shall be followed by function. These totes are just too pretty not to show off.

Each of the eight colorful totes has a correspondingly fashionable lining. For example, going from left to right:

Pumpkin is lined in a pattern of vibrant vertical bands or strips of orange, white, cranberry and lime. (Note to Paper Mommy: this does not mean the orange plaid curtains in my childhood bedroom will ever again be in vogue. They never were. Really!)

Jet Black’s lining is a jaunty black, white and burgundy plaid.

Ruby calls to mind the snappiest of raincoats with what JamieRaquel is calling a Burberry-esque taupe, red and charcoal print.

Royal Blue, Lime, Chocolate and Plum all bear striped linings with corresponding color themes.

As Paper Doll’s favorite color is pink, I was delighted to snap former NAPO President Stephanie Denton modeling her raffle prize, the JamieRaquel LifeSTYLE tote in Hot Pink,

with the lining of zippy pink, plum and tan squiggly squares and oblongs.

The LifeSTYLE Tote has a sturdy box-bottom construction, making it less likely to tip over, and it won’t collapse in on itself (like a backpack or oversized purse), which could put files and papers at risk for wrinkling or shmushing.

Because the LifeSTYLE tote is designed to carry standard letter-sized hanging files and has an open-top box style to offer easy access to those files, it’s as simple to use as your desk-top file box or file drawers. Vertically arraying papers eliminates the paper pile-up, making work (or the work of life) easier to file or retrieve and prevents anything from financial and legal documents to field trip permission slips from getting lost at the bottom of the tote.

The tote measures 11.5″ high by 14″ wide by 6.5″ deep. The core body is constructed of sturdy, modified-density fiberboard to ensure that the two six-inch hanging file rods —  embedded directly in the core — can withstand any heavy hanging files and prevent wobbly loosening. The bottom of the LifeSTYLE tote has reinforced cleat footing to protect the fabric from scratches and nicks.

The outer fabric, handles and security straps are covered in a PVC-based leather or patent-leather style. The handles are cross-stitched and reinforced with studs to increase durability. The interior linings are cotton, cotton/nylon, PVC-only, or PVC-backed cotton/nylon, depending on the pattern selection. There are three interior pockets (to hold your glasses, phone, business cards and other incidentals) on the long front wall (opposite the wall with the JamieRaquel label).

The JamieRaquel LifeSTYLE Tote sells for $59. Although the totes do not come with hanging folders included, if you’re the kind of person who color coordinates every bit of your life, you can purchase five-to-a-package sets of coordinating color (Pendaflex-brand) hanging folders for $5 in black, blue, burgundy, green, navy, orange, pink, red, teal, violet and yellow.

The main drawback I see in this initial iteration of the LifeSTYLE tote is that although there’s a snap-closed security strap to keep files from sliding out if you take a tumble over a tricycle or your flight experiences turbulence, but there’s no full-enclosure lid to protect from either the elements or askew glances of prying eyes. However, I was assured by JamieRaquel’s founder, Diana Peck, that this is merely JamieRaquel Version 1.0, and that future varieties will include other functional and stylistic elements.

For those wondering about the name, Diana told me that when she was pregnant with her fourth child, after three boys, she was so certain that she’d have a girl, she’d picked out the name Jamie (after her husband) and Raquel (after her mother, Rachel). When Diana learned this baby, too, was a boy, it only made sense to give the name to her “other” baby, the company that birthed the LifeSTYLE tote, and give her son another name. (Because we all know what Johnny Cash told us happened to the boy named Sue!)

From the minute Paper Doll walked into the expo at this year’s NAPO conference, I was excited to share a new product line from Rubbermaid that fit all my criteria for Best-in-Show. The new product is:

• Durable
• Aesthetically pleasing (both in color and form)
• Able to serve multiple functions
• Flexible (in terms of both usage and, to some extent, form)

Thus, the last item in the “I Feel Pretty” edition of the NAPO Expo 2011 Recap is…

Seriously?

Seriously! Everything about the product line, from what it looks like to its description to its name has been embargoed until the August launch of the line. And although I share most of the same first name as Julian Assange, I’m no Wikileaker (or OrganizingProductLeaker?), and though a few industry members may be unaware of the press embargo, my contact at Rubbermaid has confirmed today that we’re still all to be Silent Sams and Samanthas until the official word is ready for release four months from now.

So you’ll just have to trust me. It’s pretty, it’s classy, it’s nifty and Paper Doll wants it already.

Certainly there were other visually arresting products at this year’s NAPO expo, including:

— new file folders that made me say, “Wow!”,
— devices for corralling gadgets (some, which made me wonder, “How?”)
— and some other not-yet-ready-for-purchase products (I’m looking at you, Pliio!) that made me plead, “Now?!”

Be assured, readers, you’ll get more than a glimpse of these items, too, as we continue our look back at the delights of the 2011 NAPO expo. See you next time!

Tony Bennett may have left his heart in San Francisco, but Paper Doll seems to have left her voice in San Diego. It’s a good thing this blog gives me a chance to shout from the rooftops via (digital) text.

I’ve just returned from a glorious, jet-lagged week in they-always-promise-sun-but-it-always-rains-on-me San Diego at the 23rd Annual Conference and Organizing Exposition of the National Association of Professional Organizers. (Trivia note: NAPO is actually 26 years old. Imagine existing for three whole years without a conference! It’s like not getting birthday cake until you’re old enough to use a fork!)

In the coming posts, I’m looking forward to sharing highlights from the expo — the paper-related organizing products that dazzled and delighted. This year, I hope you won’t mind that I indulge a little and share not just organizing tools for the paper realm, but I’m going to broaden the scope so readers can see all the wonderful products for organizing other areas of life, as well. The way I see it, organizing saves time, and time is money, and money is made of paper, so by the transitive properties Mrs. Schultz taught me about in tenth grade geometry…everything is related to paper organizing in some way, shape or form.

Today, however, I’d like to share just a few special attributes of the conference other than the products and services displayed in the expo.

NO ORGANIZER IS AN ISLAND: THE GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

Although we’re the National Association of Professional Organizers, we are closely allied with our international colleagues. We had attendees from the United Kingdom, Japan, South America, Germany, South Africa, and The Philippines, and representative members of the Professional Organizers in Canada, the Australasian Association of Professional Organizers, and from an association whose name is especially cool to read, in the Netherlands:

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE EDUCATION

While we love to socialize, eat, and tour the expo, the major element of the annual conference is always education. With six session blocks, each with five concurrent educational offerings, plus keynote speakers, Ask The Organizer panels (not one, but two, to cover everyone from novices to veterans, tag-team led by Monica Ricci and Lisa Montanaro) and general sessions, we learn how to serve our clients, run our businesses and save our (individual and collective) sanity. Some of us even arrive a day early to take half- and full-day courses on subjects ranging from “Residential Needs Assessments” and “The Missing Link: Getting from “To Do” to “Done!”” to “Advanced Social Media Marketing”.

This year’s educational offerings included:

• 20 Best Practices for Organizing the Creative Mind
• Closet Design for Organizers
• The Emotional Facet of the Client Relationship
• Navigating the Slippery Slope of Ethical Dilemmas
• Photo Organizing
• Organizing Beyond Your Own Personality Style
• Managing Client Expectations
• Organizing Students and Loving It
• Welcome to the Wide, Wide World of Aging Services
• Creating Organizing Sustainability and Lasting Change With Our Clients
• Still Someone: Working With People Who Have Memory Loss

And that’s not quite a third of the concurrent session offerings, which also included the two-parter I told you about last week, with three classic time management systems and three innovations, and a session called “Getting Your Clients’ Financial and Legal Clutter Together — Today!”, for which I was a session host. (I can’t imagine why they thought I might be interested in that. A whole session on legal and financial paper clutter? I was like a kid in a candy-store. Or maybe a candy wrapper store?)

One of the rock stars of the professional organizing industry, Julie Morgenstern, gave our opening keynote address on the history and future of professional organizing, while Colette Carlson spoke another day about the importance of sincerity in communicating with prospects and clients. Lee Silber made us laugh with an amazing presentation just for the Golden Circle (veteran) organizers…and then cry, with the documentary he created, Undercover Organizer, for our closing keynote. 

FRIENDSHIP IS PRICELESS

In the age of Skype and satellite communication, it may surprise some of you that professional organizers — dedicated productivity specialists — board planes, risk lost luggage and suffer the indignities and inconvenience of travel — just to come to the NAPO conference every year. Why do we do it? The people! Camaraderie at conference draws us back like moths to a flame (or professional organizers to an unlabeled pile of papers).

Friends and colleagues got together to compare notes about business, to dine, to explore San Diego, to strategize, and to have (or pretend to have) committee meetings — that’s three-fourths of NAPO’s Social Media Task Force-turned-Committee, down below:

(And yes, I realize that alongside my partners in crime acting out LinkedIn and Twitter, I’ve failed to take into account that cameras reverse images and am displaying the social media juggernaut Bookface!)

When we see fellow organizers (even those we chat with each day on Twitter or Facebook or even on the phone — and yes, believe it or not, phones can still be used for voice conversations), we run across grand ballrooms as if we were small children and not … um, slightly older than children, who were bemoaning our sore feet and aching shoulders mere moments before. We pick up conversations where we left them a year (or a few years) ago, in hallways, at the luncheons, over powder room stalls. We make each other think and question and we nod over sage advice. And former NAPO president (2001-2003) Stephanie Denton made me laugh so hard with

a whispered aside during one of the keynotes that I not only almost fell off my chair, but I dreamed about it two days later…and woke up laughing! (I’ll never think of self-promotion, Charlie Sheen, Taylor Swift or the Grammy Awards in the same way again!)

In one session, our speaker invited attendees up to the microphone to praise and show appreciation to individual colleagues, and the warmth, sincerity and genuine esteem could have melted the heart of the grinchiest Grinch. (Note to Margaret Lukens: recalling your kind words makes me blubber anew.)

Speaking of tears, many of us cried tears of joy, having our own Krista Colvin back in our midst after a year where she was Putting On Her Big Girl Panties and Kicking Breast Cancer in the Ass. Krista’s the one in the photo who actually exceeds 5’3″ — the others are yours truly, the blogger extraordinaire and product maven Jeri Dansky and organizing and social networking dynamo Deb Lee.

Got a few minutes more? Take a peek at the gorgeous (seriously, they photographically removed all evidence that Paper Doll is not still 29 years old) photos the HD Photobooth Team took during our first full day at conference. See how delighted we all are to be together again!

WE’RE NOT ONLY WOMEN

It’s a common misconception that all NAPO members are women, but we have some powerhouse guys in the industry, including former NAPO presidents Tom Nevermann and Barry Izsak and media fave Peter Walsh. Pictured below, you see witty and debonair

John Trosko and Chris McKenry, West Coast stars of the NAPO-LA chapter (the driving force behind the LA Organizing Awards) and our fearless Conference Committee chair,

Scott Roewer, who is beloved not only for his leadership but for his remarkable philanthropic passion.

THE COMPANIES THAT MAKE OUR JOBS EASIER

From big name companies like Rubbermaid to up-and-comers like Pliio (and all the neato companies in between, about whom you’ll be hearing in the next few posts), NAPO’s expo features the products and services that make organizing easier and more delightful.

Speaking of delightful, I’m flanked by the fabulous duo of bride-to-Be Lauren Spahr and Erin Gentry.

NeatFreak Group‘s Mimi Dhar returned to show off the Closet Max System.

(Oh, are you going to LOVE hearing about how Pliio‘s Clare Kumar has invented a way to file clothes!)

Smead‘s Jim Riesterer posed with a cross between the typical file folder and the Angry Birds app!

SMART IS SEXY: MULTI-TALENTED ROCK STARS OF ORGANIZING

So yes, we’ve got global flair and we’ve got BFFs, we’ve got brains and we’ve got boys. We also have rock stars of our industry walking among us. We’ve got brilliant bloggers, technologists and yes, even TV stars, sometimes all on one panel:

While you may be pardoned for assuming this is the cast of the new Charlie’s Angels TV series, it’s actually the panel for the session “Bridge the Digital Divide: How to Organize & Be Productive in the Information Age”, with session host Helene Segura, SOHO Solutionist Brandie Kajino, CPO-CD and star of TV’s “Hoarders” Geralin Thomas, digital productivity specialist Lauren Halagarda and triple-threat organizer-blogger-speaker Josh Zerkel. (Lookie, yet another princely fellow!)

ALL TOGETHER NOW

Combining our expertise with our expo partners’ thingiebobbers and innovations (and you readers and clients, of course), organizing is beautiful…even if travel is sometimes not. Below, we see some members of the NAPO-Georgia chapter (pictured here with Edgewater Grill server and diet Coke savior, Paul) mere moments after

after struggling with a taxi driver who had a few issues related to hygiene and personality, such that the girls were tempted to start singing, “I’m gonna wash that man right outta my hair…”

Tune in next time for the start of our in-depth report on the fascinating products and services presented at the 2011 NAPO conference and expo.

Over the last three weeks, I’ve tried to give you an insight into the standout products from this year’s NAPO Conference and Expo. While there are always nifty products, even Paper Doll has to admit that aside from multicolor file folders, paper organizing tools aren’t always colorful or stimulating. In today’s final wrap-up, however, I’d like to share a few of the items that caught my attention as vivid examples of how organizing your paper and information can be fun.

PlanetSafe is billed as the world’s only non-plastic erasable wall planner. These planners all have the write/wipe attributes of typical plastic wall planners, but use no petroleum based products. PlanetSafe’s line is made from 100% (post-consumer waste) recycled paper, organic vegetable inks and a 100% biodegradable plant-based film laminate.

The planners are designed to work with either dry-erase or wet-erase markers, as well as sticky notes. (And yes, Paper Doll usually bans the use of sticky notes as floozies, but you’ll see momentarily why I give PlanetSafe a pass in this regard.)

Sure, they have the usual 1- and 2-year calendar planners, and like all of the PlanetSafe products, are made from durable, heavyweight write/wipe material with a glossy finish, and each calendar has ample room to write the essentials. The college/academic calendars are undated, so you can use them year after year, and they’re arrayed vertically, suitable for hanging on a dorm room door, so you can view all four months of the semester at once, with extra space for a weekly schedule and notes.

However, PlanetSafe’s niftiest, most colorful products are the sticky note planners.

While the boards have ample space for writing one’s thoughts, To Do items and action plans, and then wet or dry erasing them afterward, I like the notion of tracking concepts and tasks on recycled-paper Post-It notes. This allows you to quickly re-prioritize by moving, rearranging, and even color-coding the notes…it’s sort of the retro version of cut-and-paste in Word, without a single keystroke.

It also actually refines one of the non-traditional To Do list strategies, The Panel Method, suggested by professional organizing veteran Judith Kolberg in her groundbreaking book Conquering Chronic Disorganization.

The product line includes multiple varieties, including a weekly planner with abundant space for the days of the week, a prioritized task planner (above), which lets you brainstorm tasks related to specific projects, a yearly long-term goals planner, with room for notes on major projects, and a combo planner, which has weekly calendar space for scheduled tasks, unassigned tasks and specific projects.

Co-founder Stacey D’Amico was inspired by an Oprah segment on environmentally-friendly products. She started researching green office products that her husband, W. Ward Turner, could produce in his small manufacturing company. After extensive trial and error to come up with a plant-based biofilm that erased as well as plastic products and a bonding agent that didn’t involve plastic adhesives, this mom-and-pop shop hit the ground (well, actually, the wall), running. They consider their wall planners to be the first erasable line that is 100% recyclable, biodegradable and compostable.

The Card Cubby is a fashion-forward alternative to carrying a wallet. Paper Doll noticed a few different vendors on the Expo floor were carrying versions of the Card Cubby, but I’ll admit, it didn’t make a big dent in my consciousness at first. However, a week back from conference, I was introduced to a new friend, an extremely busy medical professional. When she learned that I was a professional organizer, she began gushing over her new “organizing system” — a nifty Card Cubby that matched her needs and her personality.

The Card Cubby is a miniature card file designed to fit stylishly in a purse, briefcase or diaper bag. The Cubby measures 5″ wide by 3″ high by 2″ deep, and comes with alphabetical dividers, so you can use it to keep track of business cards, gift cards, frequent shopper rewards cards, insurance and identification cards, etc. If you tend to overstuff your wallet with things you don’t need and store them all haphazardly, the Card Cubby presents the option of organizing your portable items more methodically.

The clear front pocket is perfect for storing a driver’s license or photo ID so that you don’t need to remove or expose your other cards when you need to show your identification (making it less likely you’ll forget to retrieve your ID).

The Card Cubby comes in a variety of styles and colors, from animal prints to patent leathers, from faux crocodile to more elegant simple styles. It’s no surprise that Paper Doll favors the Passion Pink:

As always in organizing, aesthetics should be secondary function, but if a designer-style wallet with the ability to alphabetize will make you more likely to keep your wallet organized and your possessions safe and accessible, then Paper Doll approves.

Unikeep, part of the Univenture design and manufacturing family, isn’t a newcomer at the NAPO expo. For years, we’ve seen their three-ring case, presentation and high-capacity storage binders , CD wallets, mailers and other media packaging and office products designed to keep the world of work running smoothly. In recent years, their EcoEndure lines of environmentally sound products have been offering up sustainable, compostable, biodegradable and recyclable options.

To be honest, I was tempted to by pass the booth this year in the interest of time, but I’m glad I stopped, because they’ve added an interesting product that’s both colorfully appealing and just plain neato. As part of the Envy-Pak line, Unikeep has developed a 100% polypropylene, clear mailing envelope with a permanent peel-&-stick closure and double-perforations for easier opening. It’s 9″ x 12″, designed to hold an 8 1/2″ x 11″ catalog, brochure or other paper/photo items.

It’s an envelope? That’s what Paper Doll is so excited about, you’re asking? Well, sort of. In business parlance, it’s a mailer. If you’ve got a small (or even a large) business, having the flexibility to eliminate envelope labeling and use the envelope as a window to create “high impact visibility” of the contents, you can use one single sheet of paper for both marketing and addressing what you send.

Since it’s available in biodegradable polypropylene and PLA (polylactic acid, an environmentally-friendly, biodegradable, thermoplastic made from the fermentation of various agricultural products, like corn starch) and has US Postal Service approval, the translucent mailers offer a wide variety of custom-design options for full color printing and private labeling.

And that’s what caught my eye. Our friends from Unikeep brought a sample of a custom-designed mailer

that won their client, the Hawaii Trade Winds Management Group, a 2007 PEAK (Print Excellence and Knowledge) Award. Pretty, isn’t it? While you probably aren’t going to use this product anytime soon to have Unikeep custom-design your third-grader’s birthday party invitation envelopes, it gives a great (and colorful) indication of advancements to come in terms of intriguing and attractive office supplies.

NackIt! is a labeling solution that can be colorful, depending on what methods you use, but it’s definitely a bit green, as it offers a refillable, reusable label organizing system.

If you’ve ever worked in an office setting, you know that those plastic FedEx envelopes, into which you place your shipping form, have adhesive backing (perfect for use as a poor-gal’s lint brush). Fill out the paper form (in triplicate), insert in the envelope, remove the protective backing and the plastic pocket adheres to whatever box you ship. NackIt! used this basic method to create a twist for labeling shipping boxes, storage containers, and anything else you might want to label.

Each original NackIt! kit contains two dozen 4 3/4″ x 6 1/4″ self-adhesive vinyl pockets and 28 pre-printed and/or blank NackIt! labeling cards with lined backs. The idea is that you affix the pockets on your storage containers or boxes. Then, list the contents of the container on the reverse of the cards and insert cards in the pockets.

For moving boxes and typically large storage bins, the large front of the label provides ample room for a view-from-a-distance summary, while the lined reverse of the card holds the details. The pockets are permanent, but you can change out the cards any time you change the contents of your containers. No matter what’s in the box, you need never wonder what’s inside.

For smaller containers, there are NackIt! mini-kits, which include three dozen 2 1/2″ x 3 1/2″ self-adhesive pockets and forty blank cards (with lined reverse sides).

The system is pretty simple — use a Sharpie to hand-write the front label and a traditional pen to list the contents on the back, or use a labelmaker or computer for a polished, professional look and adjust the font to maximize the detailed inventory on the reverse.

For those with less than stellar handwriting, or a desire to show off design skills, NackIt! has a downloadable card template that lets you create the font color and style you prefer, and you can add any graphics of your choosing. And of course, if you’re storing items for your children and they’re not yet able to read, you can even insert a photograph or a drawing of the contents to serve as the front-facing label.

In addition to the original and mini kits, NackIt! has kits for the home, with pre-labeled cards, for arts & craft supplies, baby clothes, books, camping supplies, financial papers, holiday decorations , photographs, off-season clothing and shoes, sports paraphernalia, and toys. The NackIt! office kit has pre-printed cards for accounts receivable and payable, banking documents, clients/patients, contacts, office supplies and tax records. There are also kits for moving, with labeled cards delineating to what room the boxes should be delivered, and a Christmas-themed kit for holiday-related storage. Many of the pre-existing labels include appropriate graphics, as well, to help you see what’s on that oh-so-high top shelf.

This is the last of our recaps of products from NAPO’s 2010 Conference and Expo. While Paper Doll focuses on paper-related organizing products, this year’s NAPO conference had so much more to offer. Virtual assistant and blogger extraordinaire, Janet Barclay, hosted guest posts on the whole conference experience from two views. I wrote NAPO 2010 Through the Eyes of a Seasoned Conference-Goer; Randi Hutton covered A First Timer’s Perspective On the Annual NAPO Conference.

I also encourage you to review the blogs of some of my esteemed, incredibly charming, colleagues, Jim Deitzel of Rubbermaid’s Adventures in Organization and Deb Lee’s Organize To Revitalize.