Archive for ‘Paper Organizing’ Category
NAPO 2015 Expo: Magically Organize Your Writing with the Equil® Smartpen 2
We professional organizers are pretty easy to intrigue, but hard to impress. We like novelty, and you can hear our oooohs and aahhhs across the ballroom floor at the NAPO Organizing Conference and Expo when a vendor lengthens a folder tab, come out with a poly version of a product formerly only available in paper, or builds a better hanging folder.
But as much as we appreciate novelty, we’re quick to note shortcomings as well. We’re dismissive of features we can’t see our clients actually needing, and we’re dubious of also-rans — the third or fourth or fifth practically identical copy of a product or app that doesn’t improve upon the original.
One of the products that caught Paper Doll‘s eye, and kept it focused, at this year’s Expo is a hybrid, bringing two separate but related processes together. In the past, we’ve focused on paper hybrid office products:
- An Organized Hybrid: The Evernote Smart Notebook By Moleskine
- From Paper to the Cloud: Ampad Shot Note
- It’s a Notebook! It’s a Whiteboard!: 3 Dry-Erase Notebook Innovations
In the above cases, we’ve looked at notebooks and notepads that work two ways. But what about a writing implement that can do double-duty?
Equil® SMARTPEN 2
Friend of the blog, Smead, is known primarily for paper-related office products (e.g., folders, organizers, dividers, folios, etc.), and we’ll get to the newest of them in an upcoming post. But recently, Smead has been acquiring interesting and useful tech and tech-ish products, like the MOS: Magnetic Organization System for cable and cord organizing, Stick N Find bluetooth trackers, and MOS Spring Cables for strong, tangle-free syncing, charging and playing audio.
The Equil® SMARTPEN 2 is the latest innovative acquisition, and it’s a doozy. What does it do? The SMARTPEN 2 lets you:
- Create handwritten notes, sketches and diagrams on real paper (whether that’s a fancy Moleskine or a cocktail napkin). But it can also be used as a stylus to write and draw on your iPad, which the company claims it does with superior accuracy. (Paper Doll‘s drawing skills would be a poor test of this acuity, I assure you.)
- Capture writing and doodlings and digitally transfer them to Windows, Mac, iOS and Android devices without scanning or snapping photos.
- Save, modify and share the digital version of your notes (so you’ve got the original paper version, suitable for framing on your wall or locking in your safe deposit box, and the digital — even modified — version in the cloud or on your devices.
- Oh, and that modification? It includes the ability to convert your handwriting into readable, searchable, editable printed text.
- Share via email, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media, or upload to the cloud for saving and sharing to Evernote, Dropbox and iCloud.
- Whatever you create with the Equil® SMARTPEN 2 syncs across all of your devices, so wherever you are, you’ll be able to create anew or access what you’ve already written.
THE BASIC ELEMENTS
The Equil® SMARTPEN 2 looks like an Apple product. It’s all white-on-white, and comes packaged in a streamlined charging cradle, a triangular base into which the two operational parts snap, and the case comes with a grey “wrap” (called a convenience case) similar to the iPad Smart Cover.
The Pen — This is a technology-“enabled” pen. That means it’s a real pen, on its own, and uses regular ballpoint ink cartridges. It’s pressure-sensitive, so it can capture every nuance of what you draw, and if you press heavily (and perhaps repeatedly), with insistence, the pen knows you’re doing the equivalent of bolding your text and SHOUTING with intensity.
In order to save the battery life, the pen goes to sleep if you don’t write for a while. One press of the small button atop the pen wakes it up, and that same button functions to alert the receiver to a “new page” (creating page breaks) and to let you go back and forth between saved pages of notes.
The charging cable includes one replacement ink cartridge.
The Receiver — At first glance, the 3″ W x 1/2″ H receiver device looks like a clip for a clipboard, and it fastens to the top of your notepad or paper in a similar manner. The pen and the receiver connect via magic (OK, infrared and radio frequency communication). The receiver determines the boundaries of the page and flashes a small red light to alert you when you’re getting too close to the top or the bottom edge of what it can detect.
As you write with the pen, the receiver device saves your notes in the built-in memory.
The receiver holds 10,000 pages of notes. When you reconnect your pen to your digital device, you automatically receive an alert about any new notes, which are ready to be imported.
You can digitize your notes in real time, but it doesn’t matter if you’re not connected to your phone or other device when you’re in creation mode. When you are ready, at the touch of the button on the top of the receiver, whatever you’ve created can be uploaded from the device and imported to your computer, phone, or tablet. (Not your fancy watch, though. At least, not yet.)
The pen and receiver are rechargeable, and the specs claim you can write or draw for eight hours between charges. Just pop both the pen and receiver into the USB-compatible charging cradle. (The receiver has a battery life indicator and a charging indicator, so you shouldn’t have any surprises.)
The SMARTPEN works with two free apps:
Equil Note — This app lets you save and organize any of the written notes you take with the SMARTPEN 2. Edit, enhance, and share them with friends and colleagues. Convert your handwriting to text for easy editing and sharing.
Equil Note has apps for iPhone, iPad, and Android mobile devices, as well as Mac and Windows for desktop use. It’s available in English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Japanese, and Korean.
Equil Sketch — The sketch app lets you draw with a finer degree of control, and includes digital options like multiple brush styles and layering. You can start a picture on paper, and finesse it on the screen.
Through the apps, you can digitally choose from a variety of colors and pen tips, and up to 600 levels of pressure sensitivity, and then add more text and/or photos, digitally. You can also tag your notes so you can search and locate your content quickly.
The Equil Sketch app is only available for iPhone, iPad and Android digital devices (not desktop), and is compatible with all of the same languages as Equil Note, except for Korean, Portuguese, and Russian.
PRICE
The Equil® SMARTPEN 2 retails for $169.95 from the Equil shop, or for about $149 from Amazon, Apple and Best Buy. Access to the apps is free with a purchase of the pen.
THE FINE PRINT
There’s glossy marketing, and then there’s the occasional factual balloon pop.
Although the press materials reference doodling on a napkin, and the pen can capture notes on paper as small as a sticky note, the official specs say that the recommended paper size is 250mm x 330mm (9.85″ x 13″) or smaller — that’s anything below Letter size (US standard) or A4 (UK standard) — and notes that things “may not work properly if the paper is too small for the receiver to clip on and may have writing recognition issues if the paper surface is rough. (i.e., cardboard).“ So, don’t plan to write on something the size of a postage stamp or your next summer camp care package.
Next, the Equil® SMARTPEN 2 communicates to your digital devices through bluetooth pairing — if you’ve ever used a bluetooth headset for your phone or a keyboard for your iPad, you know to prepare for some set-up time before you can get started. One note I found in the FAQ caused a slight pause: “Make sure to go through bluetooth pairing process each time you switch the devices you are using with Equil JOT.” It’s not entirely clear whether this means you have to pair the pen each time you switch from your tablet to your phone, or just the first time for each. FYI.
Finally, the SMARTPEN 2 measures 1/2″ around the thickest part of its triangular shape, slightly thicker than a traditional Sharpie. It tapers down as you get closer to the pressure-sensitive pen-tip. Still, if you’re used to a slender, rounded pen, the grip of this might take some practice for creating fine detail.
Take a look at the Equil® SMARTPEN 2 in action.
THE COMPETITION
The Equil® SMARTPEN 2 isn’t the first to combine writing on paper with writing on a digital device and making it all interactive. (Even the SMARTPEN 1, the first iteration, wasn’t exactly first.) The Livescribe Smart Pen series (including the newest Livescribe 3, the Sky WiFi, and Echo, and older iterations) was the first to break out in this area, and for many years, I would gush when techie colleagues would show off their Livescribes. The Livescribe pens also had an embedded audio recorder, so you could tap a portion of your notes to hear what was being said contemporaneously with whatever you wrote. Pretty grand!
But the SMARTPEN 2 continues to have one advantage over the various Livescribe versions that can’t be overlooked. You can use the Equil® SMARTPEN 2 with pretty much any type of paper or notebook, so you can stick to your preferred notebook style, but after all these years, the Livescribe options still require that you buy special digital paper notepads to work. Paper Doll doesn’t know about you, but while I’m occasionally willing to shell out for a truly exceptional gadget, having to buy pricey notepads just so the pen can work is a deal-breaker for me.
WHO IS IT FOR?
Obviously, not everyone needs a smart pen. If you’re fine with keeping handwritten notes and rarely need information in digital form, you can pass. If you spend your time sitting at a desk, fully Wi-Fi-enabled, or are good with the “thumby” thing, typing without a real keyboard, even when standing or walking, it may not be for you. The SMARTPEN 2 is ideal, however, for those who are on-the-go, often standing, or in rough-and-tumble surroundings. I’m thinking of my client who is usually up in a bucket truck, using his iPad to take notes but risking damage to his expensive gadget. Or camp counselors checking kids in for the summer and taking notes of parents’ special requests. Engineers and architects, working on-site. Community physicians and nurses who don’t have immediate access to electronic medical records and are taking notes on-the-fly.
With the handwriting recognition feature, particularly the ability to turn handwriting into text, and the ability to use regular paper, the Equil® SMARTPEN 2 is worth some attention.
I’d love to hear your thoughts.
NEET & Cozy Cables: A NAPO 2015 EXPO Organizers’ Choice Award Winner
Everybody complains about cable storage. You can’t swing a lightning cable without hitting a blog post or video or Pinterest page on keeping cables untangled, separated, and safe, whether via retail products or DIY methods. For example:
- Paper Doll’s Cable Conundrums & the MOS: Magnetic Organization System
- Organizing the Cords Under Your Desk! by Helena Alkhas
- Cords and Cables and Labels and Controlling the Cables: 3 Novel Solutions by Jeri Dansky
- 10 Ways To Get Cables Under Control by Gina Trapani
- Organize, Store and Buy Computer Cables Wisely by David Caolo for Unclutterer
- How To Tame Cable Cord Chaos (video) by Lori Marrero
- Untangle Your Life: Living Organized With Cables and Cords by Apartment Therapy
- 61 Clever Cord Organizers
However, most of the standard stabs at keeping cables and cords organized seem to focus on cables that stay put in your home or office. Other than Paper Doll-recommended Grid-It!, a past NAPO EXPO fan favorite, we rarely see much about how to corral cables in transit so they don’t get tangled in our book bags, purses and when we’re on the go. Happily, the NAPO 2015 Annual Conference and Organizing EXPO had an exciting new entry in the world of cable organization.
NEET Cable Keeper
(©2015 Julie Bestry. Peter Chin, founder of NEET Products.)
Winner of the 2015 Organizers’ Choice Award, the NEET Cable Keeper is the equivalent of a tea cozy for your cables, if your tea cozy were crossed with a hoodie crossed with a corset. Each long, colorful strip of cloth material — NEET calls it a “shell” — isolates a single cord or cable from any other, and then includes these essential features:
Zipper — Here’s where the hoodie action comes in. There’s no threading your cable or cord through a complicated maze of plastic molding. (If you’ve ever tried to replace a drawstring in a pair of sweatpants, you know how frustrating that can be. Yes, you can attach a safety pin to guide the string, inch by inch, but ARGGGGGHHH, just recalling that makes Paper Doll grumpy.) Merely lay the cord or cable down across the NEET Cable Keeper and zip it up!
The bottom of the shell is flared, which allows you to encase larger USB ends, and it has ample space for multiple cables to be enclosed.
Structured Wire — Sewn into the length of the cloth strip is a bendable wire, much like the stays in a (modern) corset, that provide support stiffness and support. The structured wire services two purposes:
- It protects your cables and cords from damage. There’s no chance you’ll repeatedly fold your cord so tightly that the plastic coating will wear away, or accidentally crush it in a slammed filing cabinet drawer, damaging the delicate internal wires.
- It provides support for the whole cable or cord, making it suitable for wrapping neatly around your wrist as a bracelet, turning it into a loose necklace, or otherwise, bendy, gooseneck-lamp-style, making it beautiful as well as useful. NEET’s website even shows how to bend it into a stand for a smartphone.
Colorful Wardrobe — The NEET Cable Keeper comes in a variety of colors, so you can tell at a glance from across the room whether the cable you’re spotting is your Kindle charger or your Apple Lightning cord. The NEET Cable Keepers come in black, blue, gold, green, light blue, pink, red, purple, silver, white and yellow.
After you zip your cable cozily into the NEET Cable Keeper, like a toddler into a snow-suit, you’re set. It becomes part of the cable itself, so you have no additional pieces to carry or potentially lose; there’s no reason to take it off, unless you’re one of those people who likes to change the colors of your accessories on a daily basis. (Really, stop that.)
Take a peek:
You can get the Keeper two ways, both designed for mobile device cables measuring 3 feet (or about 100cm) or longer and 1/4″ in diameter. If your cable is longer than 3 feet, the width of the Keeper will accommodate you gently folding it before zipping it up.
- NEET Cable Keeper M, with just the Keeper, is $12.
- NEET Cable Keeper M with either a Micro USB cable or an Apple Lightning cable is $18.
It’s available directly from the NEET, and via Amazon, The Grommet and a few other retailers.
Although they are not yet available for purchase, NEET is developing a line of cable organizers for ear buds, laptops, home entertainment, and professional use such as for DJ’s and audio/visual work.
If you own a business and think it would be cool to brand these NEET Cable Keepers for your own customers, NEET founder Peter Chin says, “The NEET Cable Keeper is customizable! We can customize NEET for you to promote your company, event, and brand. Great for corporate giveaways, employee retention programs and brand awareness. Send us a message and we will gladly connect you to our authorized customization partners.”
Zip, wind and organize. Neat (I mean, NEET), eh?
NAPO 2015: Conference By the (Organizing) Books
Longtime readers of the Paper Doll blog know that the majority of the time, I’m writing about paper and information flow, and how to keep it all managed, but there’s one time each year where we go beyond to explore all sorts of organizing knowledge and innovations. Every year, just after the National Association of Professional Organizers’ Annual Conference and Organizing Expo, we spend weeks talking about the education and the products that can help organizers and clients (and you!) get and stay better organized and productive.
This year, I’m starting the series with something new about the NAPO conference experience. NAPO members have access to a variety of Special Interest Groups (SIGs), sub-groups that help NAPO members focus on their areas of concentration. SIG offerings support those who work with students and seniors, who specialize in relocations or small businesses, who speak and coach, who deal with technology and protect the environment, and more. Paper Doll is a member of the Authorship and Publishing SIG (led by my colleagues Debbie Lillard and Deb Cabral).
This year, as part of the NAPO EXPO, the Authorship and Publishing SIG ran a bookstore booth, carrying some of the industry’s best-loved books, authored by our own SIG members. This included newly released titles, classic organizing books, and recorded media and information products created by our members, whose number includes true celebrities of the organizing world, including Judith Kolberg and Barbara Hemphill. We even had a day and a half of fancy-schmancy book signings!
All of this was put together by organizing profession ROCK STAR authors Donna Smallin Kuper and Ramona Creel, who quickly, efficiently, and creatively constructed an outlet for organizing authors to spread the gospel (if you will) of organizing and productivity.
(That’s iconoclastic, straight-shooting Ramona at the left, Paper Doll in the center, and prolific writer and speaker Donna on the right. Trivia note: both Ramona and Donna are full-time RV-ers. Apparently genius preserves well in tin cans!)
If you’re reading this but were unable to attend NAPO 2015 and feel like you missed out, never fear — Paper Doll has you covered! I’ve listed each of the books and resources from our booth here, with links so you can check them out in depth, and perhaps make them part of your own personal library. Where possible, I’ve linked to Amazon paperback copies (because, well, I am your Paper Doll); you should be able to easily navigate to Kindle versions. (Please note that these are affiliate links and I will receive brownie points in the form of green pieces of paper if you purchase after clicking through this links.)
Home/Life Organizing Books
A Mom’s Guide to Home Organization by Debbie Lillard
DeClutter Your Life NOW! A Motivational Guide to Tackle All Aspects of Clutter in Your Life by Deborah Cabral
Make Room for Clarity by Rick Woods
How to Declutter and Make Money Now (2nd Ed, 2015) by Donna Smallin Kuper
50 Shades of Organizing…Your Life by Susan Unger and Lauri Mennel
Organize This! Practical Tips, Green Ideas, and Ruminations about your CRAP: Clutter That Robs Anyone of Pleasure by Vali Heist
Now What? A Simple Organizing Guide by Diane Quintana
(On the left is TV superstar Geralin Thomas; on the right is my longtime NAPO-Georgia friend and colleague and chronic disorganization specialist, Diane Quintana. They’re flanking the lovely and talented Valentina Sgro, author of the Patience Oaktree novels. Val wasn’t displaying her books, but she came out to support those of us who were!
Organizing Paper at Home: What to Toss and How to Find the Rest by Barbara Hemphill
The A-To-Z of Getting Organized: A Grown-Up Picture Book for the Chaotic and Cluttered by Ramona Creel
Life Cycle Organizing Books
Don’t Toss My Memories in the Trash – A Step-by-Step Guide to Helping Seniors Downsize, Organize and Move by Vickie Dellaquila
The Organized Bride’s Thank You Note Handbook: Let Systems and 101 Modern Sample Thank You Notes Take You from Overwhelmed to Organized by Stacey Agin Murray
Business Organizing Books
57 Secrets for Organizing Your Small Business by Julie Bestry (Hey, that’s Paper Doll!)
Don’t Agonize: Organize Your Office Now by Diane Hatcher
(The indefatigable Diane Hatcher has been keeping South Floridians on their toes since 1998!)
Professional Organizing Business Books and Resources
Before the Big O: Professional Organizers Talk about Life before Organizing by Regina Lark
Custom-Branded Clutter Flow Charts by Hazel Thornton
The Professional Organizer’s Bible: A Slightly Irreverent and Completely Unorthodox Guide for Turning Clutter into a Career by Ramona Creel
Student Organizing Books
What’s the Deal with Teens and Time Management by Leslie Josel
The Academic Planner: A Tool for Time Management by Leslie Josel
(The clever Leslie Josel is a fellow alumna of Cornell University. It’s obligatory that I note: GO BIG RED!)
Psychology Books
Psychic Debris, Crowded Closets: The Relationship Between the Stuff in Your Head and What’s Under Your Bed (2nd Ed., 2014) by Regina Lark
Chronic Disorganization and Hoarding Books
ADD-Friendly Ways to Organize Your Life by Judith Kolberg
Getting Organized in the Era of Endless by Judith Kolberg
Get Rid of Your Stuff Flash Cards by Judith Kolberg
From Hoarding to Hope by Geralin Thomas
Fresh Start: Overcoming Chronic Disorganization Group Manual by Karen Kruzan and Barbara Jo Dennison
Rise Above Your Stuff by Karen Kruzan and Barbara Jo Dennison (This title is new; check back often for an updated link.)
Inspirational Books
Less Clutter, More Life by Barbara Hemphill
Clear the Clutter, Find Happiness by Donna Smallin Kuper
For the Gifts We All Come Bearing by Jane Campbell
Time Management Resources
The Streamlined Time Solution by Miriam Ortiz y Pino
Until 2016…
I believe that the resurgence of a NAPO authors’ booth (we had one a decade ago, but it fell by the wayside) under the auspices of the Authorship and Publishing SIG is good for everyone. Professional organizers will be inspired by their colleagues to share their advice, which will, in turn, give the public more of an opportunity to see a wider variety organizing and productivity concepts and strategies presented by new voices and in different styles.
I’m inclined to believe that the authors of the above books — experts all, on productivity and organization — help bring that belief closer to reality.
Tax-Time Freebies To Keep You Organized
Have you already finished your taxes? Just starting them? Are you inching your way towards finishing them, and looking around you to find that you have a mountain of papers ready to shred?
March and April, collectively considered “tax time,” is the perfect opportunity to clear out your file folders, your desk drawers, your purses and wallets and pockets, and shred all the receipts and documents you don’t need to support your taxes.
Of course, if you’re not sure what you need to keep and what you’re able to toss or shred, Paper Doll has you covered with a detailed records retention schedule, Do I Really Have To Keep This Piece of Paper? Once you know what needs to be shredded, start gathering up the piles.
Three-inch stacks of cable bills dating back to your first apartment? Ciao!
That mountain of receipts from the coffee truck outside your building? Gone!
Frequent flyer loyalty mile statements from airlines that long ago merged with the big guys to become a super-mega airline? Buh-bye!
Dating back to the classic Paper Doll post, Shredding the Documents: Find Your Shredding Solution, we’ve talked about how essential it is to shred items that you no longer need for tax, legal or proof-of-ownership purposes, because merely tossing them in the trash could put you at risk for identity theft.
If you’ve got a great shredder, then shred away, one small pile at a time (because unless you’ve got an industrial-strength shredder, more than a short stack at a time will cause your residential shredder to overheat).
However, if the to-shred stack is as tall as your favorite little tax deduction — I mean third-grader — then you need to upgrade your shred game. And you have a few options!
PRESS THE EASY BUTTON
You know all about the Staples Easy Button, right? What could be easier than handing off your piles of unneeded, unwanted papers and having them magically destroyed…for free?
Head over to this Staples’ link to a coupon to shred up to 5 pounds of paper for FREE! Since it’s for shredding, the coupon is obviously valid in-store only. So, go to the link, print the coupon, bring it to your favorite Staples store along with your massive pile of excess papers to shred. Once the shred center folks at Staples take everything off your hands, present the coupon at checkout.
Of course, there’s some small print: Offer valid through 5/2/15 in-store only. Discount applies to shredding services of up to five pounds. Limit one per customer, nontransferable. May not be combined with any other coupon. No cash/credit back. Not valid on prior purchases.
HEAD DOWN TO THE DEPOT TO GET SAVINGS TO THE MAX
OK, corny, I know, but now that Office Max and Office Depot are one big happy family, you know that they’re not going to forget your need for shredding those monster piles.
Head over to the Office Depot/Office Max Tax Page and scroll to the bottom. Click on the link that looks like this:
and it’ll yield an actual coupon you can print (or bring in on your phone, tablet or other mobile device). Note: this coupon is for shredding up to two pounds of paper, and for a narrower time frame, from now through 4/25/15.
This photo is just a facsimile. (Check the actual coupon for the official small print.) So, click on the above link, print it out (or securely save it to your device in Dropbox or Evernote or whatever), gather up your shredding and get that pile of paper clutter out of your office or off your dining room table.
Declutter, protect your identity, and save money? Paper Doll thinks tax day just got a little less taxing!
Paper Doll Gets Hooked on GeckoTech and Meets a Spy: A Shoplet Review
Periodically Paper Doll reviews new and established office supplies and accessories through the Shoplet Product Review Program.
A few years ago, I wrote the post If It Quacks Like a Duck Then It Might Be a Zebra, a Shoplet review of wackily-patterned Duck®-brand tape. Today, we’re looking at a different kind of quacker, a gecko that thinks it’s a duck.
HOOKING UP THE USUAL SUSPECTS
We professional organizers like to recommend vertical storage because it makes efficient use of otherwise underutilized empty wall/door/cabinet space. For example, we’ve previously talked about vertical file storage options that let you make use of walls in office, cubicles and even hotels. But sometimes you don’t need a big, fancy organizing tool. Sometimes, to hang a backpack or a coat, car keys or a flash drive, a nice hook will do.
When we talk about hanging things on hooks, we usually consider four solutions: nails, suction cups, adhesive-backed hooks, and 3M’s Command®-brand. Each has advantages and drawbacks:
- Nails are inexpensive — you can get a pound of them for about $3. But you also have to have a stud-finder to make sure you aren’t hammering that nail into a random piece of sheet rock, and a nail is a rather permanent solution to what might be a temporary need, especially if you’re a renter (or you redo your décor with any frequency).
- Suction cups with hooks on them seem like a great idea at first. We use them to hang squeegees and soaps-on-ropes in the shower and rainbow-glass knickknacks on our windows. But we don’t use them for heavy-duty stuff because experience tells us that the minute a suction cup gets lint-y or dusty, it pops off the window or wall.
- Plastic hooks with adhesive backing are fairly easy to place — they come with the spongy adhesive tab already affixed to the hook, and you just have to figure out where to plant it, and then remove the backing from the other side and stick it! But woe onto you if you put too much weight on a plastic hook or ever want to remove it. Chances are good that your paint job will be ruined or the spongy-sticky adhesive residue will stay behind. Good luck getting your security deposit back!
- Command®-brand hooks are great! They’re relatively easy to put in place, and are easily removed without damage to whatever surface you select. And let’s face it, they’ll hold anything, for just about forever. It’s usually my go-to option. However, although the hooks themselves are reusable, after you use up the original and spare adhesive tabs, you have to buy more.
Hence, today’s products for review. I received two: one three-pound and one five-pound capacity new breed of Reusable Hook.
THE BASICS
GeckoTech Reusable Hooks are different. No nails. No gummy adhesive. No complicated directions. And while yes, they use suction, this is not your bathtub squeegee/rainbow prism-holding suction cup.
The GeckoTech Reusable Hooks come in four weight-bearing capacities and in five packaging varieties:
- Four hooks per package, each with up to 1/2-pound (.22 kg) capacity
- Two hooks per package, each with up to one pound (.45 kg) capacity
- One hook per package, each with up to three pounds (1.3 kg) capacity
- Two hooks per packages, each with up to 3 pounds (1.3 kg) capacity
- One hook, each with up to five pounds (2.3 kg) capacity
Each hook has a large, flat, smooth, transparent surface backing from which the small, plastic hook protrudes. The backing is flexible, and while the front feels smooth, the reverse, the part that is flush with the wall or other vertical surface, is covered with itty-bitty, teeny-weeny micro-suction, invisible thingies and feels kind of gummy, though it leaves no residue.
It’s also waterproof!
GeckoTech Reusable Hooks adhere to painted surfaces that can resist stains and are easy to clean — so, not textured or matte-finish surfaces. But it also works on plasterboard, glass, laminate, stainless steel and other smooth, hard, non-porous surfaces. They don’t recommend using it on wallpaper or textured surfaces — like the bumpy, stucko-like walls of Paper Doll HQ. (You should also avoid surfaces that are “dirty, uneven, peeling or coarse.” No surprises there, eh?)
GeckoTech Reusable Hooks run between $3.42 and $4.50 per package.
HOW GECKOTECH “INSTALLS”
Using the GeckoTech Reusable Hooks is pretty easy, even for the all-thumbs brigade at Paper Doll HQ:
- Clean the vertical surface with rubbing alcohol and allow to dry.
- Affix the GeckoTech to the vertical surface and use your fingers to push out any air bubbles. Wait an hour.
- Hang your stuff.
The packaging also advises to apply hooks when the surface temperature is between 40°F and 100°F, so no trying this in Buffalo garages when you’re bored at home on a snow day, OK?
GeckoTech claims to be “over-engineered” to hold more than the weight capacity listed for any given size, so the weight on the label seems like a safe limit to which you should adhere.
It’s right in the name — the product is removable. So, put it too high, or too low, or decide three months later that you’re packing up and moving to Miami to get away from harsh winters, and you can remove it with no muss, no fuss, and no damage. And then you can put it up somewhere else!
HOW GECKOTECH “UN-INSTALLS”
Peel off corner of the backing and lift it from the wall. That’s all!
OK, that’s not entirely all. If the GeckoTech hook has been up for more than 30 days, the packaging advises blowing a hair dryer at the hook to warm it for a moment before removing. That really is all.
HOW GECKOTECH “RE-INSTALLS”
Wash the hook with warm, soapy water. Let it air dry. Reuse.
GECKOTECH VS. THE OTHER GUYS
So how do the GeckoTech Reusable Hooks stack up against the other methods we’ve considered?
From the other reviews I’ve seen, as well as the promises on the packaging, the micro-suction that the backing doohickey creates means there’s no damage to the surface left behind, and no residue. So, that knocks nails and those plastic, sticky-backed hooks out of contention.
The promised weight-bearing seems accurate, so unlike the rainbow-prism colored glass suction-cup hook on the glass balcony door at Casa Paper Doll (the one that pops off the glass about once a month), this gecko stays stuck.
I only tried hanging a few household items (below), but from the looks of it on Pinterest, the GeckoTech Reusable Hooks work for corralling everything from pot lids on the inside of kitchen cabinets to holiday decorations on the mantel to the inside of a school or gym locker.
I’d say GeckoTech is pretty on-par with my beloved Command®-brand hooks for sticktoitiveness, and because GeckoTech is waterproof and lays flat against the vertical surface, it has a few added advantages — you can use these hooks in the shower without worry about soap-scum build-up.
THE VERDICT
I really did enjoy my chance to try out the GeckoTech. I liked that it was smooth and flat against any vertical surface. There’s no way for dust or schmutz to get in behind the hook, so you don’t have to worry about aerosolized oil in the kitchen (not that Paper Doll cooks) or stray yuckiness. You can remove, clean and re-apply these hooks at any time.
I also liked that because they are transparent, you don’t have to worry about color clashes in upscale rooms. Are these hooks gorgeous? No, but except for comparing them with the fanciest of Command®-brand hooks (like the brushed nickel types), this gecko is unobtrusive.
But there were some shortcomings. The maximum weight the strongest of these babies can handle is only five pounds, and that’s just not enough for a full backpack, or a workout bag with two-pound weights, or most purses. (Paper Doll‘s purse, below, is 3 pounds, shown hanging from a five-pound GeckoTech hook.)
The GeckoTech worked fine holding a curling iron by its hanging loop, but although my fancy hair dryer is under two pounds, I didn’t quite feel confident to hang it from the three-pound hook, even for a test. (User flaw rather than product flaw, perhaps?)
GeckoTech is a win, in general, but I’d like to see even bigger ones with more weight-bearing capacity. I’m not sure at what point structural integrity would hamper this simple design, but I’d be eager to see the line expand.
007 HAS NOTHING ON HP260
The other item Shoplet provided for my review was Duck®-brand HP260 High Performance Packing Tape with a built-in dispenser. As I’ve already reviewed Duck®-brand packaging tape, I wasn’t sure what could be new. It’s still clear (“crystal clear,” the packaging reports) and yes, the 3.1mm wide tape is suitable for all of “your shipping and storage needs.” But it’s packing tape — there are only two kinds, good and lousy, and Duck® makes good tape. So what else?
I read on about the tape’s aggressive acrylic adhesive being superior for wide temperature application: “HP260 features a wide temperature range performance and is resistant to ultraviolet rays which eliminates yellowing and increases shelf life.“ I only had the tape here for a little over a week, and the temperature inside Paper Doll HQ is generally fixed between 68° and 72°. As I didn’t think to have a box shipped from Boston to Bali, I’ll have to take Shoplet and Duck® at their word. But there was one more thing.
HP260 is billed as WHISPER QUIET — and it is! Have you ever noticed how packaging tape is usually pretty squeaky? I don’t know what they’ve done to make this ninja-caliber silent, but it’s completely squeak-free. And you don’t have to take my word for it:
This spy-rated tape comes in 22.2-yard single rolls for $2.77 and multi-packs.
FINAL WORDS
GeckoTech Reusable Hooks and Duck®-brand HP260 High Performance Packaging Tape are available directly from Shoplet, which also carries business promotional products and maintains a (literally and figuratively) colorful blog about cool office supplies. In addition to selling office supplies in North America, Shoplet is a purveyor of office stationery in the UK.
Disclosure: I received these products for review purposes only, and was given no monetary compensation. The opinions, as always, are my own. (Who else would claim them?)
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