This is the time of year when people start focusing on cleaning and janitorial items - it's cold and flu season - and keeping things clean and sanitary.  So when a manufacturer's rep came to see me with a new product line called PAK-IT, I thought it would be a timely topic.

PAK-IT is a new system of cleaners that has a broad product line, encompassing bathroom cleaners, carpet cleaners, glass & hard surface cleaners, all-purpose cleaners, floor cleaners and more.  It's competitors are products such as Windex, Lysol, Pine-Sol, Tilex, Kaboom, Vanish, Resolve, Febreze and Mr. Clean.

I am excited to share another new product with you today and I think it's going to take off like a rocket when people find out it exists.  

Avery has come out with a line of self-laminating labels.  They're called Easy Align Self-Laminating ID Labels (printable) or Durable Self-Laminating ID Labels (hand write). These labels are the solution for the times that you need a durable label or a weather-resistant label.  We've all done the tape thing; you know - covering the label with tape to try to protect it.  (Yes you have.)  This product creates perfectly laminated labels with no laminating machine needed and they are super easy to use.

If there is one thing about my desk that drives me absolutely crazy, it's the tangled jungle of cords underneath.  It's almost incomprehensible to me that I need that many cords to make my one computer work.  And when I get one of those lovely messages like "The network cable is unplugged," I have to hunt to find out which one is the network cable.  Or maybe I know which cable coming out of my monitor is the one I need to fiddle with, but I don't know which one it is in the back of my tower, so I have to jiggle it and look underneath my desk to see which one is moving.  Then I have to quickly jump under the desk and grab it before it stops moving so that I can follow it to the back of the tower.   It's absolutely insane.  (Can you tell I'm not a techie?)

If your work area is a cubicle, you are most likely space-challenged and need tools to store your desk essentials that will maximize the space that you do have.  There are lot of products on the market to help you do just that.

I am a list writer.  I am constantly writing to do lists for both home and work.  My family makes fun of me and my lists sometimes, but it keeps me organized, so when I saw the new To Do Lists from Tops, I thought "Cool!  I'll grab a few pads." 

I don't like having to constantly write the same thing over and over again, so I am a huge fan of stamps.  I have several of them on my desk; some are pre-made and some are custom stamps.  They're very handy and easy to use, but the one thing that I don't like about them is that they take up so much room on my desk.  I used to have a tray that held some of my smaller stamps, but it only fit one size of stamp, so the others still had to sit somewhere on my desk.

Ruth to the Rescue!

(Sorry - if you're not from the Detroit area, you won't get that.)

Meet Stamp Stack®.

Maintaining filing systems can eat up a good portion of your budget.  You need more folders, more tabs, more tab inserts, more interior folders, more labels for the interior folders etc.  Everyone has their own preferences for how they like their filing system set up - I know I do.  Are you a tabber or a labeler?  How do you recycle your file folders?

Buying more of the hanging folder tabs and the inserts to go with them can add up if you have a large or very active filing system.  Likewise, file folder labels can be expensive - they can run between $5 and $35 depending on what kind and what size package you choose.  You can avoid those expenses with erasable file folders - they are available in both hanging file folders and interior folders and they can really save time and money. 

It’s really important to choose the right shredder for your business.  With the rise of identity theft, hacking into company computer systems, and privacy laws, shredding is more important than ever to protect your business. 

Many companies buy inexpensive shredders thinking that they don’t need anything more, or that they just don’t want to spend the money for an expensive machine - but that can be a costly mistake. 

Even if you don't officially have back problems, if you spend 8 or more hours a day sitting at a desk, you're going to have days when your back is bothering you or that chair just doesn't feel good - it goes with the territory.  Many of you will purchase a back support and/or a seat cushion to ease the discomfort.  You get the cushions, put them on your chair and fiddle with them to find the right placement.  Sometimes that's all you need to do, but sometimes they just don't feel right and they don't help.  So you return it and try a different one.

Part of any company’s budget is cleaning and janitorial supplies – also referred to as Jan/San.  Every business needs to put forth a neat, professional appearance for its customers as well as handling normal sanitation like cleaning restrooms and kitchens. 

Even if you outsource the major part to a cleaning company, you still need basic supplies like toilet tissue, facial tissue, dish soap and paper towel and those items can take a bite out of your budget.  We can help you tame that budget with our large selection of jan/san products.  “Office products” used to be just items like pens, pencils and paper, but times have changed and the office products industry now includes so much more than only those types of items.

For many people, one of the most frustrating things about working in an office is the paperwork - piles and piles of paperwork.  Some people like to have it out on their desk where they can see it so that they won't forget about it.  Others like to file it away and have a nice, neat, clean work surface.  They take papers out to use them and then file them back in the drawer when they're done.

Last week I wrote about a nifty little gadget that applies the reinforcement labels for you.   Today's topic is more smart binders and accessories to make your life easier.

There are tons and tons of different configurations of ring binder indexes for you to use to separate the contents of the binder.  But what if you don't want to separate them?  What if you don't want to put them on rings - you want them in the binder so that everything you need is in one place, but you want to be able to just grab them all at once and pull them out? 

What do you do with all the papers you use daily?  If you're like most people, they go a) in a file folder, b) in a desktop tray or sorter or c) in a ring binder.  And if you chose "c'"  what do you do when one of the 3 holes in the paper rips?  Righteo - you apply one of those little adhesive reinforcement labels so you won't lose the paper.

Most offices have some kind of dry-erase board in them.  If you have a board, you need something to use to write on it (duh) and there are seemingly a gazillion brands and styles of dry-erase markers on the market.  And every manufacturer will, of course, tell you that its product is the best one.  

If your company uses name badges for the employees - and if you are the person responsible for ordering them - this article should interest you.  Ordering custom name badges is easy once you have the basics picked out - which color(s), which font, which frame, etc.  After you've made those decisions, it just a matter of providing the name that goes on them. 

There have been so many times that I sat at my desk wishing that I had invented the sticky note or the paper clip - seemingly simple items that made somebody other than me a lot of money.  Why can't I come up with an ingenious idea so I can be filthy rich?  Just think of all the paper clips that are used in all the offices and homes throughout the world - it's staggering.

I've been discussing organization off and on and today I'm going to briefly touch on the topic of labeling.  When I say labeling, the first thing that probably pops into your mind is file folders and there is a multitude of products on the market to assist you with labeling your file folders.  You can buy labels that can be used in a typewriter or labels that go through your office printer or copier.  There are white labels or colored labels, etc.  We all know about those labels and you're probably not interested in reading another article about them, but just hear me out.

If you find yourself constantly writing sticky notes to yourself and putting them on your monitor or your desktop, you may want to consider getting a planning board.

If you find yourself running out of room for notes on your desk calendar, you might want to consider getting a planning board.

If you are involved in projects with coworkers and need a way to keep everyone informed and on track, you might want to consider getting a planning board.

Yes, you read that correctly.  

I think this keyboard is the answer to my problems.  Up until now, it seemed to me that there was no good way to really keep my keyboard clean.  For my home computer, I purchased a keyboard skin - that sounded like a great solution.  I ordered one customized for my particular keyboard and it kept the keyboard in pristine condition - but the skin got grimy after a while and nothing that I used to clean it really worked well.  After a few years, I threw away the skin and went back to using the keyboard by itself.  I dust it, spray with canned air, use keyboard wipes, but still stuff gets in between the keys or on the keys and it's difficult to get it really clean.  Know what I mean?

We live in a world of technology.  We have smart phones, tablets, laptops, mp3 players, iThingies - the list is endless.  And all of those wonderful gadgets need power.  They last for a day and then need to be recharged.  And if you forget to charge it..................................

Problem.