Getting a Move On

Whether it's for career, family or education (or this time of year, more likely the end of it), we're reaching the apex of moving season. In fact, while summer is the most popular time for moving, spring may actually be the best time for it. The weather is nice but not sweltering, moving companies aren't charging premium rates yet, and kids are getting out of school. It also may be mandatory in the case of college students graduating and shipping off to start their new career (or, in many cases, returning to their parents' house).

In any event, there are many stages to planning the move. You'll need to take an inventory of what you have, decide whether to hire movers or do the job yourself and notify everybody that needs to know where you're going. There's going to be a lot of paperwork involved with this, so you'll want something to keep it all together like an expandable wallet or accordion file. These are durable, have enclosures and include multiple pockets for classification.

Avery 5-Pocket Expanding File

The inevitable feeling as you pack is that you have too much stuff. Don't spend the day running to the store buying more things. Acquire all your packing essentials in advance. Boxes are obvious. You're gonna need boxes. Don't forget to think about the size of boxes you're looking for. Larger boxes can fit more but are harder to carry, while smaller boxes are easy to carry but can only hold certain items. When buying, this page can help filter your options by size to find the right boxes for you.

Universal Kraft Shipping Cartons

What about packaging materials? When everything, including fragile items like dishware, have to be moved, it takes a great amount of care to make sure nothing gets broken. That's why we recommend packaging materials to serve as cushioning. Make sure you have twine and either bubble wrap, foam wraps or Styrofoam peanuts to lessen the rigors of travel on your fine china.

If you're moving on your own, can you or your friends lift everything? If not, a dolly or hand truck makes life considerably easier and makes the move that much faster. Other items that will come in handy are a black marker for labeling the contents of all these boxes, proper packaging tape for sealing the boxes securely, and a utility knife for opening them once the move is complete.

A Stand For Workplace Health

It's not news that we as a country are getting less healthy. Obesity is on the rise, owing in part to a more sedentary lifestyle. Quite simply, we're not active enough and it's affecting our health. Exercise and proper diet can help, of course, but a new approach to office work is attacking the problem by cutting down on an unhealthy activity that has become essential to many jobs- sitting.

Sitting for long stretches slows metabolism and leaves people at risk for heart disease, diabetes and other life-shortening ailments. Unfortunately, that's just what many of us have to do everyday at our jobs. While proper posture and an ergonomically friendly desk will cut down on eyestrain, back pain and wrist injuries, it doesn't reduce the risk of long-term problems. As a result of these studies, one of the latest office trends is installing workstations that reduce or eliminate sitting entirely.

Safco Stand-Up Workstation

Ergonomics are still in play, of course. The keyboard should remain at elbow level, the top of the monitor should be just below your eyes and at an angle, and try not to slouch. This buying guide will help sort out different options for standing desks. In particular, how to tackle the obvious fatigue problem. Standing all day will wear you out, so having a stool or a surface to do some sitting work is important.

Even if you're not ready to make the jump to a standing workstation, there are routines you can get into that promote good health. Stand up and walk around every twenty minutes. Add more walking by parking farther away and taking stairs instead of the elevator. The site Compliance & Safety has a graphic with several exercises you can do while at work. Doing these is not only a break from sitting, they also stretch out various muscles.

C&S Workplace Workout

Now that the weather's getting warmer, another healthy tip is to bike or walk to work if you live close enough to your job.

Gift Card From Tombow

We love Tombow products around here. Not that that's controversial. Their adhesive dispensers and associated refills are best-selling products and their correction tape dispensers have been described as the Cadillac of correction tape. It doesn't take much prompting to get us to gush about their products, but some recent developments has us even more eager to talk about them.

Tombow Mono Adhesive Dispenser

Tombow actually sells two versions of its popular adhesive tape. There's a version that you would buy in office supply stores, targeted towards creating presentation displays. Then there's a version sold in craft stores, aimed at scrapbookers. It's all the same stuff, just with different packaging, and Tombow has come to the realization that doing this was kinda silly. So they're phasing out the office version, the ever-popular TOM62201 dispenser and its TOM62202 refill, and selling the same thing everywhere. Equality for the win!

This is fantastic news because while it's the same tape we all love, the Craft Collection version, model TOM62106 with refill TOM62107, has 33 percent more tape on each roll. That means more bang for your buck for all your scrapbooking and office needs. The Craft Collection refills will still fit the TOM62201 dispenser and work just as well.

Tombow Craft Collection Adhesive Dispenser

Best of all, from now until July, ordering $50 or more of eligible Tombow products will net you a $10 gift card from a number of popular retailers and restaurants. A $100 purchase gets you a $25 gift card! Check out this page for the rebate form and a list of eligible products. Most correction tape products are on the list, as are the Craft Collection adhesives, making this the perfect time to switch for those used to ordering the TOM62202 refills.

Simplifying Filing

The hardest part in having a proper, functioning filing system is developing the groundwork. It's easy enough to conceive a system, but unless it is ideal for your office and without the right supplies and storage options, it won't work. A good system not only gets the job done, it is simple, logical and effortless enough that you'll stick with it. The first step is making sure the right folders are in the right place every time.

The first thing to determine is how often files need to be retrieved. This can help determine whether an end tab or top tab system is right for you. Either way, this guide can help you find the folders you need. End tab filing systems stack on a shelf along the wall, making both the folders and their labels readily visible for everybody to access. These are perfect for reception areas, particularly at clinics or offices where all employees need to pull client files quickly.

Files that aren't recalled as often should go into hanging file systems. These are top tab folders that hang on rails built into most cabinets and pedestal files. Files meant for one employee or a household should go into a pedestal file that fits under the desk (frames are available for drawers without rails). General company files that everybody may need access to or that accumulate over time should go into a central filing cabinet.

 

Lateral Filing Cabinet

Vertical filing cabinets take up less space but are harder to retrieve files- use these for archives that won't need to be recalled often. Since lateral files keep all files closer to the floor and are filed from side to side, they are easier to retrieve and should be used with items that are more likely to be needed again. While large stacks in a single folder may defeat the purpose of organizing papers, use box bottom folders when it's necessary. Box Bottom folders are reinforced at the bottom and will support more weight.

Files that a single user will refer to frequently shouldn't be stuffed into a cabinet at all, but that doesn't mean they can't be organized. Desktop file sorters or frames keep top-tab folders straight on the desk. Using hanging files here will make it even easier if these folders will eventually find their way into a cabinet.

Rolodex Mesh File

With any of these options, labels are vital. Find hanging file folders that include tabs and inserts to keep them properly identified, while both top-tab and end-tab systems can benefit from color coded labels that make the right type of file easy to spot.

Shredders Simplified

For businesses of any size, shredding is a hassle. Every company has discarded information that needs to remain confidential, but the legal mandates for maintaining privacy are so strict that we grow to resent the need to render documents “unrecognizable or beyond reconstruction.” It leaves us wondering who's rooting through our trash and if our current shredding work is enough to guard against someone with enough free time and plenty of Scotch tape. There's time to spare for such paranoia, as feeding papers into a shredder is far more dull than anything involving loud, destructive machinery has any right to be.

It is, however, a vital part of business and must be given proper consideration. The problem isn't that shredding is necessary. Companies open themselves up to identity theft, lawsuits and corporate espionage when the job isn't done. The problem is that failing to properly address a company's unique shredding needs is a waste of time and money. For example, one popular and easy solution is off-site shredding, where another company picks up your documents and shreds them for you. Not only can that be expensive, how secure can you really feel when something that you are responsible for destroying leaves your offices intact? If anything goes wrong, you're still on the hook for it.

Shredding documents internally offers peace of mind and is more affordable, but only if the shredders you purchase are suited for your needs. An insufficient shredder means that employees will spend far too much time feeding papers, emptying bins and dealing with jams. A low-end model that can be tossed under a desk for an individual to use isn't going to cover an entire department.

Personal vs. Department Shredders

This buying guide helps you find the shredder that offers not only the right level of security for your business, but also the number of sheets that can be shred at a time. For a cross-cut shredder, units that can accept 10 sheets are fine for individual desks and households, 12-14 sheets are recommended for small offices, while larger offices and departments should use shredders that can handle 20-30 sheets at a time. Micro-cut shredders, which create very small particles and may be required for destroying extremely sensitive information, accept fewer sheets per pass.

Swingline Stack and Shred

To really save on labor, consider Swingline's Stack and Shred model, where up to 100 sheets can be inserted into the machine, which will lock them inside and shred them while an employee can go back to work. Other innovative options that may appeal to you are the strong high capacity shredders from Martin Yale's Intimus line, the jam prevention features developed by Fellowes, and the GoEcoLife series of shredders that are both functional and environmentally friendly.

Winter Weather Advisory

We're right in the midst of winter right now, and offices in colder regions have a lot to contend with. Snowstorms can make it difficult for both employees and customers to arrive. Businesses need a proper policy on closures, working with a reduced staff and making sure slow days are accounted for and workers stay safe. Any sort of precipitation brings unwanted snow, water and dirt into the office, which can be a mess to clean up. A proper system of outdoor and indoor mats can reduce dirt and save floors. Finally, cold weather means jackets for everybody, which requires storage space that should be incorporated into the room's design rather than a seasonal eyesore.

Since weather events are inevitable, policies should be set in advance to cover them. This guide outlines some of the basic questions to answer in this policy, and additional factors such as parents dealing with school closures and the prospect of working from home should be considered.

However, just because a blizzard doesn't happen every day doesn't make snow, rain and cold temperatures any less routine. The wetter and dirtier the natural elements are, the more likely it is that they will be tracked into your office. Without proper floor mats, it's estimated that a thousand people over twenty days can track 24 pounds of dirt. It only takes 1,500 people to strip away almost half of a floor's finish in that time.

Outdoor vs. Indoor Mats

The solution involves the proper use of both outdoor and indoor mats, both spanning the width of your entrance. Outdoor mats do the bulk of the work, scraping shoes to take care of the dirt. These mats are usually rubber or polypropylene surfaces with a reservoir underneath to hold dirt and water. Indoor mats use polypropylene, nylon or olefin fibers to wipe the shoes off, giving them one last clean and drying them properly before they enter the office.

For a better way to give employees a place to put their coats, consider whether you use a central area, an enclosed closet, or if each person hangs coats near his or her own workstation. Central areas use coat trees or garment racks, which should be part of the room's décor. Wet climates will also want one with an umbrella holder. An alternative is a wall rack that can fit somewhere out of the way. Employees hanging coats up in their office will need a hook for their wall or cubicle, which again can be incorporated into the room.

Coat Racks On Display

Check out our buying guide to see our full selection of racks, hooks and hangers.

A Binder Breakdown

A new year is upon us, and companies around the country have visions of good fortunes in 2013. As we look ahead towards good times, we recognize all the hard work in store for everybody. For many, that means preparing presentations, training new employees, and filing away 2012. Three very different tasks, but what's one thing they have in common? If you said that they all commonly rely on binders, well done for reading the title of this post.

Or Scrolling Down Far Enough To See This Image

Think about that for a moment- one job involves impressing clients, one involves making a lot of information easily accessible and one involves indexing records that may or may not ever be seen again. Yes, one office supply can bind them all, but why use the same binder for several jobs when different kinds of binders are better suited for each of these tasks?

The most basic type of binder is the reference binder. They don't have much style (barring a few exceptions), but they are inexpensive and available in several colors. They're perfect for internal use such as company handbooks, procedures, job training, troubleshooting and any other records that are frequently viewed and updated. Storage binders are the big uglies of filing. These are designed to hold large quantities, often using gapless or slant rings, and are built to hold for years in a drawer or on a shelf. Some are designed to hang from filing cabinets, similar to hanging file folders. Data binders and post binders store computer printouts, larger sheet sizes and even more pages.

Wilson Jones Hanging Storage Binders (Not For Presentations)

Presentations and reports have a completely different set of criteria. Presentation binders are all about combining affordability in large quantities with creating a positive impression even before it's opened, which means a clear cover to allow you to insert a title sheet and/or a spine insert. Binders are also available in a smaller capacity such as 1/2” rings. The tradeoff is that presentation binders are commonly built for short-term usage, meaning they aren't suited for storage or frequent reference.

Avery Design Edge Presentation Binder (Not For Storage)

Alternatives to traditional binders include flexible binders made of clear plastic and easel binders that fold into easels to add an instant visual element to your presentations. For help finding the perfect binder for you, this binder buying guide will help sort products by size and ring type.