Declutter and Save!

Today is the last day to take advantage of our Declutter and Save promotion! In it, you’ll find sales, coupons and rebates designed to help you free your work space of extra papers and supplies.

Victor Desk Organizer

Finding a good desktop organizer is tricky. It’s easy to splurge on the largest unit that has all the space you need, but that can lead to the organizer itself taking too big a footprint. You’re trying to streamline your desk to have as little on it as necessary, and an organizer filled with supplies you don’t use regularly only adds to the clutter. An organizer only needs to have space for what you use all the time, whether pens, note pads, or even a calculator if don’t want it on the desk itself. This Victor model on sale even holds your phone. Plan ahead, think about how many compartments you actually need, and don’t go for file sorters unless you refer to multiple classifications of folders regularly. Your desktop should never be a final destination for papers.

Safco Wire Cube Shelving

Whether in your office or your home, wire shelving is an easy way to get clutter off floors and desks while still remaining accessible. They’re easy to install, support plenty of weight, and can be used to hold everything from food to cleaning supplies to paper records. We have several shelving options on sale to fit your needs, along with accessories like liners, casters, or posts for expansion.

Safco 6-Gallon Trash Can

Finally, perhaps the most important tool to decluttering is a well-placed trash can. Make sure you have both a trash can and a recycling bin within reach of any place you do paperwork. Even having to slide your chair or lean over to throw something out adds an obstacle that shouldn’t be there. The easier it becomes to get rid of something, the less likely you’ll leave unnecessary papers around.

Once again, the Declutter and Save promotion ends today!

Rebate Roundup! Cash Back for Getting Organized

On top of all the great savings we normally offer, our rebate page is a chance to earn even more back. Opportunities to claim free items, gift cards, and even cash are available from manufacturers if you buy the right items and fill out the information. Here are three rebates available through the first quarter of 2017 that will reward you for getting organized.

Presto Storage Box

Bankers Box is always a go-to choice for archiving files and creating stackable storage. Both the Presto and Mystic series feature boxes that assemble in an instant, leaving less busy work and more time filling them and cleaning out desks and cabinets. They even feature locking lids, preventing boxes from accidentally opening and threatening its contents. Now, ordering $100 of one of the two earns you a cash rebate- $25 for Mystic boxes and $30 for Presto boxes!

Through the end of April, Swingline, Quartet, and Cambridge are running a flexible rebate program on a number of their items including dry erase boards, staplers, and shredders. The amount you earn back increases the more you buy, but will be about 10% cash back. Bigger departmental shredders have their own rebate offers, going up as high as $750! A wide variety of products are available, making this a great way to pick up several different kinds of office essentials and accessories.

Victor Monitor Stand

Victor is rewarding desk organization with a free gift. Right now, you can earn a free pencil holder by ordering one of seven qualifying products- options include monitor risers that add storage space under your screen, a printer stand with trays for paper and accessories, and desktop organizers with up to five compartments. Like the Fellowes rebate, the Victor offer lasts until the end of March.

Check our our rebate page for a full list of all the great offers!

Supplies For Staying Efficient On the Job

Sometimes it feels like there’s too much work to do and not enough time to get it done. When the pile gets too high, it’s easy to panic, which can slow things down further. Instead, take a step back and think of ways to be more efficient and handle the load better. Building off our prior advice for setting goals and organizing your work space, putting them together can set you on the road to efficient habits. Having the right stock of supplies helps too. Here are two tools to help you get the most out of your time.

C-Line Shop Ticket Holder

Shop ticket holders have been around forever and were designed for warehouses, factories, and other large facilities with a lot of workers constantly on the move. Holders have holes for hanging and sheets can easily be swapped in and out. They also have a hidden feature making them perfect for using at your desk: the vinyl covers work as a dry-erase surface. You can use them to make reusable checklists, to-do lists combining routine tasks with unique jobs, or any assignment where you have to answer the same questions repeatedly. Just insert a sheet with the parts that stick around and write whatever is temporary. You’ll even avoid desk clutter by hanging it on your wall.

Victor 1180-3A Desktop Calculator

We’ve emphasized clearing your desk of all but the daily essentials. You might think shoving off a calculator is a smart move. After all, you’ve got one on your computer and your phone. But if you are regularly playing with numbers, especially outside of spreadsheets, you’ll want to keep it around and it may even stay on your desk. Pulling a calculator app on your computer pulls you away from the window you’re working on and opens another one. Your monitor(s) should be treated like your desk with only the important stuff on it at any given moment. Meanwhile, your phone is a minefield of potential distractions. Keep a desktop calculator within reach, preferably one with nice big buttons like the Victor 1180-3A, so you can make quick calculations without leaving your screen or losing focus.

More Organization Tips To Maintain a Functional Desk

Previously, we suggested a few products from our Organization page to help clear papers off your desk. It’s easy to see these suggestions and follow them for a few days, but without a good system and routines in place, the clutter may find its way back. To stay organized for the long haul, there are important steps to take.

Look at all of the office supplies you have on your desk. Do you have a stapler? A tape dispenser? A holder full of paper clips, pushpins, or extra pens? All of these are good to have around, of course. But think about how often you actually use them. If it’s not every day, why is it out in the open? Your desk surface should be limited only to items that are always in use. Reserve a drawer, preferably a top drawer, for important supplies that might be used a couple times a week. That makes them just as easy to get to, but frees up desk space for getting work done and creates more incentive for keeping it clear. A desk already full of unnecessary items makes it easier to excuse more of a mess.

Carver Hardwood Letter Tray

If you have a lot of papers coming in, you probably already have some sort of letter tray. If not, it can be a good way to process incoming work. The key words here are "can" and "process." The trick to managing a letter tray is never to put anything back in there once you look at it. Once you take it out, either deal with it right away or mark it with Post-It flags as discussed before. A good strategy would be to assign colors based on urgency and importance, and whether the paper itself ultimately needs to be archived (and how accessible it will need to be) or if it can be tossed once the work is done. Once marked, put it in your file box or a To-Do folder- somewhere you can get to regularly but where its contents won’t distract you while you’re working on something else. Refresh your To-Do pile frequently and clear out your letter tray daily.

Lysol Disinfecting Wipes

Making a habit of regular cleaning is a good way to promote organization. It’s a good task for Friday when you’re counting the minutes until the weekend. Cleaning your entire desk surface with a disinfecting wipe is a great way to prevent the spread of disease, but is also easier when the desk is clear. You’ll be encouraged to put stuff away, might find loose notes that can be discarded, and challenges you to think about how useful everything on your desk is. By keeping it on your mind regularly and making constant assessments and adjustments, you can keep your desk clean and free of distractions and use it for getting work done instead of storage.

Sales and Coupons to Help You Get Organized

Everybody can stand to be more organized. Knowing where things are and where things go is an easy way to be more productive and maintain a less cluttered work space. Without a comfortable system, you can end up wasting time looking for things, missing important memos and deadlines, and feeling trapped by all the paperwork. This month we have several sales, coupons and rebates on products designed to help you sort everything out.

Post-It Flags

Let’s start with loose papers. If there are random sheets of paper around the desk, you can’t tell at first glance whether they require action or provide information or can be archived or tossed. Post-It flags are an easy way to at least spell that out. With a color-coded system, all you need to do is stick the right color flag on each paper as you see it and you’ll at least have a sense of what everything is, even if you aren’t able to get to it right away.

Smead Expanding File Box

The ultimate objective, of course, is to clear your desk of papers. Once the work is done and papers are no longer needed, it’s easy enough to stash them in a file cabinet or toss them completely. When paperwork still needs to be done or may need to be recalled quickly, to the point where you’re tempted to keep them on the desk, try a file box. Similar to an expanding file, file boxes have plenty of compartments for organizing and archiving papers. These, however, have an overhead flap and sit upright, so you can keep it on your desk and open it easily for quick retrieval of any files you may need. You can put all your to-do work in the front pocket and it’ll be just as accessible as anything on your desk. It’s even portable for working on the go.

Check out our page to see all of our organization deals. Right now, find a coupon for a free Stow Away Crate with an order of $150!

Setting Your 2017 Goals

Every new year, people make resolutions to... well, usually forget about a couple weeks. It’s always a good idea to think of ways to improve or advance yourself, and every new year is a time to think about that. But for it to come to anything, even the process of coming up with goals takes more thought and more structure. That’s the key to framing your plans in such a way that will motivate you to fulfill them.

Start by writing down everything you want to do this year. They could be important steps in your long-term career goals, recreational plans like visiting somewhere you’ve always wanted to see, or even something as simple as reading a particular book. The trick is to be specific and create a goal that you can look back on later and have no doubt whether or not you achieved it. Ideally, these goals don’t rely on too many outside influences or luck.

Bic Fine Point Permanent Markers

If you’re writing them out by hand, consider using different colors for each goal (or at least divide them into type like professional, family, or personal). It’s about improving your life; why not be colorful? This will help for the next part: think about how you’re going to do all this. You’ll find that most of these goals require specific steps to take that will get you closer to them- complete the proposal, research flights to your dream location, buy the book. Write these down in the same color. Do these have steps too? Continue going until you have a bunch of smaller, manageable tasks all building up to your big goals.

The next step is to set deadlines for all of these and add them to your calendar. If they aren’t time sensitive, spread them around the year so you’ll always have something to work on. If they involve a regular commitment, write it down whenever it’s needed. You’ll see your planner fill up with little goals, giving you something to work on every week, or perhaps even every day. Now you have a list of little things to do frequently that will lead to bigger and better achievements down the road.

The important thing to remember is to stay motivated to stick to your list. If you ever find yourself not wanting to do a task, imagine the big goal and decide if it’s worth the commitment. It’s okay to realize it isn’t and scratch something that may not be as important to you as you originally thought. It’s also okay to add more goals as you come up with them. Finally, feel free to make adjustments as alternate paths to your goal open up or setbacks require a new approach. Stay flexible, but stay committed until you hit the end!

Gear Up with Organizational Items for 2017

The new year is almost upon us! The change in calendars marks a good time to think about the clutter you've got around the house and your workspace. More inevitably will come in during 2017, so being able to manage, organize and filter out paperwork and other space-eating items might be the first test of the new year. This organization page will help generate some ideas, with great deals on space-saving and item-identifying products you may need before settling into the new year.

Lorell SOHO Vertical File

Every household needs a filing cabinet to store important records. If you don't have one yet, or need to upgrade, consider picking up one of our models. This will offer you space to file documents, either by year or by category, and have them easily accessible when you need them. If records need to be retained but don't need to be instantly available, stock up on Bankers Boxes to store folders and other important documents.

Dymo LetraTag Thermal Printer

If tidying up for the new year leaves you with a bunch of boxes, consider a Dymo thermal label printer to identify everything. These printers are portable and easy to use with a keyboard and variable sizes and fonts available. Use it for boxes, cabinets, or any other place a personalized label will help keep you organized.

Other organizational items on sale include shelving units, desktop reference systems, file sorters and more! The sale runs through the end of the year.

Balancing Work, Family, and Holiday Obligations

As the holiday season reaches its culmination, life may be getting pretty hectic as you try to get work done with limited hours while also finishing holiday preparations with seemingly no free time. Balancing everything without losing your mind is a delicate job that needs to be approached as such. There are a number of steps to take that can help ensure that you manage of all of your end-of-year obligations at work and at home, while still being able to enjoy the holidays and the time they should afford.

At-A-Glance Weekly Planner

You probably already use some sort of calendar, whether it be a handsome bound organizer, a wall calendar, or the calendar app on your phone. All have advantages. Paper calendars may be easier to compile from hand-written lists and reward you with the lovely satisfaction of crossing each task off upon completion. Apps put your schedule at your fingertips and can be synchronized with your email, or with your family or co-workers' calendars. No matter what you use, be comprehensive and include everything- not just your professional obligations. You may feel silly putting shopping or your family's traditional It's A Wonderful Life watch in the same planner as lunch with a client, but this way the time gets blocked out and you're showing commitment. They're both important.

Another key to enjoying downtime with family is to cut back on things that sound fun but are more work than they're worth. Are there parties you only attend out of a sense of obligation? Are you offering to host a gathering that doesn't feel rewarding? Is there a family/office tradition that nobody in the family/office actually enjoys? Try to cut them out of the schedule. Politely decline, suggest alternatives, and get as many unfestive festivities off the schedule. Any shortcuts, whether they be online shopping, potluck dinners or teleconferences, help save time as well.

Once all that remains on your schedule is the truly enjoyable and the truly unavoidable, commit to whatever's on it at the moment. While you're at work, worry about getting your projects finished instead of the gifts you still need to buy. Ideally, you have time budgeted for them. The opposite is true too: don't spend family time trying to get ahead on your work. Relax and enjoy the peace you've afforded yourself. As demanding as the holidays can be, there's no better time to step away from work for a while and spend time recharging and being with those you love. That can only work if you believe in it.

Classroom Essentials For Schools and Teachers

As we near August, it's time for schools to restock their classroom supplies. While much of the attention will be paid to replenishing paper or markers and other obvious essentials, it's also a good time to think about ways to make the classroom more efficient without draining the budget. OfficeSupply.com has several items and categories to explore that makes teaching easier while saving schools money.

Pacon Classroom Keepers Mailbox

Literature organizers are a nice start, serving as a simple and affordable mailbox for individual class members. Teachers can put assignments, graded papers, or other notes and comments in boxes, or students can use them to turn in homework. Organizers are sold with different pocket counts, so the right product can be ordered based on the class size. It's an example of the many organizers and sorters around. You can also consider a sorter that organizes papers or magazines and sits on the desk, wall or floor. There are also reference systems that put protected pages of paper in a convenient display for easy access.

Trend Calendar Bulletin Board Set

One function of the classroom is to promote a positive learning environment. Putting thought into classroom decor is an important step. Whether it's decorations, posters, or bulletin board sets, you can create a fun atmosphere that emphasizes lessons. Charts and calendars help track important information, dates, and incentives in a way that's easy for students to understand.

Teachers should also think about ways to keep themselves organized. Shop for specialized class management tools like record books and other accessories. Also, a desk is still a desk, and organizers for both the desktop and the drawer will help keep the clutter under control and make sure you don't lose precious time trying to find your materials.