Supplies for Your Last Minute Holiday Shipping Needs

With only a week left until Christmas, you're going to be under the gun to get all of your holiday parcels to their destinations on time. Whether you're shipping packages to distant friends and loved ones or running a small business selling gifts or art online, you can't afford to be late. It's especially harder this year with December 24 falling on a Saturday. This is a bad time to run low on essential packaging supplies, but if you need to restock, we're here to help.

3M Pistol Grip Packing Tape Dispenser

For a limited time, check out our Holiday Shipping Center for great deals, up to 50% off, on packing and shipping essentials. Stock up and save on important items like shipping boxes, packing tape, and Avery address labels. Dymo also has special holiday labels compatible with their label printers. Depending on what you're sending, you may also need mailing tubes or padded mailers to protect the goodies inside.

Dymo M3 Digital Postal Scale

Running a small business or have a lot of gifts or cards to send out? Consider saving some energy with a mailroom scale that will give clear digital readouts so you know how much postage you'll need. Or take advantage of our offers and stock up on bubble wrap, large format envelopes or stretch wrap.

If you need these in a hurry, you're in luck! Most orders arrive in 1-2 business days, so there's just enough time to order your supplies and still get your gifts mailed before the holidays.

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.

Holiday Planning

Yes, it's November already. Yes, you have to start thinking about it. No, you shouldn't wait. The holiday season is approaching and you have to be ready for it.

You don't have to have gifts purchased for everybody on your list yet (although if you are looking, check out this selection of printers, digital cameras and mp3 player accessories), and you should definitely wait before you start blasting the Christmas music, but there are things you can do now to be prepared for the impending festivities.

Time To Get Reacquainted

DiscountOfficeItems.com has created a holiday headquarters covering all of your seasonal needs. You'll find everything you need to package presents and cards such as tape, boxes, envelopes and labels. Make sure you're not caught without when it comes time to get that parcel in the mail. If you're planning a party for your office or your friends, you'll need enough plates, plastic cups, napkins and other party supplies to properly celebrate.

If your office is doing a Secret Santa exchange, do you need something for that special somebody that you vaguely recall seeing in the breakroom once? Check this page for cheap gift ideas that will still put a smile on someone's face.

I Hope Amy in Returns Doesn't Read This Blog

Of course, DiscountOfficeItems.com will be rolling out some amazing Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals in two weeks. In the meantime, every week leading up to the big days, there will be big savings on different products to keep the spirit going.

Hey Spies, Don't Forget the Scotch Tape

Hey all you James Bond wannabes, ready to pack for you next mission as you venture down your career path and gain a license to kill?  Don't forget your funny jet pack, your inflatable coat, your shoe phone, or your radio watch.  Add a new item to your list of spy supplies, Scotch tape.  Just get some of your standard every day tape.  You can get name brand tape or generic tape but just get some packing tape because you need wide tape.  Now as you are sneaking about an office building, if you see some frosted glass you'd like to peak through and have access to the side that has been treated, simply apply the tape to the treated side and you'll have mostly translucent glass.

YouTube Video Showing the Process

The science behind it isn't very interesting.  Frosted glass is usually created by treating one side so it is no longer smooth.  The bumps and ridges in the treated side don't allow light to shine through perfectly.  Applying the adhesive from the tape to the bumps and ridges gives the glass a smooth surface again and allows you to see more clearly than before.  People report, and I believe them, that using any liquid on the surface will give the same general effect.

Scotch Shipping Tape.  Cheaper than an Aston Martin DB5

We don't have any frosted glass in our office.  We don't have windows in the bathroom, and there just aren't many interior windows to begin with that would need some privacy.  But I really really wanted to try this out.  Luckily I had some beach glass on my desk and of course I had a role of transparent tape.  So I dutifully attempted to apply tape to both sides of a curved piece of glass and see the results.  Unfortunately, I didn't make a whole lot of headway and small piece of glass doesn't do much when you try to look through it, but I'd say it seemed to help light through a little better.  I'm not a scientist or anything.

Free Water Bottle For Buying Tape

I just found out that Scotch is giving away a free water bottle just for buying the tape every office already needs.  I don't know the specific connection between Scotch brand tape and a Thermos brand bottle, but it is a pretty cool promotion.  Most people these days are trying to "Go Green" and save a little money if possible, and a good water bottle is a great step in that direction.  Fill up the water bottle at any number of easy to locate taps and take it along on day-to-day activities.  When the bottle is empty just refill it and carry on.  Reusing a plastic water bottle is "Greener" than buying and recycling plastic bottles from vending machines, grocery stores or gas stations because there is a good deal of energy needed to recycled that bottle and not all of it (like the cap or label) is truly recyclable.

Thermos Intak Hydration Bottle

The water bottle in question here is a Thermos Intak Hydration Bottle.  Those smart people over at Thermos know an occasional adult beverage might be consumed in this bottle so they call it a "Hydration Bottle" instead of a water bottle.  The promotional material shows a green bottle, but I don't think there is a guarantee of any color that will actually be sent.  The reviews for this bottle are generally positive, and those people had to pay for the bottles.  I'm sure than anybody who received the bottle for free would rate it even higher.  The product page lays out the details of the bottle pretty simply, but it is a BPA-free dishwasher-safe bottle with a water proof lid and a carrying loop.  BPA was in the news non-stop for a year or so as manufacturers removed it from items in their line-up. Some plastics would release BPA when heated and then kids would drink it and be exposed to potentially unsafe levels of estrogen, so manufacturers have mostly moved to BPA-free plastics.  The use of BPA-free plastics makes this bottle kid-safe as well.

Rebate Details Page

Nobody get this bottle completely for free though, some Scotch tape needs to be purchased and a rebate form needs to be filled out.  Buy any combination of two qualifying products; MMM 810K16 (Magic Tape), MMM 600K12 (Transparent Tape), MMM 38506 (Premium Packaging Tape), or MMM 35006 (High Performance Packaging Tape) and mail in the rebate form with the UPCs.  If the goal is to maximize the tape dollar to free water bottle tape ratio the Transparent Tape is the least expensive.  The rebate form allows for 2 rewards per envelope and 6 rewards per unique mailing address so purchasing 12 boxes of the Transparent Tape and mailing 3 rebate forms will generate greatest return.

Make Buying Moving Supplies Easy

The housing markets around the country are still in pretty poor shape so it is a great time to move if you can.  You can probably get a lot more bang for your buck if you take the time to look at some new options.  It doesn't matter if you are moving from an apartment to a house, from your house to a more affordable apartment, to a new apartment or a new house, you are going to need more moving supplies.  Boxes, Tape, and Packing material are all necessities.

Shop a Wide Selection of Moving Supplies

The most important thing you need when you are moving is boxes, lots and lots of boxes.  You can find tons of different cardboard boxes online and pick as many as you want (even recycled boxes are available).  Boxes are generally sold in bundles of 25, but they are sometimes available in bundles of 15 or 10 as well.  I have moved a few times and helped friends move more often that that, and if there is one lesson I will never learn is that you can never have to many boxes.  You'll probably never need a pack of boxes any smaller than 25 and if you happen to have a few extra boxes, everybody can find something else to keep in boxes.  Remember that bigger boxes don't necessarily mean it'll be easier to move, if you pack two identical boxes, one with books and one with blankets you'll quickly find out they are not the same.

The second most important thing you'll need to purchase is packing materials.  You have a wide variety of selection so you can easily find the one that suits you best.  Bubble wrap is a classic and you can buy it big or small rolls and it does an excellent job of protecting your valuables.  Popping Bubble wrap is fun for kids of all ages, so even if your kids won't help you pack they'll at least be entertained.  Foam wraps are a newer high tech way to make sure your items are securely held in place.  You just open the packing material and press hard on one spot to start a chemical reaction.  As the foam starts to rise you put it in your box with your item and the foam creates a perfect custom fit for your item.  Rolls of paper is the oldest packing method but it is nicer than newspaper since it doesn't have ink on it.  You can buy packing peanuts if you want, but they are always a mess.  I'll never figure out what to do with them.

Earth Friendly Packing Materials

If you want to be Green while you are moving you should check out the CareMail line of products.  The CareMail line is all environmentally friendly moving supplies so you can still safely pack and move your stuff knowing that your packing materials have made a minimal impact on landfills.  They of course have boxes and paper rolls to substitute the conventional products, but they have an environmentally friendly bubble wrap substitute and biodegradable packing peanuts made from corn and potato starch.

Lastly, you are going to need to make sure that you'll need packing tape to keep the boxes closed and a healthy supply of permanent markers to label the boxes.  Remember to lift with your knees!

Office Supplies as Art (Packing Tape)

Between the 10th and 15th of March a group of sculptors and performance artists put together a unique installation piece in Vienna.  While primarily meant to be a stage for the dancers the installation of a giant spider-web style structure in the middle of an abandoned stock exchange building has drawn a lot of interest.

Numen/For Use

The artistic collaborative group "Numen/For Use" created this structure from 530 rolls of packing tape.  Their website says that was 35,600 meters of tape weighing in at 45kg.  For those of you who are not metrically inclined that is 116,797 feet and 99.208 pounds.  Just because I liked word problems in school that means that each roll of tape measured 67.170 meters (220.372 feet) and weighed 84.905 grams (2.995 ounces).

To further investigate the tape usage I decided to check out the most common tape lengths available and see what kind of comparisons we could make with the packing tape commonly found around the office.  The most common packing tape by far is the Standard Scotch Packing Tape on a 165 foot roll.  Now a 165 might seem like an odd number, but that's actually close to 50 meters, which is a nice round number.  That means it would have taken 712 rolls of standard Packing Tape to create this monstrosity.

If you are ready to start on your own path to Packing Tape structure building I'd recommend you start with a huge pack of Commercial Grade Packing Tape.  This is 3Ms toughest, thickest packing tape so when you are creating structures to hold dancers it is a worthwhile investment.  The standard pack only comes with 48 rolls, but unless you have an abandoned stock exchange building to build in you should be okay.

48 Rolls of Manmade Spiderweb (Packing Tape)

This pack of tape will only get you roughly 7% of the way toward your own Vienna Semitransparent Spider tubes, but everybody has a beginning.