Do you laminate? Laminating is a cost effective way to protect and preserve everything from business cards to teaching aids to restaurant menus. Both pouch and roll laminating machines deliver quality results that are worthy of display. Plus, documents that are laminated just look better!
Expand your thinking on what to laminate! Taking your pouch laminator outside of the workplace can help you realize how useful it can truly be. Laminating can make posters last for years, turn handwritten recipes into family keepsakes, and more. The possibilities are endless!
There's no better way to get started than with a new GBC® laminator and laminating pouches. GBC® machines include user friendly features such as a fast warm-up time and one touch operation to make laminating quick and easy.
No matter what your area of focus - education, business, restaurant, legal, manufacturing, or crafts/personal use, lamination can help give your projects a finished professional look. To help spark your ideas about what to laminate, click here to get the ideas flowing and start laminating today!
Resolved to 'get organized?' If so, you are not alone. Fall is a great time to get a jump on end of the year document organization - tax time will be here before you know it! One of the best ways to get organized is simply to purge what you don't need any more. Paper is the number one thing that Americans say prevents them from being organized at work and home, so that is a great place to start. Consider these questions when you are unsure whether to toss or save a document:
*Is the information relevant to my life, personal interests or job?
*Am I bound by law to maintain the information for a certain length of time?
*How easy would it be to replace this information later?
*What is the worst thing that could happen if I got rid of it?
The last question can be a complicated issue. There are some documents that you must keep forever, like income tax returns and related receipts, stock records, and retirement or pension records. You should check with your accountant or attorney before pitching out any important legal, business or financial paperwork. It's also a good idea to reference Business Retention Guidelines for specific guidelines on how long to hang on to certain documents. Remember, in many states, once your trash is left out for collection in an area accessible to the public it is considered public property.
To protect yourself against identity theft, be sure to dispose of your important records properly. Any piece of paper that contains account numbers, your social security number or other sensitive information should be shredded before being thrown away. HandFree shredders such as the Swingline Stack-and-Shred Series can be your best friend. HandsFree shredding lets you shred large amounts of paper without hand feeding the shredding; you can continue to organize while you are shredding unnecessary papers!
Now that you've reduced the amount of paper you have, the next step is to organize what is left. Here's three tips:
*Separate the most important documents, such as insurance policies, and store them in a safe place that it out of the way
*Hole punch and store other less vital documents in binders or file folders and clearly label the contents
*Consider going digital -- scan documents and save them to your computer. This is very effective but you need a system in place to back up the files. In many instances, you can shred the paper copies after scanning!
Junk mail, bills, memos, reports, receipts ... the paper trail is virtually endless. The best thing you can do is keep up with everything as it comes in. Maintain the routine of deciding whether to pitch or keep items at least once a week, and you will successfully prevent clutter. Happy Organizing!
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