Author: Frankye

Chief blogger at Office Ink, OnTimeSupplies.com's online office supply blog.

Holiday travel tips: see the best online Thanksgiving travel tip guide.

Posted on by Frankye

It’s hard to believe that Thanksgiving is just around the corner and that the holiday season is upon us. With the joy of the holidays comes the stress of holiday travel. Office Ink is here to help with travel tips. Whether you’re traveling by plane, train or car our holiday travel safety tips, air travel tips and travel packing tips will ensure your Thanksgiving travel trip is safe, comfortable and fun. As you make your holiday travel plans, use Office Ink travel tip guide to pack for your Thanksgiving travel trip.

Holiday Travel Safety Tips

Our Office Ink holiday travel safety tips are all about being prepared. In fact, you can consider this as an addendum to our travel packing tips. Whether you’re traveling by plane, train or automobile, include these items in your Thanksgiving travel bag

  • Travel first aid kits – I like the mini first aid kits by Johnson & Johnson because they are small enough to fit in any purse or carry on luggage. Plus, they contain everything a personal first aid kit should: antiseptic wipes, Tylenol and bandages.
  • Sanitizer wipes – I pack Purell hand sanitizer wipes in my holiday travel bag instead of hand sanitizer gel for a couple reason. First, you usually can’t bring liquids on flights. Secondly, sanitizer wipes really give your hands a nice clean feeling.
  • Road Atlas – A United States road atlas is cheaper than GPS and just as handy if you get lost.

Air Travel Tips

While air travel is fast and convenient, it’s often annoying. These Office Ink air travel tips will help Thanksgiving travel less of a trial.

  • Luggage Tags – Unless your luggage is covered in pink polka dots or some other unusual pattern, the brighter and more distinctive your luggage tags, the better. You can can even make your own personalized luggage tags with a bit of colored construction paper, a permanent marker. Making personalized luggage tags is a great pre-holiday travel craft project for kids.
  • Rolling luggage and luggage carts: You’ll probably have to run through the airport like O.J. Simpson at some point during your air travels, so make it easy on yourself with wheeled luggage or a luggage cart. I like to use rolling laptop cases as carry on luggage.

Travel Packing Tips

Office Ink can’t show you how to fold a holiday sweater down to the size of a pack of playing cards. Our travel packing tips is a checklist of the things you don’t want to start your Thanksgiving travel trip without.

  • Healthy snacks: Save money and calories and carry healthy snacks – like mixed nuts, Chex Mix, and diced veggies – in Ziploc bags to munch on while traveling for the holidays.  You can also jazz up bottled water with powder drink mixes.
  • Cheap digital cameras – Cheap digital cameras are more easier to find than ever, so you can afford to capture all your great Thanksgiving travel memories in holiday photos.
  • Digital camera cases – Of course, you don’t want to have to replace your digital camera at any price, so pack your digital camera in a digital camera case.
  • USB car charger – Keep you iPod, phone and other mobile devices fully charged with an inexpensive USB car charger.
  • Noise canceling headphones – Noise canceling headphones are great for drowning out a snoring seat mate in a plane or train, or squabbling kids on a car trip. Unless you’re the driver, of course. Then you might just have to threaten to turn this car right around.

Office Ink hopes this guide helps you have a great Thanksgiving travel experience. If you’re an experienced traveler with holiday travel tips to share, let us know. Post your travel tips in the comments of this post. Have a great Thanksgiving!

Coat racks and hooks: use garment racks as space savers in small offices.

Posted on by Frankye

coat-racks-and-hooks-use-garment-racks-as-space-savers-in-small-offices-use

Office ink is back with more free ideas for organizing clutter in the office. Now that the weather has turned cold and wet, you have to make room for your bulky winter coat in your office. Your office looks cluttered and untidy you don’t have a place to hang your coat. Plus, you need to hang your coat to dry it on rainy and snowy days. Reduce clutter in your office and give your coat a place to hang and dry with garment racks, coat racks and coat hooks. They make great space savers and add a decorative element to your office.

So, garment rack, coat rack or coat hook – which should you choose? Well, that depends on the size of your office and workspace.

Small office and shared workspace: hang coats on coat racks

Coat racks come in a range of capacities and styles. Wall mounted coat racks work best in smaller offices with shared work areas. You also add a little style to your office with coat racks. Metal coat racks look great in contemporary office settings, while wooden coat racks work well in offices with a homier feel. You may also want to consider a hat and coat rack – a wall mount coat rack with a shelf.

If you’ve got a small office all to yourself, you might prefer an elegant clothes tree or standing coat rack. Standing coat racks are nice because they hold more than just your winter coat. You can hang your hat, scarf and even your office sweater on a standing coat rack. Many standing coat racks have built in umbrella stands for added convenience.

Cubicle: hang your coat on cubicle coat hooks.

If you work in a cubicle, hang your coat on a specially designed cubicle coat hooks. A cubicle coat hook slide over cubicle partitions, so you can mount them without putting any holes in the wall. In addition to being great space savers, decorative cubical coat hooks are a great way to personalize your work space.

Large or medium sized office: hang coats on garment racks.

If you’ve got the floor space, consider a free standing  garment rack. Wheel a couple garment racks into a corner or empty workspace , and voila, you’ve got a cloakroom. You can get a garment rack in practically any size. Remember to overestimate or size up your garment rack. Many days, employees will be coming in from the rain or snow, so you can’t over pack the garment rack. It needs to big enough to leave a little rack space for ventilation. Otherwise, wet coats won’t dry.  Many garment rack come with special security hangers that can’t be removed and can’t be lost.

These space savers will reduce clutter in any office. You can find inexpensive coat racks, garment racks and coat hooks for sale at OnTimeSupplies.com, as well as a discount office product selection that numbers in the thousands. OnTimeSupplies.com ships most orders the same day, so your new coat rack, garment rack or cubicle coat hook arrives in just a day or two.

Office ink is back with more free ideas for organizing clutter in the office. Now that the weather has turned cold and wet, you have to make room for your bulky winter coat in your office. Your office looks cluttered and untidy you don’t have a place to hang your coat. Plus, you need to hang your coat to dry it on rainy and snowy days. Reduce clutter in your office and give your coat a place to hang and dry with garment racks, coat racks and coat hooks. They make great space savers and add a decorative element to your office.
So, garment rack, coat rack or coat hook – which should you choose? Well, that depends on the size of your office and workspace.Small office and shared workspaces: hang coats on coat racks
Wall mounted coat racks work best in smaller offices with shared work areas. Like garment racks, coat racks come in a range of capacities and styles. You also add a little style to your office with coat racks. Metal coat racks look great in contemporary office setting, whil wooden coat racks work well in offices with a homier feel. You may also want to consider a hat and coat rack – a wall mount coat rack with a shelf.If you’ve got a small office all to yourself, you might prefer an elegant clothes tree or standing coat rack. Standing coat racks are nice because they hold more than just your winter coat. You can hang your hat, scarf and even your office sweater on a standing coat rack. Many standing coat racks have built in umbrella stands for added convenience.

Cubicles: hang your coat on cubicle coat hooks.
If you work in a cubicle, hang your coat on a specially designed cubicle coat hook. Cubical coat hooks slide over cubicle partitions, so you can mount them without putting any holes in the wall. In addition to being great space savers, decorative cubical coat hooks are a great way to personalize your work space.

Large or medium sized office: hang coats on garment racks.
If you’ve got the floor space, consider a free standing  garment rack. Wheel a couple garment racks into a corner or empty work space , and voila, you’ve got a cloakroom. You can a garment rack in practically any size. Remember to overestimate or size up your garment rack. Many days, employees will be coming in from the rain or snow, so you can’t over pack the garment rack. It needs to big enough to leave a little rack space for ventilation. Otherwise, wet coats won’t dry.  Many garment rack stands come with special security hangers that can’t be removed so can’t be lost.

These space savers will reduce clutter in any office. You can find inexpensive coat racks, garment racks and coat hooks for sale at OnTimeSupplies.com, as well as thousands of other discount office products. OnTimeSupplies.com ships most orders the same day, so your new coat rack, garment rack or cubicle coat hook arrives in just a day or two.

Veterans Day Gift Guide: last minute gift ideas for the vet in your life.

Posted on by Frankye

Veterans Day is coming up this Thursday. As you look for the perfect gift for the Veteran in your life, consider On Time Supplies. You’ll find more than a huge discount office product selection, you’ll also find great gifts for veterans. If you order today, your Veterans Day gift will arrive in time for the holiday. Plus On Time Supplies offers APO and FPO  shipping, so you can send gifts to service members stationed overseas.

Veterans Day Gift Ideas

Just how do you thank a veteran for their service? While no gift adequately thanks service personnel for keeping America safe, Office Ink has a few last minute gift ideas that do make great tokens of appreciation.

Leather carry on luggage: Get you veteran leather carry on luggage for those long overseas flights.

This handsome  SOLO black leather overnight bag has plenty of room for a laptop, a change of clothes and more.

Outdoor flag: Show your patriotism and support for veterans with an all weather outdoor flag!

Advantus U.S. flags are made of durable nylon, so you can fly the flag for years to come.

Personal journal: Give military personnel a journal to record experiences and adventures throughout their travels.

Elegant Day-Timer Leather Journals are the perfect gift for the veteran in your life.

Certificate frames: Display photos and special commmedations with pride in an attractive certificate frame.

Special commendations and photos are displayed with pride in all military households. Properly display your veteran’s special commendations in an attractive certificate frame. You have lots of styles and sizes to choose from at On Time Supplies, so you’re sure to find the perfect certificate frame for your display.

We here at Office Ink hope these Veterans Day gift ideas help you show your veteran the love, admiration and respect for service we all feel.

Personalized Christmas address labels: make your own custom address labels.

Posted on by Frankye

The holiday season approaches, so it’s time to think about your Christmas card list. In addition to friends and family, be sure to send Christmas cards to your boss, colleagues, clients and most valued customers. Christmas cards are a quick and easy way to market yourself and your work.

With so many people on your Christmas card list, you don’t want to address all the envelopes by hand. Address labels are clearly the way to go, so why not spread a little holiday cheer with customized Christmas address labels? In fact, you can make custom address labels for any occasion using free address label templates, from bride and groom address labels for wedding invitations to baseball and border collie address labels just because! You can google around for a free address label template, or visit Avery.com, where you can download a free address label software or design and print custom address labels online. The Avery address label software also lets you merge you contact list for even more convenience, or you can type in each recipients mailing information.

Create customized address labels for Christmas with free address label software

Reindeer for customized Christmas address labelsI used the Avery address label design studio to make my custom address labels this year. Avery has a nice selection of Christmas icons you can use, but I fell in love with this vintage-y reindeer design I found and used that instead. Keep in mind, shipping labels work better than small address labels when you really want to showcase a fantastic Christmas picture. You get the best color printing results when you use the  matte white Avery mailing labels, but I’m always looking for ways to go green, so I used the EcoFriendly Avery shipping labels. My personalized address labels still look pretty great!

Custom Christmas Labels

Other Avery printable shipping labels that would make great Christmas labels:

  • Avery clear address labels: clear mailing labels are great for envelopes in festive Christmas colors.
  • Avery foil mailing labels: address labels with a metallic gloss in silver or gold are festive and elegant.

Remember, your printable Christmas labels design is only limited by your imagination: you can create printable Disney address labels, Christian address labels and more. So have fun with your custom address labels project!

Office furniture clearance sale: get new office furniture cheap!

Posted on by Frankye

Discounted office furniture: shop the office furniture clearance sectionNo matter what I’m shopping for, I always head straight for the clearance section in the back of the store. If you’re cheap thrifty like me, you probably do the same. After all, that’s where all the real bargains live. Well, just like your favorite brick and mortar stores, your favorite online office supplies store now has an office furniture clearance section! On Time Supplies has a ton of wholesale HON office furniture, discontinued Bush office furniture and more to liquidate. I’m talking quality, new office furniture here too: contemporary office desks, beautiful wood bookcases, vertical and lateral file cabinets – basically all of the stuff you put off buying until you find a good deal. So whether you need to furnish a conference room or a home office, go bargain hunting at On Time Supplies. While you’re checking out the discounted office furniture, browse the knowledge base articles in the On Time Supplies community section. You’ll find great advice on choosing the best office desk for your work area, the best ergonomic office chair for your body type and even tips on the care and cleaning of your wood office furniture.

Office Halloween Party: show us Halloween Pictures from the office party!

Posted on by Frankye

Show us your office party Halloween picture!

I won’t lie – most of the time, working from my home office is the most awesome thing in the world and you should all envy me. But one thing I miss about working on-site is office parties. Particularly office Halloween parties. So, indulge me Office Ink-ers and show me your Halloween pictures. Scary Halloween pictures, funny Halloween pictures – I want to see them all!  Post your Halloween pics in the comments, but be nice: make sure your Halloween picture is no bigger than 300 x 300 px.

Support breast cancer awareness with 3 ring binders, yearly calenders & more!

Posted on by Frankye

As Breast Cancer Awareness Month draws to a close, I think the thing I will miss the most is the fun spectacle of the NFL’s Pink Ribbon Promotion. So before we officially say goodbye to October, I’m going to post this picture of some burly football player in pretty pink cleats.

You’re welcome. You know, you don’t have to be Reggie Bush to support breast cancer awareness. Show your support for breast cancer charities and research organizations year round with pink ribbon products made just for the office. On Time Supplies has a ton pink ribbon office product selections, including breast cancer awareness office supplies that help your organize your documents and manage your time.

Samsil 3 Ring Binders – Use Samsil’s breast cancer awareness 3 ring binder to organize your reference documents. Or you can use them as presentation binders – just slip your own custom cover in the clear front pocket. Samsil donates 10¢ to City of Hope to support breast cancer for every pink ribbon 3 ring binder sold.

AT A GLANCE Yearly Calendar – You’ve got to get a new calendar for year 2011 anyway, so why not pick up a pink ribbon calendar and support breast cancer research while you’re at it? AT A GLANCE has raised more than half a million dollars for  City of Hope with their pink ribbon planners and calendars. I like this AT A GLANCE yearly calendar in particular because it offer blank calendar days for jotting down quick notes for daily planning.

AT A GLANCE Day Planner – Of course, a day planner is nice for daily planning too! On Time Supplies has breast cancer awareness AT A GLANCE daily planners with tabbed monthly sections for long range planning and time management. Those of us who aren’t die hard pink lovers will really like this AT A GLANCE day planner – there’s only one small pink ribbon on the cover, so you can still help AT A GLANCE raise money for City of Hope without shouting it from the rooftops.

Quality Park Business Envelope – Let you clients and business colleagues know that you support the ribbon cause with Quality Park business envelopes. With just one pink ribbon the flap, the envelopes are tasteful enough for business correspondence. Quality Park also makes a donation to City of Hope with every box of business envelopes sold.

Take advantage of the wholesale office supply prices at On Time Supplies to get your breast cancer awareness office product at a great price. Or try your luck at winning a whole set of pink ribbon office supplies for free. The Pink Ribbon Giveaway doesn’t end until Friday, so you still have a chance to tweet your way to free office supplies and help On Time Supplies do a little Breast Cancer Awareness Month fund raising of its own! On Time Supplies will make a donation to Living Beyond Breast Cancer for every contest entry. But hurry, the clock is ticking on the Pink Ribbon Giveaway!

Pink Ribbon Giveaway makes the Wall Street Journal!

Posted on by Frankye

On Time Supplies is doing good and getting noticed! The Pink Ribbon Giveaway, our Breast Cancer Awareness Month charity drive and giveaway is featured in the Wall Street Journal:

OnTimeSupplies LLC, an online office-supply retailer, launched an initiative earlier this month in which it promises to donate 25 cents to a breast-cancer charity every time someone posts an update on Facebook or Twitter mentioning it. “We’ve always depended a lot on word of mouth… whether it’s people trading stories in the cafeteria or on Facebook,” says Miles Young, chief executive and co-founder of the Atlanta firm.

Enter the Pink Ribbon Giveaway to  get a chance to win free pink ribbon office supplies and you’ll raise money for Living Beyond Breast Cancer, a fantastic national education and support organization dedicated to improving the quality of life of women diagnosed with breast cancer. I’ll announce the Pink Ribbon Giveaway winner next Friday, October 29 right here at Office Ink! Good luck and thanks for helping us raise money for LBBC!