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We talked about tips on how to make your office a little greener, now here are a few guidelines how to make yourself waste-free at work from Earth911.
It’s tough to keep environmental impact at a minimum while you’re away from home. And when you’re in a highly-regimented environment like the office, reducing waste and shrinking your footprint can seem next to impossible. But don’t fret, eco-minded employee. You can easily cut office impact by making a few quick adjustments to your daily routine. Check out these 5 simple tips for staying waste-free at work, and cut the footprint of your workday in half.
Happy Earth Day! In celebration, we are giving away 4 Earth’s Choice Binders in your choice of black or white. Check out our Facebook page on how to enter.
For those of you that don’t know, Etsy is a virtual marketplace for people who hand craft items. This article from Earth911.com gives you some eco-friendly office products found on Etsy.
Even if you don’t spend your days at a desk, you may have a home office for keeping your projects organized. In both of these spaces, it’s worth putting in a little extra effort to make them fun and eco-friendly. To help you start thinking about how you might green your work space and add a little excitement at the same time, check out these Etsy products made from upcycled, recycled and eco-friendly materials.
When people talk about what money can’t buy you there is always a big debate. Some people think money can buy you happiness, whereas others will tell you this is not true. The reason this is so debatable is because nobody really agrees, but something people do agree on is that you can’t buy time. They tell you not to waste time because you will never get it back. Once you’ve gone to sleep that is another day of your life assigned to the record books.
The income tax deadline is quickly approaching and many people are panicking. We all know how much time and effort it would save if we would have everything nice and neat and properly organized.
Most offices are designed to maximize employee efficiency but we often find it a daunting task of designating our time effectively. To avoid spending extra time on Facebook or talking around the watercooler, take these 10 tips and see if you can get through the day feeling more accomplished.
Plan Your Day
Take 30 minutes to plan the rest of your day. Make a “to-do” list of tasks that you need to get done today so you can stay focused. Then work until that list is complete. You can even save that 30 minutes tomorrow by preparing before you leave the office today.
Binders aren’t the only thing you can upcycle. These amazing office products have been transformed from boring items that help you get your work done into pieces of art. Take a look at a few examples that we have found.
Check out our Facebook page for details on how to win this Executive Padfolio.
Flip pad for note-taking in confined spaces.
The Executive accessories have the look and feel of heavy-grain leather, constructed with style and functionality in mind. This pad holder features an expandable document pocket and zippered security compartment. Constructed withe a double turned edge for a polished appearance. Also featuring business card holder, media storage pockets, and a pen loop.
Flip Pad for note-taking in confines spaces
Expandable document pocket and zippered security compartment
Choosing the best office Halloween costume can be somewhat tricky. You will need to decide if you are doing a group costume or individual costume. Some employers encourage group costumes because they allow employees to work together while individual costumes give workers more variety and opportunity to be as creative as they want. Either way, dressing up or decorating for Halloween at the office is a great way to boost employee morale and teamwork. Plus…it can be fun!
Below are the best office Halloween costume ideas we have heard of.
You may think twice about buying foreign products after reading the top 10 reasons why you should buy American made products.
1.Creates Jobs
Each manufacturing job creates approximately 5 additional jobs such as positions in accounting, technical support, sales, and marketing.
2.Helps keep the American Economy Growing
Profit earned from orders shipped abroad are rarely advantageous to our economy. Buying American-made products recycles our dollars back into our economy.
Ring binders can be great everyday organizing tools. There are many more uses for ring binders than just organizing school papers and storing presentations. Here is a list of a few uncommon uses for 3-ring binders:
Household management-this can contain as much or as little information as you desire. Some tab ideas could include school info, emergency contact info, babysitting notes, business card holder, auto maintenance and important dates.
Organize your finances-keep track of monthly bills, receipts, debt repayment, and budgets. Organizing everything throughout the year will make tax season less hectic.
Let’s face it. Cubicles stink. No one wants to sit down for 9 hours in a makeshift cloth box doing TPS reports. Below are 12 items plus a bonus item to keep you and your neighbors entertained at work.
We are no stranger to cardboardat Samsill. We make the RAW binder which is highly durabletype of chipboard/cardboard. All of our binders had some form of chipboard between the sheets of Polypropylene. We know our way around cardboard, but Chris Gilmour brings cardboard to an entirely different level.
Administrative Professionals’ Day (also known as Secretaries Day or Admin Day) is a holiday in several countries. Recognize the work of secretaries, administrative assistants, receptionists, and other administrative support professionals. In North America, it is celebrated on the Wednesday of the last full week of April (Today)
Yeah, you can those blue Bic pens in bulk if you want—a boatload costs about as much as your morning coffee. And all pens are pretty much the same, right? Of course not. Cheapo pens are much more likely to leave ink smeared across your nose, bleeding through your pants pocket, or glopping up your page.
But even cheap pens were state-of-the-art at one time. Let’s take a look at how writing with ink has evolved over the centuries.
The ring binderwas first patented in 1854 and since then they have been used for many things. The binderis the most efficient way to organize all kinds of materials. Since binders come in different sizes, colors, materials, and capacities, they are a universal tool for any type of organizational need. Binders also allow the user to become creative in what a binder is used for. Possibilities are endless when it comes to the many uses of binders.
Samsill has one of the widest, if not the widest, array of binder selection in the industry. There are WAY more than 8 uses for them but here are 8 that others have found useful.
Here are 8 uses for ring binders:
1. Sales pricing books
2. Owner’s manuals or employee handbooks can be easily organized into a binder
3. Organize school materials, homework, etc.
4. Organizing collections: Whether you collect stamps, baseball cards, or other memorabilia, plastic sheets and inserts are a great place to put collections and can be easily placed into a binder
5. Binders can make great scrapbooks or photo albums
6. Easel binders allow for making presentations easy
7. If you have a bunch of recipes lying around, a binder can be used to make a cookbook
8. A binder was originally created to hold loose leaf paper, which is a great place to write a journal, a book, or track goals
These are just a few examples of how binders can be used, but there are many more uses out there. Binders make organization easy and convenient, especially with binder accessories such as tabs and page protectors.
The Binders For Life series from Samsill are great binders to use for any of the 8 uses for binders.
Jennifer Maestre takes your average pencil and creates such a strong personal conflict—to touch or not to touch! The viewer is drawn in by the intricate detail and surprising choice of material, but at the same time, there is a desire to retreat from the sharp points. Maestre said, “There is true fragility to the sometimes brutal aspect of the sculptures, vulnerability that is belied by the fearsome texture.”
Samsill makes Binders, Ring Binders, View Binders, and a TON of Custom Binders. If we made white boards we would DEFINITELY hire this dude! I want to know how he draws such awesome artwork on a whiteboard without smearing it with his hand… Crazy good office supply art!
The three ring binder serves as an integral component to any office, home, or educational facility. It keeps papers organized and neat, and presents them in a professional manner. The invention of the three ring binder led to other inventions and innovations related to office implements.
We like office supplies around here at Samsill. Tape is DEFINITLY an office product, and this is by far the COOLEST thing we’ve ever seen done with it!
Dutch street artistMax Zorn has revolutionized the way we usually use duct tape by creating portraits out of them.
Using layers of translucent duct tapes, Zorn creates stunning portraits of pop culture figures like the Beatles and also classic artworks such as Vermeer’s ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’.
Zorn’s fascinating works have appeared on buildings, windows as well as street lamps all over Europe.
Three-ring binders can help keep important papers organized. The ease in opening the rings adds to the convenience of separating papers into groups and using tabs to label sections. Three-ring binders are available in different ring shapes and sizes. Each ring shape has a different mechanism and is fitted into the three-ring binder differently. Knowing the difference in the types of three-ring binders will aid you in picking the right binder to meet your needs.
Hi Altego fans! We are happy to announce another Altego Laptop Sleeve Giveaway winner. For those of you who don’t know we are doing a weekly contest on our Altego Facebook account. We are giving away one Altego Laptop Sleeve to one of our lucky fans each week. The prize winners are randomly drawn from our Altego Brand Facebook fans.
Hi Altego fans! We are happy to announce another Altego Laptop Sleeve Giveaway winner. For those of you who don’t know we are doing a weekly contest on our Altego Facebook account. We are giving away one Altego Laptop Sleeve to one of our lucky fans each week. The prize winners are randomly drawn from our Altego Brand Facebook fans.
CONGRATULATIONS: Rochel Rand-Sidell
Instructions on redeeming your gift card:
• Send an email to marketing@altegobrand.com including the following
o Name
o Address (including country, city, state, zip code)
Hi Samsill fans! We are happy to announce our October Facebook “Like” Contest winner. For those of you who don’t know we are doing a monthly contest on our Samsill Facebook account. We are giving away one $50 cash gift card to one of our lucky fans. The prize winners are randomly drawn at the end of each month. Continue reading »
This story comes to us from the great people over at Co.Exist. Here is an excerpt from their article.
The Amazon is home to more species than almost anywhere else on earth. One of them, carried home recently by a group from Yale University, appears to be quite happy eating plastic in airless landfills.
The group of students, part of Yale’s annual Rainforest Expedition and Laboratory with molecular biochemistry professor Scott Strobel, ventured to the jungles of Ecuador. The mission was to allow “students to experience the scientific inquiry process in a comprehensive and creative way.” The group searched for plants, and then cultured the microorganisms within the plant tissue. As it turns out, they brought back a fungus new to science with a voracious appetite for a global waste problem: polyurethane.
The common plastic is used for everything from garden hoses to shoes and truck seats. Once it gets into the trash stream, it persists for generations. Anyone alive today is assured that their old garden hoses and other polyurethane trash will still be here to greet his or her great, great grandchildren. Unless something eats it.
The fungi, Pestalotiopsis microspora, is the first anyone has found to survive on a steady diet of polyurethane alone and–even more surprising–do this in an anaerobic (oxygen-free) environment that is close to the condition at the bottom of a landfill.
Student Pria Anand recorded the microbe’s remarkable behavior and Jonathan Russell isolated the enzymes that allow the organism to degrade plastic as its food source. The Yale team published their findings in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology late last year concluding the microbe is “a promising source of biodiversity from which to screen for metabolic properties useful for bioremediation.” In the future, our trash compactors may simply be giant fields of voracious fungi.
This is great news for us and the rest of the world. Plastics can be very harmful to the environment. That is why we, at Samsill, take such great care to recycle almost everything, use post consumer content, use as little plastic as possible without degrading performance, and buy our supplies through environmentally friendly suppliers.
We also have the ONLY traditional biodegradable binder on the market. It is one of our top sellers and it is fully biodegradable (meaning it breaks down in a traditional landfill environment unlike most plastics). 2012 is going to be a HUGE year for us because we are introducing quite a few new, full environmentally friendly, products to the binder market.
Like Saturdays INFOGRAPHIC said, this is the beginning of “COLOR DAYS” around Samsill. We are extremely happy to announce our NEW FASHION COLORS FOR 2012.
and be sure to check out our 2012 FASHION COLOR PRESS RELEASE that went out this morning!
Hi Altego fans! We are happy to announce another Altego Laptop Sleeve Giveaway winner. For those of you who don’t know we are doing a weekly contest on our Altego Facebook account. We are giving away one Altego Laptop Sleeve to one of our lucky fans each week. The prize winners are randomly drawn from our Altego Brand Facebook fans.
I, Mark in Marketing, wrote this blog for my personal website but I think it high beneficial so I decided to re-post it here. I do believe strongly in my methods below and I think it could help all! Enjoy! Feedback is ALWAYS appreciated! Thanks!
I love to be busy. In fact, if I don’t have 10 different things on my plate at once I find that I’m not near as productive as when I do. Being busy demands organization. I’ve become quite a “list” junkie. I live off my to do lists and outlook calendars and reminders. Another responsibility that comes with being busy is to take time to stop. “Smell the roses” as they say. Stopping gives me time to reflect on how I am doing in the grand scheme of things. Often my foresight gets shortsighted. I’m thinking only in hours or days in advance. Stopping gives me the ability to look 5, 10 years in advance. It allows me to ask questions like,
“What do I want for my life in 5 years?”
“Is what I am doing now helping me towards that goal?”
It is essential to reflect and look forward. But more than anything it is vital to enjoy where I am NOW. Stopping lets me do that.
I read anINC Magazine article yesterday that had GREAT advice that I am going to start doing each day. It gave 10 questions to ask myself each day to evaluate my day and make sure what I am doing is worth my time. Here is an excerpt. I recommend everyone to find their, “stopping time.” Find time each day to ask yourself these questions. I strongly believe it will help.
Real success comes from the quality of your relationships and the emotions that you experience each day. That’s where these 10 questions come in.
Ask them at the end of each day and I absolutely guarantee that you’ll become more successful. Here they are:
1. Have I made certain that those I love feel loved?
2. Have I done something today that improved the world?
3. Have I conditioned my body to be more strong flexible and resilient?
4. Have I reviewed and honed my plans for the future?
5. Have I acted in private with the same integrity I exhibit in public?
6. Have I avoided unkind words and deeds?
7. Have I accomplished something worthwhile?
8. Have I helped someone less fortunate?
9. Have I collected some wonderful memories?
10. Have I felt grateful for the incredible gift of being alive?
Here’s the thing. The questions you ask yourself on a daily basis determine your focus, and your focus determines your results.
These questions force you to focus on what’s really important. Take heed of them and rest of your life—especially your work—will quickly fall into place.
The Super Bowl is coming up! The Biggest American sporting even of the year! This INFOGRAPHIC is about Super Bowl Ads. Admit it, a lot of you enjoy the commercials just as much as the game! Continue reading »
Hi Altego fans! We are happy to announce another Altego Laptop Sleeve Giveaway winner. For those of you who don’t know we are doing a weekly contest on our Altego Facebook account. We are giving away one Altego Laptop Sleeve to one of our lucky fans each week. The prize winners are randomly drawn from our Altego Brand Facebook fans.
Think you have the time, dedication and patience to create an artwork like this? First, try and comprehend these numbers. 6 million matches. 16 years of life. Bulgarian artist Plamen Ignatov used that many matches and spent that much time to create this impressive miniature model of the Rila Monastery. Made of wood, matches and gems, it’s now on display at the Museum of Archaeological in Sofia, Bulgaria.
The Rila Monastery is the largest and most famous Eastern Orthodox monastery in Bulgaria. It is regarded as one of Bulgaria’s most important cultural, historical and architectural monuments and is a key tourist attraction for both Bulgaria and Southern Europe. It has been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Continue reading »
Samsill is a private company but a lot of our competitors are public. 2011 was a year full of IPO’s and 2012 is expected to have one of the largest IPO’s in history, Facebook’s. What are the numbers behind a Facebook IPO? Find out in this weeks [INFOGRAPHIC].
Hi Altego fans! We are happy to announce another Altego Laptop Sleeve Giveaway winner. For those of you who don’t know we are doing a weekly contest on our AltegoFacebook account. We are giving away one Altego Laptop Sleeve to one of our lucky fans each week. The prize winners are randomly drawn from our Altego Brand Facebook fans. Continue reading »
In the past six months we have been doing a big push into social media. We update our sites daily with news from us, the industry, and elsewhere. To stay up on the latest in office products follow our sites!
Hi Samsill fans! We are happy to announce our October Facebook “Like” Contest winner. For those of you who don’t know we are doing a monthly contest on our Samsill Facebook account. We are giving away one $50 cash gift card to one of our lucky fans. The prize winners are randomly drawn at the end of each month. Continue reading »
It is a few days into the New Year and it is about the time when the holiday season hype is over and things are slowly getting back to normal. A lot of you probably made New Years resolutions, as so many people do, but maybe this year is different. Maybe this year is the year to keep your resolution. Whatever your resolution was, even if you didn’t have one, this article could be the difference between starting the new year off right, or wrong. It was quite a paradime shift in my traditional way of thought, maybe if can help you too.
Samsill a huge manufacturerer and supplier of office products in the country. But we don’t make everything. That is why I get excited when I find other cool office products I can add to my collection in my office. Here is a list of some awesome office supplies I am adding to my “Office Supplies Christmas Wish List.”
As 2011 comes to a close, Samsill, wants to reminisce a bit. We make office products (along with some other things) and as society gets more technological commodity products are often forgotten about. It is true that a lot of commodity products are declining and eventually won’t be needed anymore. Technology is quickly replacing a good portion of the industry. With that said, there are new commodity products that work with technology that are quickly on the rise. At Samsill we like to look forward to where the industry is going. It is an exciting time in our industry and we are putting the pedal to the metal to say ahead of the curve.
Below is a list from Yahoo with some interesting things that babies born in the last 12 months will never know about. What surprised us was some of these things listed aren’t that old themselves. Continue reading »
Hi Altego fans!We are happy to announce another Altego Laptop Sleeve Giveaway winner.For those of you who don’t know we are doing a weekly contest on our Altego Facebook account. We are giving away one Altego Laptop Sleeve to one of our lucky fans each week.The prize winners are randomly drawn from our Altego Brand Facebook fans.
One, of many, of our motto’s here at Samsill is “Do not throw out a material that can be reused or recycled.” We strive to reuse and recycle all waste, scraps, etc. WouldBeWaste.com has a similar motto which is why we love their products. They have neat and intuitive ways to reuse, what otherwise, would be trash.
Their first products are reused wood for a desk. What they said about their product:
Our first range of products are unique desktop accessories made in small batches and finished by hand. Designed to display a clock, Post-it notes and iPhone holder. Each product will have a limited and numbered run of ten.
We are also producing a selection of one-off products to include a Table Lamp and Wall Clock. All of the materials used to create these products were saved from the recycling bin of stores, workshops and studios across London.
The first ever six inch binder. It is the largest binder on the market. The Titan is made of heavy-duty construction and supported by a locking heavy-duty D-ring. Most impressive this binder holds over 1200 pages. No other binder comes close to the TITAN’s storage capacity.
The TITAN comes in 3 different styles.
First, it is available in our Antimicrobial Reference Binder (163 series). This binder not only holds 1200+ pages but it also doesn’t allow germs to grow on its major surfaces. That is a big deal for anyone that is going to have a lot of different hands touching this binder!
Second, the TITAN comes in our standard NON-stick D-Ring view binder.
Customizable nonstick clear overlay on front, back and spine material is environmentally friendly and will not stick or lift copy from cover inserts or contents.
Acid-free, archival safe polypropylene. Locking D-ring keeps documents secure and holds up to 25% more sheets than standard round rings. Two clear inside pockets for additional storage of loose papers. Holds sheet size 8.5×11. Contains 46% post-consumer recycled content.
Customizable nonstick clear overlay on front, back and spine
Front, back and spine material is environmentally friendly and will not stick or lift copy from cover inserts or contents
Acid-free, archival safe polypropylene
Locking D-ring keeps documents secure and holds up to 25% more sheets than standard round rings
We post a lot of recycling and upcycling content on this blog, but for good reason. Recycling is more than just a passing “green” fad. Recycling possibilities are truly endless. Every day there is hundreds of new posts online about neat new ways to recycle and upcycle. Samsill is committed to sustainability, which is why we love to post about recycling. 3 ring binders aren’t something a lot of people think about when the words “biodegradable” or “environmentally friendly” come up.
Samsill is trying to change that stereotype. We currently have the worlds only traditional biodegradable binder and we are working on a lot more environmentally friendly products to hit the market soon. More on that later. For now, lets enjoy how incredibly awesome this world map made from computers is.
British artist Susan Stockwell has completed a gigantic world map(21 feet x 13 feet), the map made from recycled computer components for the University of Bedfordshire. The piece uses motherboards, electrical wiring, fans, and myriad other components.” Jump more see more pics.\
Today (November 15th, 2011) is America Recycles Day. Here is what the website says:
Since 1997, communities across the country have come together on November 15 to celebrate America Recycles Day. More than a celebration, America Recycles Day is the only nationally recognized day dedicated to the promotion of recycling in the United States. One day to educate and motivate. One day to get our neighbors, friends and community leaders excited about what can be accomplished when we all work together. One day to make recycling bigger and better 365 days a year. Get involved!
Help the world we live in, take the pledge to recycle and reuse instead of discard. Here at Samsill we took the pledge. We use 100% recycled chip board any time we can. And all of our products are made up of at least some recycled material. We also make the ONLY traditional biodegradable binder. If you choose to throw it away instead of recycling it (which all of our binders are 100% recyclable) the binder will break down in <5 years as opposed to 20+ year.
In celebration of Movember (and raising awareness for prostate cancer) we thought we would have some fun with this weeks blog. We have assembled the best and funniest Mustache Products we stumbled upon this month. There are some good ones! Here is a quick write up of Movember from their official website:
During November each year, Movember is responsible for the sprouting of moustaches on thousands of men’s faces, in the US and around the world. With their Mo’s, these men raise vital funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and other cancers that affect men.
Ergonomics. Not a word that is often used and therefore not a word that a lot of people know. Ergonomics is defined as the study of designing equipment and devices that fit the human body, its movements, and its cognitive abilities.
Ergonomics has much more to it than simply promoting comfort and reducing injury risks. Good ergonomics increases productivity and employee morale. It reduces costs and contributes to company goals; therefore impacting the bottom line.
The largest and most important assets of any organization are the employees. A good ergonomics program is the best way to maximize their potential.
The city of Dallas recently announced a new effort to become the first city in the state of Texas to add food and drink containers to its residential curbside recycling program.
I must thank our friends at the Think Pink, Live Green column on breastcancer.org for this week’s blog.
Plastic. It is a polarizing material. Love it or hate it there is no denying it or getting away from it. Plastic has helped revolutionize the world in many ways but it has also caused its fair share of problems. It isn’t healthy to ingest…at all. Cancer and many other diseases have been linked back to plastics. There are a bunch of different types of plastic and each has different issues. This post is to help you become knowledgeable about the material and figure out what is okay to have around and what is unhealthy. Continue reading »
I have so much respect for people who can take something seemingly so simple, like office supplies or a pencil, and turn it into a piece of art. Continue reading »
Since October is Breast Cancer awareness month we have decided to dedicate this week’s list to the cause. Breast cancer is something that affects over 200,000 Americans each year. Breast Cancer awareness has spiked in the last two decades due to causes like Susan G. Komen, 3 Day for the Cure, and others.
This week we focus on products in the office supplies sector that support the cause by donating proceeds or bring awareness. Continue reading »
It is time, once again, for a new TOP 10 list. Sometimes in life we have to make hard decisions about big purchases. Buying a TV, for example, is a big purchase that generally includes a lot of research trying to figure out what is the best TV for you. Other purchases include little to no thinking, like buying office supplies. Most people go into Staples looking for something in particular, like a binder. Once in the store they go directly toward the binder aisle and pick out the first binder that fits their needs.
This week we’d like to challenge the traditional thought process about buying office supplies by giving you 10 things to genuinely think about when buying a binder. A binder, like a computer, holds important papers, photos, etc. Why wouldn’t you take the same care when purchasing a binder like you do when purchasing a computer?
This week’s top 10 is comprised of input from all employees here at Samsill as well as some close friends that are current students. The responses are recorded in order from most frequent response to least frequent.
Everyone has their opinions about our education system but I think that one thing most people can agree upon is that there are a lot of underprivileged kids that aren’t getting a good enough education. At Samsill we do everything we can to help the efforts of those trying to help the education system.
Here is an opportunity for you to help out as well. An excerpt from NBC News:
Come to the Plaza and help TODAY help America’s kids and their teachers with school supplies.
Join TODAY and NBC News for Education Nation–a special week of programming focusing on improving education in America. From September 26th to September 30th, we’ll have a special collection during the live show. These items will go to schools hurt by budget cuts and teachers who spend their own money to support their students.
Now’s your chance to help our nation’s students. Come to Rockefeller Plaza. Bring new, unused school supplies, such as notebooks, pens, pencils, rulers, book covers, backpacks, pencil cases, crayons, erasers, and calculators. When you visit, you may meet a special guest who cares about our nation’s schools as much as we do.
If you can’t be here in person, you can still help in your own community. Just go to DonorsChoose.org/EducationNation to help your classrooms thrive and schoolchildren succeed.
And be sure the visit the Education Nation Experience in Rockefeller Plaza from September 23rd to the 27th.
If you’re in NYC and reading this then we highly encourage you to donate some of those old Samsill binders you aren’t using anymore! Or go to the Donors Choose site to help those kids who aren’t getting the school supplies they need.
