Springtime means spring cleaning, and this applies to the SOHO (small office, home office) setting as well as the normal household realm. Some might even say that a workspace is a reflection of its owner, so springtime is a good opportunity to refresh this notion.<\/p>\n
While I was tidying up for spring I also welcomed a new piece of equipment to my workspace. <\/p>\n
The new equipment is a laminating machine. These are common enough items, but, just so nobody feels cheated, I\u2019ll note that a laminating machine is an appliance that uses heat to sandwich sheets of paper into a protective covering of transparent plastic. <\/p>\n
I\u2019m a real geek for laminated \u201ccheat sheets,\u201d which are notes, references, and checklists for various things. For years, well, make that decades, I used to drop my laminating chores off at a copy center, paying a buck or two per page to have them apply that fantastic plastic. <\/p>\n
Those costs added up to more than mere beer money over the years, but I didn\u2019t want to mess with it myself, nor did I want to figure out how to shoehorn another device into my office space. <\/p>\n
But I recently enlarged the surface area of my workspace. It\u2019s a law of physics that the amount of equipment in any place must expand to fill any available area. In order to preserve this equilibrium I had to buy something. <\/p>\n
I researched small laminating machines. I found that $50 would easily cover not only a machine but also 100 plastic sheets to go along with it. I figured this was probably too good to be true, but curiosity got the better of me and I took the plunge.<\/p>\n
Well, gee, that was painless. The machine proved easy to use and produced results every bit as good as the copy center\u2019s machine did. <\/p>\n
This was a good excuse to update some cheat sheets. I went on a laminating binge. I\u2019ve done about 60 sheets so far. Financially then, I\u2019m already ahead of the game. From here on out it\u2019s gravy. <\/p>\n
Now that I\u2019m a laminating machine owner, with all the rights and privileges thereunto, I\u2019ll mention a couple of things. <\/p>\n
The plastic laminating sheets seem to come in two common thicknesses: 3 mil and 5 mil. There are 1,000 mils to an inch, so, well, now you know. But, here, it\u2019s the comparative, not absolute, concept that\u2019s relevant. The point is that 5 mil is thicker than 3 mil, and I\u2019ve found that 5 mil is sturdier and produces a more likable result. <\/p>\n
A stack of 100 such sheets is only an inch thick but it\u2019s heavy. The sheets on the bottom are bearing a dead load from their upstairs neighbors. Any crimps or wrinkles might get pressed into fossil-like permanence. With this in mind, I don\u2019t want to run the risk of storing them on any surface that isn\u2019t flat, hard, and reasonably well-protected. So, while the laminating machine is small, easily unplugged, and easily stashed away, the plastic sheets require a dedicated chunk of shelf space. <\/p>\n
That might sound a little over-analytical to some folks, but anyone with scars in the SOHO trenches knows that progress is not easily won. Overall, I\u2019d say that at least 20 percent of my office supplies have died in garrison. Envelopes seal themselves from humidity. Writable CDs and DVDs go bad. Stationery gets creased, splashed with coffee, or becomes the favored haunt of an incontinent gecko. Pens dry up. <\/p>\n
But that\u2019s just how it is. I\u2019d rather be caught long than caught short, and I\u2019d rather stock up when stuff is on sale than buy piecemeal quantities in a last-minute hurry. That\u2019s worse than wasteful. It\u2019s just plain demoralizing.<\/p>\n
While I was doing my SOHO spring cleaning I came across a boxed-up photo printer. I had purged a couple of others a long time ago, but this one managed to hide. Well, out it went. For my low utilization, photo printers never really made sense, so, unlike the laminating realm, this is one task I\u2019m still going to take to the store. <\/p>\n
But I can mix one with the other now. The next time I have photos printed I\u2019m not going to frame them. No, I\u2019m just going to laminate them and then thumb-tack them to my bulletin board.<\/p>\n
My wife told me this is low-brow, cheesy, and totally unacceptable.<\/p>\n
Hey, just my style! Yes, it\u2019s a true reflection of me, indeed. Ain\u2019t SOHO grand?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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