Ron Wallin, FireKing's National Sales Manager, spent the day here yesterday teaching us about FireKing's line of record protection files, safes & vaults. I had always thought of FireKing's products as fireproof files. Ron explained that "fireproof is only one feature of our products. Their real purpose is vital records protection; to protect a business's irreplaceable records from fire, theft, impact damage and explosions!" We were also surprised to learn that 59% of customers believe that their files are protected from fire if they are stored in a metal file cabinet. Ron explained that while the metal won't burn, that doesn't protect the papers inside from the heat of the fire, which can result in spontaneous combustion inside the cabinet.

Does it really matter if I get a little greener? That's a question I've asked myself and you may have too. To answer, I'd like to share some information from the Natural Resource Defense Council's web site (complete article here). 

If every household in the US bought 1 box each of 100% recycled facial tissues, toilet paper, paper towels & napkins (rather than products made from virgin fiber) more than 2 million trees could be saved annually.

Looks like doing just a little can help a lot. How many rolls of paper towels do you use every year? Rolls of toilet paper, boxes of facial tissue? Imagine how many trees could be saved if we all bought 100% recycled paper products.

If you're interested in trying any green household paper alternatives, we recommend Marcal Paper products. We carry more than 20 recycled Marcal Papers, all containing more than 30% post consumer waste. You can see our entire selection from Marcal Paper here.

And learn more about shopping green with the NRDC's Shopper's Guide to Home Tissue Products.

It looks like Pens and Markers are no longer just for writing.  These folks have come up with a very creative use for them called Pen-Spinning. Sometimes office supplies can be used for more than just one specific purpose.  Some of the more adept "spinners" take this very seriously. Apparently there are different tricks and even tournaments. This site explains how to modify a Pentel RSVP Pen to make it more conducive to spinning.

Check out the video to see these "Spinners" in action.

When I showed my best friend Lisa the new line of fashion lockboxes & totes made for hair stylists; Shear Security, that we're offering she said "Ok – this is darling….but it doesn’t seem like office supplies." And she's right. So why is an office products store selling beauty products? For that I "blame" my friends at IdeaStream who make the Vaultz line of media storage cases.