Whether you work in a home office, a large office or someplace in between, using office paper wisely can save you considerable time, aggravation and money. Here are five ways to ensure you are getting the most from your paper budget.
1. Print presentations on lesser grades for proofing.
Despite best efforts, even highly polished and scrutinized presentations rarely print exactly the way we want them to. Unexpected surprises include typos, inconsistent use of fonts and type outside the margins. It’s more economical to work out the glitches on a lesser grade sheet than to print several iterations on your presentation grade stock.
2. Buy presentation grade paper in advance.
The best time to ensure your presentation will look its best is before you start creating it. Checking your supply area up front keeps you from making costly, time-consuming trips to the store the night before your presentation is due.
3. Store your paper correctly.
The moisture content of paper greatly affects the runnability of the sheet in your printer. In fact, most grades are produced using very tight guidelines for moisture content to ensure the paper will run smoothly for clean, even printing without jamming. To keep your paper as fresh as possible, store your paper in a moisture free area (never stacked on a concrete floor), continuously rotate your stock, keep reams wrapped until ready for use and re-wrap papers that are used infrequently.
4. Use every sheet twice.
A significant amount of office paper enters the waste stream before it needs to—particularly in paper-intensive businesses such as publishing, legal firms and financial institutions. Choosing a heavier sheet that minimizes show through to facilitate printing on both sides or using the unprinted side of scrap paper for taking notes or printing e-mail lets you use two sheets for the price of one.
5. Standardize your presentation grade.
Many offices still buy their presentation paper on an ad hoc basis, which usually means they are spending more that they need to. By standardizing your presentation grade and buying in bulk, you can save significantly over the course of a year.
