361 Reader Raid: Organizing an Office with Pendaflex & a GIVEAWAY!

Ever heard of Pendaflex?  Of course you have, they are only like the most major office supply manufacturer EVER!  I bet if you checked your file cabinet, Pendaflex products would be living inside.  So imagine the insane amounts of awesomeness I felt rush over me when I was contacted by Pendaflex to participate in their Spring Free program!

They offered to send me the most incredible kit filled with a selection of Pendaflex products to organize a space in my home or office.  However, as many of you have seen here on the blog, I totally just did that back in January.  Soooooo, I asked if I could organize someone else's space with their incredible products instead, and they said YES!  Check out the plethora of products I got to play with!

It's one thing to organize your own space, and I have always wondered what challenges would come up the day I head out to help another get organized.  Instead of going straight to helping out a stranger, I decided to talk to some family members to find the fortunate sole that would get me to organize their space with some awesome products!  I ultimately chose to help out my step-dad, as he was the ideal candidate for the task {not to mention, I am probably eternally in debt to him for all the help he gave me growing up!}.  He is fairly organized, but definitely was looking for a little bit more direction and absolutely had some piles that needed to be addressed.  Perfect!

Here is a glance at his work space upon my arrival:

I spent some time chatting with him about key problem areas.  And a couple that the organizer in me spotted on my own.  I took note of the products that I was provided with, matched them up to some of the problems we highlighted, and went right to work.

First up.  Product manuals.  If you choose to keep these, they can take up boatloads of space and be hard to manage.  But Pendaflex provided me with an expandable file, which I deemed appropriate in handling the product manual situation!

In case you are wondering how I organized the manuals, I created sections for Electronics, Household Items, Appliances, Outdoor Tools and Furniture.  Ready to be impressed?

While I was filing the manuals and had the folder expanded, it looked like this:

However, it bundles up for extremely compact storage!  I promise you it's the same file with all the manuals inside!

A total space saver!!

Speaking of space saver.  All over the office I found oodles of miscellaneous office supplies, such as writing pads, journals, loose leaf paper, file folders, special printing paper...

See that, he was already sporting Pendaflex files {love the throwback box I found!!}

I knew that the Pendaflex desktop tray with labels would be the way to go with condensing all these items in an easy to find and grab way!

Into a desk drawer it all stacked:

But the insanely cool thing about the tray is that it comes with hard plastic dividers that you can label to keep items stacked, yet really easy to find!!

So now that huge stack of office supplies such as shredder sheets and notepads, are all in a super neat and tidy drawer!  Love.

Did you see that file folder on his desk??

I giggled because it had a Post-it for a label.

The funnier part was the tab on the hanging folder said 401K.  Sorry for telling on you Keith, forgive me?!  And to keep going, the inside was chalk full of hodge podge medical documents that he keeps for tax purposes.

Another expandable file came to the rescue!

Everything is now labeled and easy to locate and can either sit propped up on his desk or can be tucked away in the stylish and portable expanding file!  Triple win!!

Of course the desk really wasn't THAT bad, but I knew I could do better.  Sorry if I am sounding ego crazed, but I do heart to organize after all!

This time I used the Pendaflex Label Clips to take care of all the piles.  They were perfect for corralling items that needed to be filed, bills that needed to be paid and keeping his address labels at hand with the bills and mailing station!

And what else do people habitually throw into piles?  Why receipts of course!  Label and clip and now they have their own corralled home!

I replaced his old Planters peanut canister full of tired paperclips, with a pretty glass bowl for his new clips!  Much better!!

And I can't write this post up without giving props to my step-brother, for making his dad the coolest father's day present in history:

So after I spent a good couple of hours rummaging through piles, categorizing and using a stockpile of incredible office organizing supplies, I turned this desk:

Into this desk:

Thanks to Pendaflex for giving me the opportunity to try out your fantastic products, and thanks to my step-dad, Keith, for letting me office crash and spruce up his space, and live to tell about it right here on the blog!  Yes, I truly honestly HAD FUN doing this!  And my favorite part, is that I talked to Keith days later and he is totally digging the newly organized space and said that the systems are REALLY easy to maintain, which is his favorite part!  And we laughed together because my mom now has office envy and wants me to help her create a space of her own!  Of course, I will be totally on board with that when the time comes! 

Just when you thought this post couldn't get any better, it just did.  Pendaflex offered to give away the same office supply kit that I used to jazz up Keith's space, to one of YOU!  Wa to the hoo my friends!  This is an awesome giveaway!

Here are the details:

• One lucky reader will have the chance to win a Pendaflex Dream Kit, including the following products: PileSmart Desktop Tray, PileSmart View Folders, PileSmart Label Clips, Rapid FREEZE Stapler, Expanding File with Sliding Cover, On the Go Desktop File, SureHook Hanging Expandable File, SureHook Reinforced Hanging Folders and a GoldFibre Project Planning Notebook!

• Please ensure I have your email or blog address so I have a way to contact you when you win!
• Giveaway is open to U.S. residents only.
• Giveaway is open from Thursday, June 9th through 9:00 p.m. central time Wednesday, June 15th and the winner will be announced right here on Thursday, June 16th!

 Who is ready to WIN!?!

•  Leave a comment stating, "IHeart an Organized Office" and for fun, let me know what Pendaflex product you currently adore or are most excited to try!

Simple as that!  Good luck everyone!

Also, Pendaflex is offering up other incredible prizes such as an Apple iPad, iPod Nano, iTunes Gift Cards and Pendaflex products, if you enter to win their Way Beyond Folders photo/video contest!  To enter, all you have to do is pick one or more Pendaflex products and either create a video or take a picture showing themx one creative way to use the product outside of the home or office.  How much fun is that?  Find all the contest details here on their Facebook page!

I was not paid by Pendaflex to promote their products, just asked to give them a whirl and post about the experience.  All opinions are 100% mine.