I’ve recently been giving the house files a thorough purging and taking a serious look at just how low I can go when it comes to the number of hard copy documents we’ll need to have on hand. While we were already pretty low, I’ve managed within the last week to reduce the amount of critical paper files by an additional thirty percent.

The next step? Reduce things even further before we hit the road on a semi permanent to permanent basis. The process for how I’ll be doing this requires a separate future post entirely. The purpose of today’s piece is to give a shout out to a cool new office item I just found. The stand file “totefolio” from Globe-Weis.

These things are sleek, reasonably small and have a unique feature that makes them extremely usable in my opinion. The bottom of the file is a flexible, snap-attached section that allows you to unsnap it and fold it back for flat storage in the car or stand it up for easy sorting when you need it.

Ultimately, I’d love to be digital on everything. And certainly traveling abroad for extended periods of time makes carrying large amounts of paperwork inconvenient. However, for those running their business out of their car while visiting clients, or doing the full time RV thing, this product is a clear winner. I’m gearing down to one for personal and house files and one for business files. That’ll bring us to the point where our total paper file space is less than the size of one regular hanging file box.

From there, I’ll move on to going as digital as possible. Eventually, I may only need these things for specific short term projects. For now though, I’m in heaven. Sleek, portable and easy to use, these totefolios are bringing increased flexibility and organized space into my home office. Personal verdict? Two thumbs up. Approximate retail price where I purchased them? Around fifteen USD.

I’d love to be able to direct you to an online source for this item, but there isn’t one. The only places they are available are brick and mortar Staples locations, which is where I found the two that I bought. Believe me, did I ever search around on your behalf. You name the online office supply source, I checked. Not even an image anywhere. I finally found out that Globe-Weis products are sold under the name of Cardinal Brands. So I called the customer service number and talked to “Hank”. After giving him the item number (13 Pocket Stand File Totefolio Item # 17124), he was able to tell me that this product was one they imported and sold to one customer only. Staples. And the only place that Staples sells them is in the stores. Apparently, it’s not unusual for companies like Cardinal Brands to sell a particular item to one customer only, while selling others to various venders across the the spectrum.