Home Office Essentials

First, can I just say Thank God for helpful hubbies that are willing to cut, laminate and Velcro materials for your classroom? I know it’s not Corey’s favorite thing in the world, but nothing makes me happier then when he sits down and starts tackling the pile in the corner of our living room.

I always waited to use the supplies at my school. I started to realize two things. First, the quality of some of the products at my school were not great so I was having to remake materials every couple of months. Also, the work goes faster when I’m at home with a glass of wine and my puppy.

Tomorrow is Prime Day for Amazon-and I will be watching to see if my favorites go up as part of the sale! Here are the things I have at home that I can’t live without now!

1. A laminator! I can’t believe I’ve only been using the school laminator. The quality from the home laminators is incredible. A lot of my colleagues use Scotch brand, but I find the Amazon brand to work just fine! This laminator costs about $22 and a package of 100 laminating sheets is only $13! I still use the school laminator for file folders, books and other big pieces. I use the at home laminator for all of the little pieces that get handled frequently by the kids.
2. Velcro-I actually buy off brand because Velcro is super expensive. I do splurge and buy the pre-cut discs, cutting lamination is a total pain. I really like this brand, it seems to be holding up pretty well! 1000 pieces may seem like a lot but trust me, once you get into the file folder/adapted book world you will be flying through your stock.
3. A paper cutter-my husband bought this for my birthday and I absolutely love it! I think he bought it for himself to be honest, but either way it was a great addition to my home office. It did cost about $30 but it was worth it@

I have my eyes set on a new binding machine. One of my favorite bloggers, Simply Special Ed, posts that she uses the RubiCoil binding machine and her binding on her books looks awesome. I want one badly but the price tag is holding me back. Here’s to hoping that it goes on sale tomorrow!

What are your classroom essentials?