Post-It® Notes

According to the 3M website, Post-It® notes were first sold nationwide in 1980. It wasn’t long after that that my dad brought home a stack to me after work one day. (He would bring me little “treats” from time to time, and I always got so excited.) As a 6-year old, I was amazed that I could stick something to the wall and not get in trouble for it. And thus began my love of Post-It® notes.

Post-It® notes just make me feel organized....and professional. (Forget I’m sitting here in my pajamas, surrounded by random Post-It® notes, amid a sea of coupons that need filing. It’s a feeling; reality is sometimes overrated.) And I like the crinkly cellophane wrapper with the built-in pull tab to open it. It's like getting a new CD.

One of my favorite “happies” over the past couple of years was a birthday present from my Aunt Linda. It’s a pop-up Post-It® note dispenser. It has a nice padded bottom, filled with sand (to keep it from sliding around), and it’s PINK. I would say that’s the perfect mix of form and function.

With this dispenser in mind, the majority of the Post-It® notes I use these days are the standard square size. I do like to get a little crazy and buy the bright color pack of notes. (I reserve the standard light yellow color for when I’m trying to show restraint and/or actually be professional.) I use Post-It® notes all the time….mostly for lists….lots of lists. (Writing lists in neat print, sometimes with bullet points, is another thing that makes me happy. But that’s a topic for another day.)

I also have the tiny notes on hand, which I use most often to flag pages in books and magazines. And the larger rectangular notes are great for the longer to-do lists that I like to put inside my calendar.

And that brings me to perhaps the best thing about Post-It® notes….they allow you to be non-committal. Decide you no longer like the recipe you flagged? Toss the Post-It® note! Want to throw away your to-do list without a trace (because you didn’t cross even one thing off)? Toss the Post-It® note! Oops.…except wait….I need that one back. Good thing my “bright color notes” stand out in the recycle bin!