Laminate It!

I'm glad I decided to get my own tabletop laminator for home and hobby projects.
 No more trips to the office supply store where they charge $1-$2 per 8 1/2 x11 sheet.
 Did you know you can buy a box of 100  8 1/2 x 11 sheets for about 10 bucks on Amazon?
And laminators can be as low as $20 depending on the brand you buy!

As a mom, I know this tool could come in handy for SO MANY THINGS!
When I taught middle school for a couple of years, I had a lot of experience with laminated things. It can get annoying having to cut little things such as letters out of long sheets of that stuff, but it sure does help things last and look nice.

Did you know there are variations in thickness of the lamination material? You can get it thin, which most stores supply automatically. This thickness is easily rolled up, generally shiny and doesn't change the thickness of what you are laminating very much.

I like thicker material that turns what your a laminating into more of a card thickness.....more stiff.

Here are some ideas for things you might find useful to laminate:

1) Educational cards/pictures/pages

If you have workbooks, alphabet cards, or something educational that can be useful to have reusable, laminate it!

2) Important cards
Sometimes insurance companies, the library, and a variety of other places give plain paper cards for customers to use. These cards can get bent/ripped in your wallet, so laminate them!

3) Information for your babysitter
Print out a paper with lines for you to fill in useful phone numbers, place you will be, when you are expecting to come home, or any other special instructions. When your babysitter goes home for the night, erase it! ;)

4) Household chore lists
Print out the chore checklists and laminate them.
You can make a daily list for each day of the week, and when Monday comes, pull out the Monday card. Kids would have fun checking off the list too.
Each day can have a mix of daily, weekly and the occasional monthly duty that has to be done.

5) Grocery shopping list....I will have a free printable for this tomorrow!!

I like to arrange my grocery shopping in the order of isles I visit in order. For instance, I make my list with produce first, since that is the first place I stop in the store

side hint....put produce and healthier items in your cart first, so later on when you are tempted to put the oreos in, you won't have the room to fit it in the cart. ...and no, that doesn't mean carry them in your arms ;)

6) Your favorite recipes
Do you have a go-to recipe you always love to make? After a while, those food splatters and folding it up repeatedly can ruin it......laminate it!

I am sure I will continue to realize more, so stay tuned ;)