Hi everyone.
Itís Alejandra.
And in this video, Iím going to share with you two ways to set up your school binder.
The first way is a more traditional way with a three-ring binder.
And the second way is for students or people who donít like to use three-ring binders
like papers never end up in the binder because it requires putting holes in it and they end
up everywhere but the binder.
So anyways, itís going to make sense once I show you.
So let me grab the binders and show you exactly what Iím talking about.
OK.
Option number one is a traditional three-ring binder just like this.
So this is the Better Binder from Staples.
Itís the binder that I always talk about that I absolutely love.
I love the quality, the color selection, the style, just everything about it.
Iíll show you inside what I love about it the most.
But this is the outside.
So this is a one-inch binder and this is actually a brand new one-inch binder.
Itís the one with the expandable spine.
So a traditional one-inch binder only hold 275 pieces of paper but now with the expandable
spine, it holds 375 sheets of paper.
So 100 more so itís just awesome.
OK.
So in the very front cover, what I did was I stuck scrapbook paper inside to kind of
personalize the cover, add a popup color, and stuff.
So yeah, I did that and then I did the same thing on the spine on the side.
I cut out a piece for the window and then I took my label maker and I put my name on
top of it.
You can put whatever you want there.
I just put my name.
And then on the cover right here, I just took a 4 x 6 piece of photo ñ whatís it called?
Itís like a 4 x 6 photo poly envelope, Iím not sure.
And I just stuck it on top of the binder.
I used double-sided Scotch Tape just like this and I stuck it on the back to hold it
in place.
And then what Iím doing here is putting the school schedule inside.
So I donít know what high schools or middle schools do now but when I was in high school,
they mailed you a 4 x 6 note card with your school schedule for the year.
And I used to always just put it inside of the pocket right here on the front but then
it would always slide around.
So I figured if I put it inside this envelope, it wonít move.
OK.
So thatís the outside.
Let me show you the inside.
All right.
So the cool thing about this brand new Better Binder with the expandable spine is it also
has this built-in poly pocket envelope built into the front cover of the binder.
So traditional binders, they just have like that half poly envelope ñ itís not even
a poly envelope but itís just a pocket right here where you stick the pieces of paper.
But with this one, it just comes built-in so itís kind of cool.
And then it has a little bungee to open and close it.
So what I would do and what I used to do in high school is I would store all the pieces
of paper that never came with holes.
So you know like teachers sometimes hand out assignments and theyíre not hole-punched?
I used to hate when they do that.
So Iíd always stick the paper in the very front cover and then when I got home or got
access to a hole puncher, I would punch them and then put the pieces of paper in the appropriate
section in the dividers.
So thatís one thing you could do.
You could put like a notebook in here or you could put maybe like some light school supplies
like a notepad or Iím not sure but thatís just a cool thing about the binder.
The best thing about the Better Binder is how the rings are on the back spine.
Theyíre not actually on the center spine.
So when you see binders with like rings on the center spine, itís kind of annoying because
every time you open and close the binder, the papers are always moving.
So the fact that the spines are on the back cover is really nice about the Better Binder.
All right.
So over here on this side is I have all my lined paper in the very front and then behind,
I have this colored lined paper that I found from Target that I thought was really fun.
So Iím guessing like Iím not in high school anymore but Iím guessing you probably cannot
turn in assignments or homework on colored paper.
Your teacher probably would not accept that.
But when I was in high school, we always wrote notes to each other.
I donít know if students still do that.
But if I had a colored paper back then, it would have been so much fun to write your
friends a note on colored paper.
So I donít know.
I thought that would be fun.
And then you can also take your own personal notes that you arenít turning in on colored
paper and kind of color-code them if that helps you with studying or just taking notes
in general.
All right.
So these dividers, these are my favorite dividers.
They are Avery ñ these are the 5-tab dividers.
Avery makes 5-tab, 8-tab, 12-tab, 15-tab, 31-tab, A-Z-tab, and monthly tabs.
And theyíre all color-coded with like really pretty colors and they all have this really
nice table of contents pages in the very front where you can just label each section just
like that.
I just did that with my label maker.
One really good tip is ñ so I always reuse my dividers like I change my binders like
if I donít need a binder anymore, Iíll change it but Iíll save the dividers.
So one thing I always do is I make a copy of the cover page so I could have a blank
cover page if I ever reuse the dividers.
So before I label ñ put my labels on, Iíll just copy this page with the copier in my
printer so I have a backup of one of these when it comes time to reuse the dividers or
you could just like stick a label on top.
But sometimes if the label doesnít match up perfectly then it doesnít look very nice
or I donít know, it doesnít look very nice.
Maybe thatís a perfectionist thing.
But anyways, thatís what I do.
So I love these dividers.
Another set of dividers that I really like thatís great for school binders is this poly
pocket dividers.
The only come in 5-tab.
These are from ñ I think theyíre from Office Depot, maybe Staples.
Iím not sure.
Iíll have to look it up.
But they have this nice poly envelope pocket in the very front so you could stick papers
in here like smaller papers or papers that donít have holes yet or other pieces of papers,
smaller ones inside the pocket.
So thatís really cool about that and theyíre color-coded also.
OK.
And then right here, I have this gusseted binder pocket that I showed in my warranties
and manual binder.
Itís basically a poly envelope pocket that has holes to it goes in the binder and it
has a little Velcro clasp just like that.
And somebody on my Facebook page had commented and said, I think she was a teacher, she said
that one cool way to use this in the binder is to put your composition notebook inside
just like that so you can always carry in your binder and itís not going to fall out.
So I thought that was a really cool tip.
So yes, so now itís not going to fall out.
All right.
And then on the back of the binder, so I donít know if students still do this but when I
was in high school and middle school, we always wrote notes to each other, slipped it in the
locker and stuff.
And in middle school, we collected them.
It was like fun to collect all your notes.
So I thought something cool would be to get one of these poly envelope pockets.
This is like full of poly envelope pockets but get another one, a smaller one and attach
it to the very back of your binder and so you could just put all the notes that you
collect.
I donít know if collecting is a good word.
But all the notes that you get like every week or whatever.
And so, this is actually an adhesive poly envelope.
But the adhesive do not adhere well to this vinyl backing so all I did was use a double-sided
mounting tape just like this.
I got this from Home Depot.
You can get it at Target also.
And I put it back here on the back of this envelope and then attach it to the binder
and now itís not going to go anywhere.
Itís totally secure so yeah.
And you could do another one up here if you really wanted to or you could just add another
one of these gusseted binder pockets to the very back and put all your notes in there.
So there are just a lot of cool options.
OK.
So that is how you set up binder number one.
Now, along with this binder is a pencil case.
Now, when I was in high school, I never kept ñ well, I donít want to say never but keeping
your pencil case inside your binder can make it kind of bulky.
Like if I put this in here, it would kind of constrict how many papers I could stick
in the binder.
And then when I close it, itís not going to close ñ well, that closes OK.
But once I add more papers, itís going to be too bulky.
So you could just keep this separate inside your backpack.
But let me just show you what is inside of the pencil case.
OK.
So this is binder option number two for people who donít necessarily like traditional binders,
maybe you donít like the rings or papers just never end up in the rings, may end up
like everywhere else but the binder.
And this might be a solution for you.
So it looks like a binder but it does not have rings.
Itís kind of cool.
Itís kind of hard to find.
And yeah, let me just show you what it looks like.
It has this little elastic bungee cords that are attached so all you do is you just take
them off.
It has got this cool table of contents in the very front that it just like peels, like
it just pulls out from underneath and you can just take it out and label it.
It comes with three different sheets so you can label it three different times.
But yeah, so if you were looking for like something in your history section, you would
just go to red and all the papers are just right here.
Thereís no ring in the way or anything.
Everything just kind of gets like shoved inside just like that.
So itís great for people who donít want to mess with rings and like the papers donít
fall out either.
So you just close it.
You could shake it this way, shake it this way, shake it this way, and nothing falls
out.
Now, I donít know how many pieces of paper it holds.
It probably holds ñ I donít know.
Iím not going to guess.
It holds a good amount so you could use it for like your main binder.
It might be kind of small.
Maybe itís like your notes binder or your homework binder or something like that.
But this is a cool option and I just added a sticker on top to kind of personalize it
a bit.
And this is the 10-tab binder.
It also comes in 5 or 6 tabs so if you donít need as many categories, you could get the
smaller one.
And I think thatís everything I want to say about it.
But it just kind of cool how it doesnít have rings.
Itís just another option.
OK.
So I hope this video was helpful.
So again, you can do option one, a traditional binder or option two, a nontraditional binder.
Either way, I will put links to all of the products I showed you in this video below
in the description and you can check it out.
And if you want more back to school organizing tips, you can watch my other school-related
videos or you could check out my website at Alejandra.TV.
And I will see you soon.
Bye!
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