We love to hear that our customers have found creative ways to use our products, and one of the stories we have heard that was unexpected, even to us, despite the many different ways we have found to use our wood paint sticks, came from librarians.

If you’ve ever had to keep books organized, you know how hard it can be to keep track of where each one belongs. Experienced librarians, curators, and researchers have learned that the best thing to do is to insert a marker in the spot where the book belongs, so when it’s time to put it back, you can easily see just where it belongs. Cardstock strips work too, but they are more difficult to insert and to keep in good condition because they get crumpled easily.

By using a paintstick, you have a tool that is easy to grasp and firm enough to insert without having it get bent up if the books to either side tip together.

Simple Labels Add Organization

To take the functionality to an even higher level, you can put labels on the paint sticks. Since it might not be feasible to write a new label every time you pull a book off the shelf, consider using our thinner 8-inch wavy craft sticks (the size that’s perfect for wooden fan handles) in pairs. You can use a simple numbering system, or make up a fun secret color code, just as long as you make two sticks have each number/code. When you remove a book from the shelf, slip one of the thin wooden craft sticks into the book and one with the matching symbol into its slot on the shelf. That will make it very easy to re-shelve the books because you won’t even have to think about which book goes in which slot!

Not Just for Books

This system works equally well for file folders, stacks of papers, boxes, recipe cards, and any other place where you need to put something back in the same spot where you found it. The wood fan sticks are recommended for books because they are thin enough to slip between the pages, but you might find that our 9-inch wooden paint sticks are just right for your file drawers or boxes of folders, where the shorter wooden fan handles would get lost.

Flag Low Inventory

If you need to keep an inventory of small or boxed items, it’s always a challenge to get people to report when stock is running low, or even if they take the last one, but it could be a lot easier to have stacks of brightly colored paint sticks on the end of each rack, so that anyone noticing something running low could just grab a marker and stick it in the right place. Then a manager can easily scan each shelf once a day and note what needs to be replenished.

We’d love to hear how you’ve been inspired to use our paintsticks! Tell us on our website at https://woodpaintsticks.com/contact-us/ or shoot us an email at support@ChristensenNielsen.com.

P.S. We’d love to post a picture in our gallery!