Our favorite gear (not sold here edition)

Random International Instant Labeling Tape; $18; www.random-international.com

Janko Roettgers, blogger, P2P-Blog.com:

I picked up this adhesive tape several months ago while visiting a design shop in Berlin. Produced by a design collective based in London, it comes in 65-meter-long spools and is printed with block designs that look like a digital clock gone haywire. You use a Sharpie to black out the lines you don't want seen, which leaves behind a smart-looking digital-style script. I bought this eye-catching tape because I thought it would make a good gift, but eventually I began using it to label work-related boxes for storage. Now I use it for tax files and my magazine collection too. Creating the labels takes longer than scribbling directly on boxes and folders, but it's much more fun and, unlike my handwriting, guarantees that the labels are 100 percent legible. Now when I go looking for specific files, I don't have to wrack my brain deciphering unreadable names that I scrawled weeks or months earlier.