Coupon-cutting, garage sales, and thrift shopping have never been things I’ve been big on. Growing up, I lived near a small town community that made a huge deal out of a local garage sale day, which we always took advantage of, but I never felt a special affinity for the process like many die-hards I know.

I have enjoyed being a patron of my local consignment shop over the years, though. If you follow me on social media, you may have seen the awesome small black Vera Bradly backpack I scored recently. Many of you on social replied that, like me, you weren’t a big Vera Bradly person, but you agreed it was an awesome adult-appropriate backpack. So thanks to my local consignment shop for the win!

While it’s not thrifting, I somehow feel the same way about things like Black Friday and Amazon Prime Days. It’s nice to get a bargain when you can, but I don’t let the opportunity of a bargain take over financial smarts. I imagine there’s a good chance you are the same way.

That being said, we’re a big Amazon shopping household, so we try to be somewhat conscientious of the two-day sales Amazon throws our way once or twice a year. It certainly makes for a good opportunity to add things to your cart that weren’t urgent purchases at full price but feel much more doable with a price slash.

In celebration of Amazon’s Prime Days, which starts today – October 8—the day this episode drops, I wanted to share some items that I think are basic must-haves for piano teachers. Specifically, I’m focusing on office-related things like office supplies.

By the way, I’m Amy Chaplin, and this is episode 141 of The Piano Pantry Podcast.

I’m going to kick off the list with some of the larger items—some of which aren’t exactly office supplies, but I feel they still fit into the topic area. Then, I’ll move on to some of the smaller items.

First up is a good speaker system. Whether you’re playing a recording of something for a student or having them jam along to a song on Spotify with a Chord Chart, having speakers that produce a good sound and not a staticky or unbalanced sound is important. We are in the business of sound quality, are we not? I am guilty myself of using subpar speakers for years and I completely regret it. Invest in speakers that have good sound with a nice balance of treble and bass.

I have two speakers I love. One is by Logitech and is the main speaker system on my desk. The other is a small, portable Bluetooth speaker beside the grand piano. These will be linked in the show notes and everything else I mention today. The full show notes can be found at PianoPantry.com/podcast/episode141

Next up is a 12” or larger paper cutter. I have a Rotatrim brand that has a sliding blade rather than a cutting arm, and I love it. This particular brand IS a couple of hundred dollars, but I admit I got mine for free. When I first met my husband, he was doing wedding photography. He used this cutter for wedding photos. It’s a really nice quality. If you find yourself cutting a lot of teaching manipulatives, it’s really nice to have something that works well and speeds up the process. This is one of those items that is good to put in your cart and snag when it goes on sale, as I was talking about in the intro.

Speaking of cutting up manipulatives, the next item I recommend is a laminator. I purchased my Apache Laminator something like 14 years ago and it is still going strong. I don’t use it as much now as I did in my early days of teaching when I was building a library of teaching manipulatives and resources but I still appreciate having it available when needed.

The fourth item is a tool I bet most of us never think about actually purchasing but would have plenty of instances where it could be useful and that is a long-reach stapler. How many times have you had students come into lessons with the book covers falling off? I bet it happens a good half-dozen times a year for me in my studio, and at $15, a long-reach stapler is an office supply well worth your purchase.

Fifth up is an electric water kettle. Whether you work from home or at a studio location, an electric water kettle for heating water for tea is so nice to have around. I would say this is even more so if you have employees. Well-stocked workrooms can make the work environment much more comfortable for your hard-working teachers. My favorite Kettle is the OXO brand one. It’s beautiful and has a large capacity, which is nice for also boiling water faster than on a stovetop.

The sixth item on my office must-have list is magazine holders – sometimes called vertical file folder storage. I don’t know how I would organize my studio life without magazine holders! They have totally changed the way I organize things. Here’s my pet peeve, though. Most magazine holders are way too wide to be useful. Unless you have enough stuff to fill it full, items will be left to slump and bend. After years of this annoyance, I finally decided to invest in nice quality plastic file organizers that look nice sitting out. The ones I got from mDesign are amazing. In the description for the product, they state that they are “thoughtfully sized,” and I couldn’t agree more as they are only 3” wide. Things live much more nicely inside these organizer bins than the wide cardboard ones I had used for years. I have just over 20 of them I have to admit and honestly, I’m tempted to buy more.

The mDesign brand makes such great products – desk bin organizers—the seventh item on my list—are also great to get from them. Mine has a couple of small drawers and different sizes of vertical storage on top. If you have a table-top type of desk that doesn’t have storage drawers, desktop organizers like this are a must.

Now that I’m just a little over halfway through my list, I wanted to take a moment to stop and thank all my friends over on Patreon for supporting this show. Any time I’m struggling to find the time to make this podcast happen; thinking of you all helps me keep chugging away. I like to give a special direct shout-out to all my Insiders, and today, I’m saying thanks to Raydene Koch. Thanks, Raydene, for partnering with me to produce this show. Visit PianoPantry.com/patreon to join today.

OK so moving along!

The eighth item on my list is one that my husband keeps snatching out of my office and that’s a label maker. Of course, every time I need it, it’s missing because he didn’t bring it back – that and the digital scales I keep in my kitchen. I’m like – go buy your own label maker and digital scale. LOL. I like keeping the label maker right in my teaching area as I’ve gotten into the habit of labeling the student names on all of their books if it’s a family with siblings. Come to think of it, though, this might be a great way to communicate with families which book is the current books they are using. How often do you have students come to lessons with the wrong books or missing books because someone else in their household had to gather them? You could label the word “current” on the front of their book and then pull the label off when they are no longer using it.

Ninth up is cleaning products for your pianos. The one item I always recommend is the Guardsman Dusting Cloth. It has a very light tack on it and is great for dusting without sprays.

Moving into double digits, the tenth item you’ll want to consider having on hand is a mini vacuum, which is also handy for sweeping around the grand piano – especially eraser junk from the music stand and between the tuning pins. I just shared this new item in my Friday Finds post last week on the blog and, right away, had a friend tell me she was ordering it. The one I recently purchased and like so far is small, lightweight, easy to clean vacuum that has a little stand it can be stored on. It also has minimal attachments and a replacement filter and is just under $30. Just be aware that it charges on USB.

A modern-day issue that was an organizational struggle growing up but has only gotten worse as technology has increased is cord and cable organization. Two things that are handy to keep around are cable ties – I like the rubber ones that easily twist around on themselves, and cord organizer clips that help keep multiple cords that are in one location lined up neatly, like alongside your desk. I currently have three cords going through mine – chargers for my laptop, a lightning cable for my iPhone 12, and a USB-C for my iPad. By the way, does anyone else have a hard time spelling the word cord c-o-r-d as a musician? LOL I catch myself all the time spelling it c-h-o-r-d. Anyway, LOL…

The final and twelfth item on this office supply must-have list is erasable highlighters, pens, and/or colored pencils. Frixion is the brand I see teachers sharing and enjoying the most, and I have had good luck with it as well. If I had to only have one, their yellow highlighters are my go-to. These are wonderful for making marks on music – especially dynamics. As a matter of fact, I like to try and keep yellow only for dynamic markings so we have consistency.

Just to recap of our office must-have list:

Speakers
Paper Cutter
Laminator
Long-Reach Stapler
Electric Water Kettle
Vertical Magazine File Holders
Desk bin organizer
Label maker
Cleaning products for pianos
Mini vacuum
Cord and cable organizers
Erasable highlighters, pens, and/or colored pencils

Ok, ok, I know what you’re thinking. I didn’t include post-its! Well, I’m not a superstitious person, but the sound of a 12-item list is just nicer than the sound of a 13-item list, and I figured for most of us, post-its are a no-brainer. Am I right?

Besides getting links to everything shared in this episode, if you want more on this topic, I would suggest jumping into the show notes for links to a blog post on the Piano Pantry website called Piano Teacher Must-Haves: A Minimalist’s List. You will find different items than you got on the list today. You’ll also see a link to a whole slew of pages on the Piano Pantry website highlighting all my favorites, from studio organization to kitchen tools and more.

I think I’ll sign off today by wishing you all kinds of great deals on Amazon Prime shopping day and a cheers to bargain hunting – here here.

141 – 12 Office Must-Haves for Studio Music Teachers

Subscribe

Support the Podcast

Items Mentioned and Other Related Content

Transcript

Categories