For the love of the Post-It note

Heads-up: Here follows an exposition on the merits of the Post-It note.

(It happened in a moment of nothingness and wandering thoughts.)

Written: June 23, 2014, Monday, 3:36pm

I adore Post-It notes. I just love them. And I’ve had many experiences that compare the genuine, original Post-It notes and the imitation sticky notes. (Scripti comes close.) But each time, the Post-It surpasses them all.

For example, I have here two large sticky notes: A Post-It note and an imitation sticky note. They are both stuck to the wall of my little cubicle – that’s basically a hard plastic surface. After a few days, the orange (imitation) sticky note started to flip up – curl up at the corners – and the sticky part is coming undone. The green Post-It I must still test, but from the start it stays flat on to the surface without curling.

Another experience is with my chord notebook that I used for about 4 years while volunteering for the music ministry at my church, Victory Cagayan de Oro. Each page had Post-Its stuck on with one song per Post-It, and when I was actually playing I’d line the keyboard with the Post-Its where I could easily consult them for those mentally elusive chord sequences and they wouldn’t be seen from the crowd. This worked well, no matter how much I unstuck and stuck those Post-Its on again. They stayed flat and they stuck on. After a while, I began to run out of Post-Its. Since there are numerous other imitation sticky notes on the market available at a much lower price, I got some to add more songs to my chord notebook. I almost immediately saw the difference between these notes and the Post-Its. At first they worked fine. But after a few transfers and unsticking and sticking back on, they started to lose their stick. They also curled up annoyingly while on the keyboard surface, and even on the edges of my notebook. (Not that I’ve ever tried the Post-It tabs, so I can’t say for those.)

I wonder why. Is it that the paper used is lighter and thinner than the Post-It paper, so Post-Its don’t curl so much? But how do they make it so that the adhesive remains sticky even after numerous unstickings? At any rate, I reach my conclusion. Post-Its are just the best.

June 23, 2014
Imitation sticky note vs. a Post-It note

(Update: as of today, January 30, 2015, the green Post-It note is still flat and straight on my cubicle wall. The orange – well, at least it hasn’t come off yet.)