Helpful Things 2

OK -- in this installment I'll be talking about a pretty mundane item. You're definitely going to say something like "no shit Sherlock" when you read this.

I give you Masking Tape.

This shit right here.

No, not duct tape.

Nope.

Masking tape (or painters tape) is primarily sold as a way to cover things when you're painting, without damaging other painted surfaces. You know, to mask stuff off. It doesn't a great job of this. But this is not the reason I sing its praises. What I like about it is that it can quickly be used to put things on walls -- better than scotch tape -- and, unlike duct tape or scotch tape, it doesn't leave a residue. We used to throw a ton of house parties. Masking tape was our go-to for hanging decorations while sparing the abuse on our walls. Also, if you need to hang a note and you don't have Post Its, masking tape and a scrap of paper to the rescue. Stronger than any Post It and any size note works.

OK -- so all that falls into the "no shit" category, granted. Here are couple other things I love about this stuff. First, you can use it to quickly wrap bundles of cables (or anything really) together. You know, you have a long-ass cable or, say, a string of Christmas lights, and you want to keep them neat-ish. Masking tape does a great job at this. Also, when you undo the bundle, there's no sticky residue. I keep a roll in my suitcase to bundle all kinds of stuff together -- it works on fabric too.

I use masking tape to keep my pill cases shut during travel. This keeps them from popping open and giving you a real problem upon arrival. Once at my destination, I simply peel the tape off. Again, no residue!

Tape that mofo up!

Another great use I found for the stuff is hanging things that have those mounting holes in the back. You can use masking tape to precisely transfer the location of the holes to a wall. I'm not going explain the whole thing -- I'll let this Wired article do it for me. I've done this dozens of times.

Two more -- Use masking tape to temporarily close packages until you can follow up with harder-to-use packaging tape. It will hold boxes shut for a remarkably long time. Also, I've used masking tape to secure screws, nuts, bolts, and other doodads to something I've taken apart -- like furniture. I'll tape them right to the part so they're proximate to where they go when the I put the thing back together.

Couple other things to keep in mind:

• You can always find the start of the tape. Packing or Scotch Tape suck at this.
• It's really, really cheap. Masking tape is the cheapest tape available. No excuse not to have a ton of it around. I kept a couple rolls in my toolbox, one in the kitchen, and definitely one in my suitcase.

OK -- so Masking Tape may not set the work on fire, and it certainly doesn't have all the unconventional uses of its redneck cousin, Duct Tape, but, to me, it is infinitely more useful day-to-day... and who really wants a fucking duct tape wallet?

Presently somewhere, 

Andy