Paper Bags, Employee Logins, and Mold in Water Bottles: Your Random Office Questions Answered

Look, I manage purchasing for a 200-person company—roughly $45,000 annually across 12 vendors. I report to both operations and finance, which means I get questions about everything. Not just "where do we order envelopes" but "why can't I log into the employee portal" and "is this mold in my water bottle going to kill me."

This is the actual grab-bag of questions I've fielded in the past month. Some are about International Paper specifically. Some are... not. Here's what I know.

"I can't remember my International Paper employee login—what do I do?"

If you're an IP employee trying to access the My IP portal, your username is typically your employee ID or email address. The password? That's whatever you set it to during onboarding. (I know, helpful.)

Here's the thing: I can't actually help you reset it—I'm not IT, and every company's internal systems are different. What I can tell you is the standard process:

• Look for a "Forgot Password" link on the login page
• Contact your HR or IT help desk directly
• Check your employee handbook for the IT support number

From the outside, it looks like logging into an employee portal should be simple. The reality is these systems often have security requirements that lock you out after 3 attempts, require password changes every 90 days, or need VPN access if you're working remotely. (Should mention: I've locked myself out of our own systems more times than I'd like to admit.)

"What's the deal with International Paper Valliant? Are the reviews accurate?"

The Valliant, Oklahoma facility is one of International Paper's manufacturing sites. If you're looking at employee reviews—Glassdoor, Indeed, that kind of thing—here's my take after years of reading vendor and employer reviews:

Reviews skew negative. People who have a bad experience are 3-4x more likely to write a review than people who are satisfied. That's not an IP-specific thing; it's human nature.

What I look for instead:

• Patterns over time (one bad review means nothing; ten saying the same thing means something)
• Specificity (vague complaints vs. concrete issues)
• Management responses (do they engage or ignore?)

I can only speak to dealing with IP as a customer, not an employee. From that angle, they've been reliable on containerboard orders—though I should note we're not a huge account, so my experience might not match a Fortune 500's.

"There's mold in my Owala water bottle. What now?"

Okay, this one lands on my desk because I ordered 50 Owala bottles as employee gifts last year. And yes, I've gotten the panicked Slack messages.

First: don't panic. Mold in reusable water bottles is common—not because Owala is bad, but because any bottle that holds liquid and doesn't fully dry out will eventually grow something. (Ugh.)

The fix:

1. Disassemble everything—lid, straw, any silicone gaskets
2. Soak in a mixture of warm water and white vinegar (1:1 ratio) for 30 minutes
3. Scrub with a bottle brush, paying attention to the straw and lid crevices
4. For stubborn spots, make a paste with baking soda and water
5. Rinse thoroughly and let air dry completely before reassembling

The prevention nobody tells you: leave the lid off when storing. Trapped moisture is the enemy. I learned this the hard way with my own bottle—thought the smell was just "bottle smell." It was not.

"Where can I get free posters for the office?"

Real talk: "free" usually means low-quality or limited selection. But here's what I've found actually works:

Government and nonprofit sources (legitimately free):

• OSHA has free workplace safety posters (required in most offices anyway)
• Department of Labor posters for minimum wage, FMLA, etc.
• SBA occasionally offers small business resources

Corporate freebies (hit or miss):

• Some software companies send branded posters if you're a customer
• Industry associations sometimes have member resources

The honest answer: If you want something that looks good and isn't a safety compliance poster, you're probably spending $15-40 at a place like Society6 or getting something printed. Standard poster printing (18×24, 100lb gloss text) runs about $8-15 per poster at online printers for quantities of 10+. Based on publicly listed prices, January 2025.

The upside was free decor. The risk was it looking cheap. I kept asking myself: is "free" worth the office looking like a DMV waiting room? Ended up spending $200 on actual art prints. No regrets.

"How do I make a paper bag out of wrapping paper?"

This comes up every December when someone realizes we're out of gift bags and the office holiday party is in two hours.

Here's the quick version:

1. Cut wrapping paper to roughly 2.5x the width of what you're wrapping and 3x the height
2. Fold one long edge over about 1 inch and crease (this becomes the top of the bag)
3. Wrap the paper around a box or book that's the size you want the bag interior to be
4. Overlap the edges and tape
5. Fold the bottom like you're wrapping a present—triangular flaps in, then fold up
6. Slide out the box, add tissue paper, done

The result won't look store-bought. It'll look handmade—which, depending on your office culture, is either charming or cheap. At least, that's been my experience with our fairly casual team. If you're dealing with executive gifts or client-facing situations, the calculus might be different.

For reference, actual paper gift bags cost about $1-3 each in bulk. International Paper and other manufacturers make the kraft paper that ends up in those bags, but you're not buying direct from them—you're going through a distributor or retail.

"Should I just order custom paper bags with our logo?"

Since we're talking about International Paper and packaging—this is where they actually play. Custom printed paper bags for retail, events, or corporate gifting.

Here's something vendors won't tell you: minimum orders are the real barrier, not unit price. You might see "$0.50/bag" but the minimum is 5,000 units. For a 200-person company doing maybe 100 client gifts a year, that's a 50-year supply.

The numbers said go with custom bags—professional, branded, $0.50 each. My gut said that's insane for our volume. Went with my gut. We use plain kraft bags ($0.15 each, no minimum) with a custom sticker ($0.10 each, minimum 250). Total cost: $0.25/bag, looks intentional, and we're not storing 4,900 bags in the supply closet.

Three things I always check: minimum order quantity, setup fees (custom Pantone colors run $25-75 extra per color), and lead time. In that order.

What questions am I missing?

This worked for us, but our situation was a mid-size professional services company with pretty standard needs. Your mileage may vary if you're in retail, manufacturing, or dealing with specialized packaging requirements.

The vendor who lists all fees upfront—even if the total looks higher—usually costs less in the end. I've learned to ask "what's NOT included" before "what's the price." That applies to employee portal support, printing services, and honestly most things in procurement.

(I really should write a proper FAQ for our internal team. Adding that to the list.)