Transparent Duct Tape

            Transparent duct tape is a problem. When there is no handle with a blade to keep track of the end, then good luck wasting your time. People purchase duct tape on a regular basis because it’s a very versatile product. The problem is, the producers still sell the rolls of tape that look like the one in the above picture.

            A single roll of duct tape is a pain in the butt to work with. First of all, keeping track of the end is annoying in itself. I don’t know about the producers of this product by I’m human and I only have two hands. When I’m working with duct tape I feel like I need at least three. I need a hand for the scissors, a hand to hold the roll of tape, and also a hand to hold the end of the tape so I don’t have to go searching for it.

            The other day I shipped a box to my family back in New York. I packed everything I needed into the box and I began to look for a roll of tape in my apartment. I found a big roll of transparent duct tape (similar to the one in the above picture) and I thought to myself, “here we go.” I knew exactly what I was getting myself into so I was strategically going to plan this out. However, before I even was going to prevent the problem, it was already there. It took me a solid five minutes to first find the end of the tape. On top of that, when I went to peel it, I got caught in the exact situation I was trying to avoid; you know, the never-ending cycle of peeling the tape back but only getting half of it? Well, I was in a 15-minute battle with this roll of tape going back and forth peeling sides trying to even them out. Yes you read that right, those fifteen minutes isn’t even including the extra five minutes I originally spent just looking for the end.

            I was hoping to find a picture of what I’m trying to explain but nothing seemed to come up. I don’t think it’s too big of a deal though because I’m sure you understand exactly what I’m talking about. So, to conclude my story I decided to toss the roll of tape and just take the opened box to the UPS store. The people there were nice enough to do the taping for me. And yes, if you were wondering, they did have the roll of tape with the handle (similar to the one in the picture below). They’ve been around the block and they’re obviously not making that mistake twice.