How to Laminate and Reuse a Printable Calendar

What you need

A pouch laminator, laminating pouches in 3 to 5 mil thickness, 65 lb cover card stock and a straight-edge trimmer or scissors. Pouch laminators suitable for home use are inexpensive and the pouches cost a few cents each.

For a calendar you write on daily, choose matte pouches if you can find them. Gloss works but reflects overhead lights, which makes a wall calendar hard to read from an angle.

The process

1. Print on card. Use 65 lb cover or heavier. Thin paper curls inside the pouch and traps bubbles along the fold.
2. Trim before laminating. Cut the sheet to final size first, leaving at least 3 mm of clearance inside the pouch on every edge.
3. Laminate on the correct setting. Match the laminator's thickness setting to the pouch. Feed the sealed edge in first and let it pass through without pulling.
4. Cool flat, then trim. Lay it flat until cool, then trim leaving about 2 mm of sealed edge all round so the layers cannot peel.

If bubbles appear, the laminator was too cool or the sheet fed too fast. Most machines let you run the pouch through a second time, which usually clears them.

Choosing a marker

Dry-erase markers wipe cleanly from laminate but smudge if brushed before drying. Wet-erase markers stay put until wiped with a damp cloth, which is better for a calendar that gets knocked, and are what most classrooms use.

Permanent marker is recoverable from laminate: draw over the mark with a dry-erase marker and wipe both away together. Test in a corner first.

No laminator alternatives

A clear plastic document sleeve or a cheap picture frame with the glass in place both give a wipeable surface for free. The frame version looks better on a wall and lets you swap the sheet inside for a new month or a new year.

Self-adhesive laminating sheets exist and need no machine, but they are unforgiving about bubbles. Apply from one edge with a credit card as a squeegee.

When not to laminate

A dated month calendar is only useful for one month, so laminating it saves nothing. Laminate the undated things: blank monthly grids, chore charts, weekly planners and habit trackers, which are the same every cycle.

The blank calendar generator exists for exactly this. Print the grid with no date numbers, laminate once, and write the dates on with the same marker each month.