StayPut vs. Blue Painter's Tape
Tape is cheap and better than nothing — it can tell you a door opened sometime overnight, if it stayed stuck and you go check. StayPut sends the alert the moment the door opens.
When we asked teachers what their overnight plan was, the most common answer — by far — was blue painter's tape. There had to be a better way. So we built one. But let's give tape a fair hearing first.
At a glance
| Category | StayPut | Blue painter's tape |
|---|---|---|
| Tells you a door opened | Instantly, on your phone | Next morning — if you check and it stayed stuck |
| Tells you when | Yes — every event is timestamped | No |
| Wakes you up | Only if a door opens after curfew | Never — that's the problem |
| Student countermeasures | Opening the door triggers the alert either way | Peel carefully, re-stick before dawn |
| Flags which rooms have kids | No — small, unlabeled sensors | Yes — visible to the whole hallway |
| Documentation | Full door-activity and alert log per trip | None |
| Damage risk | Removable adhesive with free replacement strips | Usually clean; occasionally pulls paint |
| Cost | $500 first-trip hardware (reusable) + $10 per room per night | About $8 a roll |
What tape actually tells you
A broken strip of tape tells you one thing: this door opened at some point between lights-out and whenever you checked. It doesn't say whether that was 11:05 PM or 4 AM, whether it opened once or five times, or whether anyone left. And it only tells you after the night is over, when whatever happened has already happened. Chaperones don't tape doors because it works well; they tape doors because until now there wasn't a purpose-built alternative.
The prank problem
Ask any veteran advisor: students know the tape trick. The bold ones peel it off as a joke. Ultimately, the signal you're relying on is in the hands of the people you're monitoring. A StayPut sensor doesn't care how carefully the door is opened — the moment it opens during curfew, the alert is already on your phone.
The part nobody mentions: it advertises the rooms
A hallway where six doors have blue tape on them is a hallway where anyone walking by knows exactly which rooms are full of kids. That always sat wrong with us. StayPut's sensors are small, unlabeled, and mean nothing to a passerby.
What tape does better
It's nearly free, it needs zero setup or batteries, and its visibility cuts both ways — students who see the tape know someone's paying attention, which deters some of them. If your budget is genuinely $8, tape plus a firm night-one talk beats doing nothing, and we'd rather you do that than nothing at all. Our curfew rules guide works with either.
What the difference costs
For a 3-night, 10-room trip, StayPut runs about $800 the first trip and about $300 each trip after — $10 per room per night, a few dollars per student. What you get for it: actually sleeping instead of doing 2 AM tape checks, knowing the moment a door opens instead of the morning after, and a documented log if your administration ever asks what your overnight process was.
Common questions
Comparing other options? See StayPut vs. SimpliSafe and StayPut vs. Hired Security.
You taped doors because there was nothing better. Now there is.
Set up in minutes. Reusable trip after trip.