Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Stocking Up on Office Supplies

What is it about supplies that I love so much?

I looked forward to going back to elementary and high school because it meant that I would be buying brand-new school supplies. Thoughts of new crayons, paper, binders, colored pencils, mechanical pencils and pencil cases from Hello Kitty, and perhaps a new backpack, danced in my head. I remember having a Hello Kitty pencil case that included a pencil sharpener, magnifying glass, and ruler once, and that was my prized possession for two school years – 6th and 7th grade. I still have a pencil case from Hello Kitty that I carry around (see above photo) but it’s nowhere near its 6th grade counterpart.

This love of supplies never waned, and one of my favorite things to do is check out the supply room for cool new things. Today, I visited the supply room for tape and came back to my desk with the following:

1 can of office and desk cleaner
2 rolls of tape
1 can of cleaning duster (you can never keep your keyboard too clean)
1 glue stick
2 refills for my click eraser
1 Sharpie pen
1 Sharpie accent highlighter
1 “Copy” stamp

I’m very particular about keeping my workspace clean and organized. I hate rifling through my desk to look for things – important documents are sorted and filed, and notepads and post-its are displayed prominently in my cube for easy access. The last thing I want to do is forget something important by not writing it down.

I think the reason I love supplies so much is their usefulness and specificity. I love it when I find a pen that writes smoothly – it makes handwriting a breeze and a pleasure. I also love having different colors of the same pen (my current favorite is the Precise V5 rolling ball pen from Pilot) so that I can color-code tasks (red for urgent, green for next week, pink for notes, etc.) and/or highlight notes that I’ve taken. My office doesn’t supply these pens so I’ve had to buy them myself from Staples or Office Depot – that is how much I love having certain supplies.

Yes, I am a freak. A super-organized, tidy, and prepared freak.

3 comments:

Momisodes said...

I can totally relate! I loved those Sanrio pencil cases too. Press a button..*pow!* out shoots a sharpener.....It was like the nerdy, school supply version of Transformers :)

Anonymous said...

I'll admit it, I have a bit of a pen fetish myself. I'm all about the fluidity of the ink pen. Ball points just don't do it for me. And yes, I too can spend a pretty penny in an office supply store. Worse still, or would that be better yet...a stationary store! Ooooh pens!

Anonymous said...

I absolutely adore buying school supplies. I have an 8 year old and a 12 year old, and I have enough school supplies to last both of them until they get into high school.

I just love the smell of a new box of crayons, that neat pile of notebook paper, the spiral notebooks that haven't been wrote in yet and all those pink pearl erasers.

I guess you can say that I am a little obsessed, but I just love knowing that if my kids come home with an art project that needs completing, I am up for the challenge.

The only thing that I haven't been able to find readily is 18X24 construction paper. I can't imagine what the teachers have in mind wanting paper that large.