Stationery essentials for every desk – at home or in the office

Stationery essentials for every desk – at home or in the office

Hmm what should I choose to make my desk look uber cool and super eco-friendly? So you’ve invested in a cool white desk, maybe even sit-stand and now you’re wondering what essentials to buy that are in keeping. The right desktop stationery can make a breeze – and not having the right stuff can make you go…where is that post-it pad or why are there no staples in the stapler – what a waste of time. Well fear not, let’s get organised with a few staple (no pun intended) items for your lovely home desk. First up…

Stapler and staple remover

Ok, so in most offices you’ll have a plethora of choice from full strip, half strip, mini strip, metal, plastic (ouch, ok it’s not a dirty word) to the goliath heavy duty staplers capable of binding a whole stack. Of all these the full strip eco stapler has the greatest capacity holding lots of lovely metal staples and capable of up to 50 sheets of 80gsm paper in one go. The stapler that works best for you will depend on what you’re likely to be doing from home – a small compact one may be better for your drawer and to hide it from those pesky housemates who permanently borrow things... There are also heavy-duty staplers that can staple up to 250 sheets (wow! Yes that’s half a ream!) – although these are likely to be a bit overkill. Whether or not you’re doing lots of stapling you’re likely to need a staple remover – this will save you trying to take staples out with scissors, a knife or your nails (which can rip – ouch).

A variety of clips

Holding documents together without stapling them is something that you’ll probably need to do on a regular basis, whether in the office or not. Paper clips, fold back clips, bulldog clips lets sort through them as they not just for keeping sheets of paper together but pinning smaller items to larger documents. Fold back clips and bull dog clips are larger and made of metal and are a great idea if you have bigger bundles to clip together. They can also be very useful as you can usually hang them from the hole in the top if you need to display or present the document that they’re holding. Paper clips come in all sizes from the standard (really don’t need to expand here I hope) and the giant wavy ones that look like something Gulliver may have left behind in Lilliput on his travels!

Scissors

No desk would be complete without a robust pair of scissors. So stop taking the kitchen scissors and get a pair! We’ve been using these in our lives since the 16th century and a good pair will be useful for a wide range of purposes, from opening packaging to trimming down documents and ok, opening that pack of treats that you just can’t get the finger grip on.

A hole punch

If your work involves putting documents in binders then the often taken for granted hole punch is a key piece of stationery. Like a stapler the hole punch comes in a range of different sizes, including those that can create holes in 30 sheets of 80gsm paper in one go. Hole punches can also create a different number of holes depending on the files that you’re using to hold the documents. Let’s go 2 hole, 4 hole or even 3 hole for our American friends!

Post-it notes, books and pads

While much of what we do at work today is digital, pads, pens and post-it notes are still handy for those who like to jot something down. Post-it notes are particularly essential – from reminders to corrections they can be used for anything and come in a range of colours – so get coordinated and have some pops of colour at the same time.

Eco-friendly options

Many of us are concerned about the environment and making the right choices. Some products will last for years so the main consideration is what will happen to that item at its end of life. However, when selecting disposable items, there are plenty of recycled or environmentally friendly products to choose – from post-it notes, books and pads to folders and pens. MBM Omega carries out green audits for its customers showing what environmentally-friendly equivalent products could be purchased instead of non eco ones. For a free eco audit of your purchases, please contact us quoting ref: GoEco.