Turning Your Child's School Supplies into Home Office Supplies

Some of the school supplies that your children need one year aren't useful for that child next year, especially because technology is making school supplies more advanced every year. But there are 10 basic items your child may use in school that you can use in your home office if she doesn't use them all.

Glue: You may be thinking, "What in the world am I going to do with some glue?" When you go to company conferences or workshops, you may talk to other entrepreneurs. Even if you're planning to complete a job interview or a media interview, you'll run into other contacts. And what do these contacts hand you? Business cards. By the time you get home, you've got so many business cards that you think about throwing them away. You won't remember these people a week later. Keep the cards anyway. Buy a cheap journal at Border's (they always have them on the clearance rack for prices ranging from $3.99 to $5.99) and glue the business cards to each page. On average, you can get three to a page. If you get a lined journal, you can even write yourself a note so you'll remember your contact if you want to work with him or her later.

Ruler: If you're one of those people who has bills sitting on the top of your desk and can't remember which bill is due when, you may need a ledger. In this ledger, you should keep track of the company name, the amount due, the total amount you owe and the due date. If you don't want to buy some big, expensive ledger that has a bunch of categories and pages you really don't need, go back to Border's and buy another cheap journal. Take the ruler and draw lines for the categories you want to keep up with. You'll usually only need those four categories. Draw four columns and as many rows as you need, one for each bill. Do this every month.

Eraser: If you take advantage of the expense ledger suggested in the ruler entry above, you'll find that you may owe one company this amount and that amount. When you subtract what you owe from your total balance, you can use an eraser to easily change it. Labels and whiteout tend to make ledgers too fat if used repeatedly.

Pencil: For the expense ledger again, write in pencil. If you have mechanical pencils, keep the loose eraser anyway. Those mechanical pencils have a bad habit of getting dirty and smudging pages. One loose eraser lasts longer than the replacement mechanical erasers.

Pens: No matter how many pens you have, there's never one around when you're trying to write down a phone number. This has been proven many times. Always keep pens. Even if you feel you have too many, put some in a junk drawer. Put a rubber band around the extras and stick them in an office drawer. Take advantage of old cups you don't drink out of and turn them into pen holders.

Folders: This one depends on how abusive your child is to folders. Some folders are in such shabby shape that you wouldn't want to use them again. However, for the ones that haven't been used, use them. Even if they're bright pink with cartoon characters you have no interest in, if they're in a file cabinet and no one can see them, what does it matter?

Books: As mentioned in "Chicago Public Library declines book donations, donate books to other Chicago businesses," there are plenty of organizations that don't have the access your child does to textbooks. Donate these books to other schools, specifically ones in poor environments who don't have efficient school supplies.

Stapler: Whether it's an adult stapler or a miniature stapler, keep it. Put it in a different room from your office. You run out of staples with one, you'll have the other one handy. If it's a miniature stapler, stick it in your purse. Have you ever gone to a retail store and they don't staple your receipts? Those miniature staplers come in handy.

Calculator: Computers have taken over pretty much all of your child's calculations. Handheld calculators are starting to be like cassette tape players and VCRs. Some kids are able to use their cell phones for calculations and don't use the original calculators. Keep the older calculators. Stick one in your purse to do quick math when you need to balance your checkbook. Stick one in the kitchen for measuring cooking ingredients. You can even stick one in your car if you want to keep track of mileage while traveling and don't want to constantly click the reset button. The calculating opportunities vary.

Notebook Paper: Some children only use computer paper to complete work. Others still have old-school teachers who want them to use notebook paper for scratch paper with math problems. And although some schools are doing away with handwriting classes since they're not on standardized tests (a school in Chicago did that), some still like to keep paper available for notes. Notes in school or notes at home, we all need paper. Use a paper cutter and cut the paper into smaller pieces. Stick them by your phone to take messages or use them as scratch paper for something you don't want to forget. For journalists, this scratch paper is absolutely necessary because we never know when our next writing idea will hit us.

The great thing about school supplies is although one teacher may not require it, the student may turn around the very next year and have a teacher who does. Keep your child's school supplies. If you don't want them now, you or your child may need them later.