Addicted to Office Supplies

I have a sickness. It's called: can't-resist-office-supplies-itis. I am a border-line hoarder of office supplies - paper, pens, notebooks, binders . . . One time I went to an office supply store for a pen, and came home with a colour laser printer. I'm no longer allowed to go to Staples without an escort, nor am I allowed in the school supply aisle of the dollar store.

Think I'm exaggerating? Here's a picture of the supply cabinet in my office:

Inside this cabinet is the following:
8 coil bound 6 x 9 inch 200 page notebooks
4 extra thick (280 pages) green steno pads
3 hard bound notebooks, 6 x 9 inches
3 composition books 200 pages, 9 3/4 x 7 1/2 inches
6 spiral top bound office pads, 8 1/2 x 11 3/4 inches
12 report covers ( 4 card stock, 8 plastic)
15 binders, 1 inch wide
5 single subject note books, 8 x 10 1/2 inch, coil bound
8 1/2 x 11 inch lined pads of paper:
- 13 white
- 4 yellow
- 4 pink
- 1 beige
- 1 grey
1 large stack of boxes and packages of coloured printer paper.

This list does not include any of the notebooks or pads from this stash that are being used or are lying around the house or are stuck in file folders. But wait! My stash doesn't stop there! This next picture shows more of my madness:

The top drawer is full of notebooks of various smaller sizes. You know the kind that are easy to carry around with you in case an idea strikes. It's hard to see properly, but the drawer below it is filled with packages of decorative printer paper for letters or printing poems for my poetry group.

In the upper right of this picture is a desk drawer full of coloured paper for the printer. The drawer above it holds plain white printer paper. The drawer below it is full of paper from a temp job I had in the mail room of a large corporation one Christmas.

When I wasn't fixing photocopiers or making sure people didn't stick their hands in the giant laminator, I was pretty bored. So I used the heavy duty copier to make note paper in different sizes and different colours. And we're talking A LOT of note paper. I even made sets for each of my sisters and one for an Aunt too.

Anyway, have still have most of this paper 'cause really, what am I going to use it for? Mine is mostly full sized with either a fairy, a dragon, or a spider queen sitting on a throne of bones on it. Yes, I used to draw at one time. :-)

This last picture is a stash that I gathered together for the purposes of the picture.

On the left are note pads that I keep on my desk or near the phone for quick notes. Not shown is the eight or ten steno pads, which have varying numbers of pages left in them, in a ceramic planter. These are left overs from the days when I'd jot down notes in the nearest steno pad and then rip the pages out. I'm keeping them in the planter in hopes they'll get used up.

To the right are my stick notes. Many, many stick notes of various sizes, shapes and colours. The collection looks more impressive in person. Ask my husband - the man who brought home a package of the long, thin stick notes in different colours in a nice case and then wouldn't let me have them. He seems to think I have enough stick notes. Go figure.

You can't really see my pen collection, it's in a gargoyle coffee mug behind the alien. :-) My husband owns his own business (with his brother) and feeds my pen fetish with the free samples they keep getting. And when the free samples dry up I just steal the ones with their business logo. Some of these pens make their way to the gargoyle mug, some my desk drawers, some my purse. The rest are scattered throughout the house. We won't mention the box of 14 black pens I picked up from the Staples clearance bin this week. ;-)

I also have an unnatural number of file folders (both coloured and plain), envelopes (regular, manila, and padded - in different sizes), and index cards (both coloured and plain). I don't just have thumbtacks for my cork board, I have bumble bee tacks, ladybug tacks, and happy face tacks. I have plain paper clips and coloured paper clips as well as more the heavy duty paper clamps (in both basic black and pastel colours).

My name is Carol, and I'm addicted to office supplies.