It may be that you have been set the task of reviewing office supplies for your building and are not sure where to start. When you’re running a business you need to be in control of items that are needed on a daily basis.

Below we compiled a list of potential products that your office is likely to currently use on a pretty much daily basis, or will use regularly in time if you’re a start up business, and a few pointers on how to organise office supplies so that you don’t over order or of course run out of stock.

The majority of products used on a daily basis may include:

• Bathroom and kitchen cleaning supplies
• Blackboards or whiteboards
• CD’s for data storage
• Calculators
• Envelopes
• Erasers
• Fax & copy paper
• Franking machine accessories
• Glue
• Kitchen consumables (kettle, tea, coffee, cutlery)
• Labels (for postage, marking files, archiving)
• Lever-arch files (binders)
• Marker pens
• Message pads
• Stationery (letterheads, compliment slips, invoices)
• Sticky tape
• Paper clips
• Pens (Bics, ballpoints, highlighers, fountain pens (for the boss!) & Pencils
• Plastic wallets
• Postage stamps
• Print cartridges
• Rubber bands
• Rulers
• Scissors
• Stamps (marking post as read, invoices as paid etc)
• Stapler & staples
• Correction Fluid
• Toilet rolls
• Phone headsets
• Wall calendars
• Water bottles (water coolers in a large office need replacing regularly)

We do save time by having stationery on hand and it is worth keeping a note to colleagues to ensure they report when they are on the last dozen or so (the last box of pens or the last couple of reams of printer paper etc). Replenishing stocks every month or so is a great help – there’s no point in running out of printer paper when a colleague is in the middle of an invoice run!

Considering an order system to order these types of office supplies on a regular basis isn’t easy but generating processes that can be followed simply by using a master list and reviewing the office supplies needed every couple of months can help. Maintaining a stationery file can help identify where reductions and savings can be made even just months down the line so it’s a huge help where organization, budgets and time is concerned. By gaining an understanding of your office requirements, areas of surplus and products which are required on a rolling basis, keeping the office running smoothly is incredibly simple.