When setting up your home office, there are quite a few major purchases to take into consideration such as your desk, chair and other office furniture. These decisions might, and should, take a bit of deliberation in picking and choosing the right home office equipment for your new home office.
But, what sort of things do you need to buy to put on your office desk? What sort of items are considered to be essential office stationery? This is when the fun shopping takes place!
We’re going to assume that you’ve already got your larger essential equipment sorted and now focus on the smaller supplies and bits and pieces to make working in your home office easy and pleasant.
Obviously “essential office stationery” will be slightly different for every one of you who reads this article, because it really depends on the type of business you’ll be doing out of your home office.
A large whiteboard on the wall might be essential for some – those who need to collaborate with others or use it to brainstorm ideas, but might actually be a waste of space and money for others who really just need a desk, a chair and a computer to get their business done.
Keeping in mind what your own business needs might be, here is our list of suggestions for what most would deem to be essential office stationery. Use our list as a guide – feel free to pick and choose what will suit your own home office needs.
Essential Office Stationery For Your Home Office
First of all, in case you were wondering, yes, it is stationery and not stationary we’re talking about here. Stationery refers to paper, envelopes etc., while “stationary” refers to an object that is not moving.
Just thought I’d begin by clearing that up as it’s a common (and understandable) spelling error. If you ever need help remembering which is which, just remember that paper has “er” in it, so it’s the “er” rather than the “ar” spelling of the word.
Paper
You’re going to need paper of some kind, whether it be for printing or in notebook form if you’re still old-school and like to take notes by hand. You might even want a combination of both.
And, you’ll probably need some small little pieces of paper too, for leaving little sticky notes to yourself or co-workers.
Pens and Markers
You’ll need a bunch of pens to write with – get more than you think you’ll need, somehow pens seem to magically disappear! Get some plain black or blue but also consider some colored pens too – they’re great for brainstorming on paper as well as color coding your own messages to yourself.
Highlighters are another very handy addition to this category, depending on what kind of work you do in your home office.
Pen Holder Or Desk Caddy
This one is a personal (and practical) choice – do you keep your pens on the desktop? Or do you have a drawer handy to store them in?
If they’re going on your desktop, you’ll need some sort of holder to keep them in – you could just grab an old mug from the kitchen, or you could choose something new to suit the aesthetic of your home office.
Choose from a cup style just for pens:
Or go for a larger desk organizer or caddy to hold other bits and pieces too:
Other Office Supplies
More and more people these days are becoming virtually paperless, but again, this depends on the type of work you are doing from your home office. Regardless the following items will likely be very useful additions to the office supplies for your home office.
Other Home Office Equipment To Consider
Keep your home office organized with some desk trays and storage shelves.
Make sure your desk is well lit with a desk lamp.
And, if you, or your business is that way inclined, you might need a paper shredder.
Finally, between lamps, computers, chargers, printers and shredders, you can never have enough power outlets!
Fun Things To Buy For Your Office Desk
OK, so this part is not “essential”, these are more of the types of things that add to your home office decor or just make you feel good when you look at them.
So, probably not essential for working but, if they help you with your creativity and/or productivity, it’s money well spent!
Obviously there are plenty of other things we could add to these lists, but if you’ve got all of the essential items covered, you’re well on your way to having a fully functioning home office equipped with all of the essential office stationery and supplies you’re going to need to get started.
We hope you enjoy setting up your new home office.
