Maintaining Your Office Supply Cabinet Part 2

In my last post on maintaining office supplies, I talked about writing instruments and paper.  Let’s continue on with other supplies you need in your office supply cabinet.

Folders

The types of folders you need to keep in your stock will depend on your particular office.  At the very least, you need a supply of letter size manila file folders and hanging file folders.  These come in a variety of colors and with a variety of accessories.  If cost is a consideration, then the plain manila folders and standard green hanging files are all you really need.  If you want to color code your files, you can get a variety of colors, but they’ll cost you more.  You can also get them with pockets for disks, with brads to hold the papers in place, and all sorts of things that are handy to have, but not really necessary.  If your office prints a lot of legal size paper, then you’ll want to have legal size file and hanging folders as well.

Other kinds of folders you might need based on your particular office are:

1. Classification Folders – These have multiple sections for separating paperwork and brads for holding papers in place.  These folders are often used in offices that track jobs, like legal, construction, and graphic design offices.  Classification folders are pricey for the cheapest plain manila folders.  The heavier pressboard folders are even more expensive.  Many offices, though, will buy the more expensive ones and use them over and over.  After one job is complete, the paperwork is consolidated into a storage file, and the classification folder is used on a new job.  The plain manila classification folders don’t really stand up to reuse.
2. Presentation Folders – These are used for…well…presentations.  Salesmen use them to put copies of presentation materials together for prospective clients.  They can be used for Board meeting packets or any time you want to have a nice looking, organized hand-out to give away.  Presentation folders come in a variety of colors, forms and quality.  You can even get folder kits that you can print on to get a nice, custom folder for your business.

Clips

For paper clips, you should have at the minimum No. 1 Paper Clips and Jumbo Paper Clips.  Paper clips are pretty inexpensive items.  You can get them in smooth, serrated edged, and even coated.  Most people just use the plain smooth clips, though.

You’ll also need Binder Clips in a variety of sizes.  Usually small, medium and large suffice.  Some assistants use mini binder clips, but I find they hold about the same amount as the jumbo paper clip, so if cost is an issue, you can just settle for the jumbo paper clips.  You can also get jumbo binder clips, but these are so large, you rarely need more than a few of them around the office.  Generally, if you have that many papers that need to stay together, you put them in a folder.

Tape

You will, of course, need a supply of Tape to refill you tape dispensers.  You’ll also need to keep at least one roll of Shipping Tape on hand, more if you frequently mail packages. Masking Tape, while not absolutely necessary, is nice to have on hand for temporary use like hanging a poster or sign.  I find it tends to hold a bit better than scotch tape, but won’t pull the paint off the wall like shipping tape.

Next time, we’ll look at desk set items like staplers, rulers, tape dispensers, etc.

Note: all Amazon links in this post are affiliate links.

Similar Posts:

• Maintaining Your Office Supply Cabinet Part 2
• Maintaining Your Office Supply Cabinet
• Office Supplies An Administrative Assistant Needs At Her Desk
• “You’re over your limit”
• Setting Up a Filing System Part 3: Creating Your Files

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