Home Office Set up with Dollar Store Items
If you have a home office, you know that they can be a bit pricey to set up. They don’t have to cost a fortune, though. You’ll want to splurge on decent computer equipment and a comfy chair, and visit to a thrift store or a browse through Craigslist might yield you a decent desk and filing cabinet at a reasonable price.
For everything else, you don’t need to go further than your nearest dollar store.
Stationary Supplies
We may live in an electronic age, but an effective home office needs basic pencil-and-paper type of stationery. For less than $20, you can stock up on the following:
- Standard printer paper
- A stapler and a box of staples
- A variety of paperclips and bulldog clips
- Permanent markers and a set of highlighters
- Correction tape and a few erasers
- Pencils and ball-point pens in different colours
- Notebooks with paper pre-punched for a three-ring binder
Organize Paperwork
Having acquired the basics, you will need a way to organize your stationery and paperwork. For this task, you don’t need to spend more than $10 or so. This will get you some stationery holders, paperwork trays, binders with index dividers, and file folders.
Mailing Supplies
For $5, you can take care of your mailing needs, with envelopes of different sizes, mailing labels and one or two courier pouches that are ideal for delivering important documents.
Computer Supplies
Next, you can get items that will make your computer more effective. You can pick up a USB hub, along with a microphone that you can use for Skype calls. In the same aisle, you can get an extension cord with multiple outlets to easily accommodate your computer, printer and other things that require an outlet.
All of this takes care of your computer and electric needs for less than $10.
Home Office Decor
Now that you have all you need to make your home office function well, you might want to add a few personal touches. For $5, you can get a wall clock, a couple of picture frames and an attractive pot to put a plant into. For another $6, get yourself a tall stool and a tablecloth to cover it with.
Top it with a pitcher and a couple of water glasses for guests, or a vase for flowers.
So for a total cost of around $60, you can turn a room with a desk and computer into an efficient home office that you can enjoy spending your time in. Instead of going to office supply stores that often charge over-inflated prices to basic home office necessities, head to your nearest dollar store and enjoy the feeling of saving money.
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Avoid Dollar store pencils like the plague. They are usually of cheap quality, so the leads break frequently and they are difficult to sharpen, due usually to either poor quality of the wood (or wood replica product) they’re constructed out of, or because the leads are not centred in the pencil. It is well worth spending a bit more at an office supply store to get pencils that will work well. Though the best strategy is to stock up on pencils at back-to-school time when you should be able to buy them for about $0.25 for a package of 10 or 12 (the Staples house brand are a safe bet).
Pens from the dollar store are more hit and miss … if you can buy a brnad name you recognize at the dollar store, or if there’s a kind you’ve taken a chance on before and they’ve turned out great, that’s fine, but otherwise better to go spend alittle more for aproduct that will work reliably and last longer.