Coloured pens and pencils. Fancy binders. Stacking files. Pretty paper. Office furniture. If visiting an office supply store makes your heart race (and wallet shrink) - I'd like to hear from you!

hi,
i absolutely LOVE office supplies and cleaning products too, and all sorts of weird things like that. i used to have a pen collection of 400 and if you are interested ill elaborate on why i dont have it anymore. But i love collecting that kind of stuff and have tons of it. What are you interested in hearing about? please email me at lovot23@aol.com if you want to talk to me, because i dont keep up to date with the posts on this board.

Lori

Yes! I have always had this passion - buying school supplies was much more exciting than buying the clothing! I wouldn't mind answering specifics - just email me personally. joyfulkate60@msn.com

Oh, I am SO glad I'm not alone. I thought my mother and I were the only ones in the world suffering from this condition. ;)

Angela Hoy
WritersWeekly.com

I envision a home with at least two rooms devoted to the following: a library of reference materials of my own choosing; AND a room devoted to Office Supplies - all neatly lined up and waiting for me as if I were entering an Office Max or Staples! Yes, I love them! I have "acquired" them from companies where I work, conned pens out of people's hands, routinely hit a favorite drugstore where there is a clearance section often containing marked down items - that I may or may not need ever in life!

Back to School time for kids is my favorite time of the year. All the goodies are out, like around August- and even though I don't have any kids to buy for anymore - who can tell just by looking as I wander down the aisles filling my cart with reams of paper, stacks of notebooks, folders at 10 for $1 (I love red, blue, and black ones).

Some years back, I learned that corporations tend to throw away piles of paper for which they no longer have a use. These can be old reports, presentation packages etc. anything which has been printed on the one side. That leaves the back side for drafts. So I have acquired a ton of such thrown out paper for scribbling notes and working on drafts, and writing concepts.

If I get my hands on any lightly colored paper, I tend to use it for second and third drafts, etc, and save all the "good" stuff for final copy.

I also dive head first into anybody's trash when I see a handsome 3-ring binder being tossed out. And it is an absolute sin what I can do on the job with the company copier and printer! Hmmm....you know, that may well be a subconscious reason why I haven't turned loose my day job. My goodness! Could I really fear being denied access to all those floppies, blank cds, paper, pens, pencils, the copier, the laser printer, etc.?

Excuse me while I go off and have a seriously reflective moment .... meanwhile, if you are interested in anything more, email me or post.

Thanks,

kc

Is this a 12 Step group? Because I could belong to one for Seriously Addicted to Paper! I blame my Mom--way back when I was a toddler, she started bringing home scrap paper from this friend of hers who worked in a bank or somewhere, and I'd spend *days* coloring, cutting, pasting...Now, 50 years later, it's too late for me. I, too, scavenge giant 3' ring-binders, stacks of reports printed on just one side, even people's big calendars at the end of the year--they make great pocketed folders for my short stories and the marketing plans I draw up for each one and the rejection/acceptance letters that come in. I recenlty figured out how to use the comb-binder-machine at work, and the joys of creating my own plastic comb-bound steno pads! Whee!

Somewhere in my reptile brain there's a cell that's convinced that *just* the right paper, notebook, pens, will achieve the magic configuration and I will at last find Nirvana! It's a good thing I'm married to a Minimalist--else I'd be one of those tatty old ladies in a house stuffed with papers, with only little paths to get through the rooms. At least, when I write stories and books and letters, I'm USING some of it!

It's nice to find out I'm not alone.

_________________
3 outside the skinny: http://www.mirror.org/terry.hickman/Index.html
science fiction and rock & roll will save the world

The highlight of my last "real" job was when the boss gave me his credit card and sent me to the Depot to fill the supply cabinet. After a couple of trips, he point blank asked me which route I used to travel there and back. You see, it's only a 25 minute round trip, and if you figure half an hour there, I should make it back within an hour. Imagine my embarrassment when it took me over two. Hours, that is.

It's as if I can't help myself. The clearance section must be scoured first, then I head to the desk lamp display and rearrange it, then to the organizational section where I stare lustfully anticipating how better my life would be if only I owned every product available. In triplicate.

I love the pre-made carbonless forms and pads too. I can stand there forever designing my own in my head or improving the ones there. Expandable folders, software, satchels, briefcases and calendars. Pens, pencils, art supplies and overpriced office "snacks". Spinning in the chairs that are for display only -- an office supply store is more fun than an amusement park!

The last and my most favorite section is the paper. The pre-printed stationery, brochures, business cards...the possibilities are endless.

I'm not certain why I have this fetish, but it is good, I agree, to know I'm not alone. Fortunately, my husband is the same way. He personally owns over 25 briefcases/satchels and just informed me the other day he was thinking about switching again...big surprise, I told him! :wink:

_________________
Bex Hall, Life by the Slice
www.BexHall.com

"There is no scarcity of opportunity to
make a living at what you love; there's
only a scarcity of resolve to make it happen."

OOOOhhhhh I love office supplies...pens and paper especially. Every time I go to the store, I buy more. I have so many notebooks and pens now it's unreal. I have paper in every room in my house, in my car, in my purse, and in two different bags that I carry with me. Must have paper at ALL times to jot down ideas, scraps of poems, etc. That way, when I'm waiting...and waiting...and waiting somewhere, I'll always have something to do. And I use different colored pens and pencils depending on the mood I'm in. I'd love to hear from you. my email is rianon_smilez@yahoo.com

ri

I'm not allowed to to into Staples alone. I have a Post-It Note problem. I buy them compulsively, even if I don't need them (and I rarely do). I Post-It Note everything in my office and at home. Now I've started bidding for them on eBay, even though it would be cheaper to go to Staples.

I also have a pen problem. I always feel the need to buy pens whenever I see them on sale. Gel pens are my biggest weakness, although I have a hard time finding the ones I like. I've got so many pens that even if I brought 75% of them into work and left them for people to take, I'd still have enough to supply every person in college.

_________________
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Where are we going, and why am I in this handbasket?
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Oh my God, I'm in good company here! Always thought I was the only nutcase who couldn't go to Staples or, even worse, small, exclusive stationery stores with a credit card because I'd wipe out my bank account. Maybe we should found a self-help group, "Paper Junkies Anonymous"... ;-)
My personal fix are pens and paper, especially fountain pens--only the expensive ones--and hand-bound notebooks with white, unlined paper. For some reason I hate the lined paper in most notebooks and journals--I want the unlimited whiteness (and freedom!?) only unlined paper can provide. And it has to have the proper consistency, of course: a pen must glide over it easily and smoothly, but it should have sufficient thickness and quality at the same time. Excuse me for a moment, gotta wipe the drool off my chin...

Right now, I unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) don't have the means to buy every hand-bound notebook there is, so I have to be selective. When I start writing into them, I get really anal-retentive about it. If I don't like my handwriting on the first page, I cut it out with a scalpel and start over. I'm usually not obsessive-compulsive (other things I can let easily slide), but this is one thing I can completely obsess about.

My pen mania extends from fountain pens to ballpoint pens--with focus on the quality of handwriting they allow me. Some pens don't lie in your hand well enough to let you write beautifully, others (and you have to look for them long and hard) feel like you were born with them. That's probably the reason why I have so many ballpoint pens--I guess I'm always on the search for the PERFECT one. I've come close many times, but haven't found "the one" yet. When I used to have an office job, no pen lying around would be safe from me. I'd never steal anything, but don't let your smooth-writing pens out of sight when you're near me!

So, that's the extent of my obsession. Dr. Phil, is there any hope for me? Will I ever be able to lead a normal life? Please help!

Shannara Johnson

When I was little, before the days of office supply superstores, we used to go pretty often to a probablly overpriced stationery store--now out of business--where I would regularly paw over their stacks of spiral notebooks. What excited me then, and still does, was nothing fancy: college-lined, five-subject notebooks--no pockets, which just bulk up the notebook in an aesthetically unpleasant way--fresh sheets that are all possibility, like a back yard of unspoiled snow.

_________________
Debra Hamel

http://www.book-blog.blogspot.com
http://www.tryingneaira.com

:shock: Wow, I had no idea there were so many of us paper and pen nuts. I have put myself on a pen moratorium until I use up all the ink that is in my favorite pens -- which are always "fine" or very fine." (Pens that I bought that I don't like are relegated to a tin cup that anyone can use or steal as they please.) I, too, prefer journals without lines -- mostly because I write so small that lines just get in the way. I won't buy a regular notebook if the lines across the page are too dark (for the same reason) nor if the red line at the edge is too dark (I routinely ignore that line because I can't quite comprehend the point of having it there.)

Every week I go to my local Office Depot, where they have a fairly large clearance section, just to see if there is something "useful" that I didn't know I needed.

:roll: Karyse

I confess, I am an addict. I'm like a kid in a candy store when it comes to office supply centers. Pens, paper, blank books, specialty papers, Post-It notes in every size, configuration and colour, calendars, organizers, date books, binder clips, binders, dividers, file folders, file systems...and so much more...gawd!! I can't get enough of these things!

I use to tell myself that as a writer I needed all of these things, in bulk! I have boxes full of things that haven't seen the light of day since they were purchased because I have yet to use up stock I purchased previously. Yet I still buy...

My life over the past two years hasn't dictated a need for additional purchases, therefore, any "must-have" products brought into my home now need to be surrepticiously integrated into my office space.

I am so happy to see this is not a behaviour that is unique to me. If you want to discuss my obsession, please feel free to contact me. =)

Hello,

You are likely to find many of the 2,000 members of the National Association of Professional Organizers fit your category of people who love office supplies. For a membership list, see www.NAPO.net

Regards,
Paulette Ensign

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"Helping individuals and organizations transform their knowledge into tips booklets for marketing, motivating, and making money."
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By the way, I started reading Marcia Golub's I'd Rather be Writing last night, and she discusses in chapter 4, particularly pp. 26-27, her lust for notebooks and pens and stationery stores. You may find it interesting for your article.

_________________
Debra Hamel

http://www.book-blog.blogspot.com
http://www.tryingneaira.com