I LOVE office supplies. I’m an addict. Office Max is just as dangerous for me as Target. Perhaps it’s a good thing that I went into a field where office supplies are necessary. Then again, probably not as many office supplies as I have.

RED SWINGLINE
Not only is it a reminder of the freedom from bad jobs and a symbol of my journey toward entrepreneurship, but it also staples like a dream. Pressing down on it feels like stapling a cloud to a stick of butter. If you’re in the market for a stapler, which I’m positive that you are, you can’t go wrong with a Swingline. I have like 5.

TUL WRITING UTENSILS
I was under the impression that these were exclusively an Office Max/Office Depot brand, but I have seen them at Best Buy. The pens and pencils write so smoothly and they are well designed from an aesthetic standpoint. My former boss once wrote with my TUL pen and I quote, “I’m going to make more squares with this because I need to.”

POST-ITS
What designer doesn’t have an obsession with Post-It’s so deep that it’s almost creepy? I have about 5 stacks of Post-Its and about 3 of them are still in their packaging. Post-Its are as functional as any other sticky note. But the colors and the simplicity of them are what add a little extra smattering of joy into my workday.

TINY NOTEBOOKS
I love tiny notebooks for the joy and the function. I keep tiny notebooks everywhere. I keep passwords in them, I keep one in my camera bag to record notes when scouting locations or recording settings, I have a notebook where I keep little tidbits of knowledge that I’ve learned. I have a few not-as-tiny notebooks that I use for taking notes at conferences. I have so many uses for them that I just try to keep a bunch on hand.

MOLESKINE
This was my first purchase as a business and it’s been one of my most important tools. I keep a journal of my journey of entrepreneurship. I keep notes about marketing, to-do lists, social media plans, ideas, and just a lot of information about my business. It’s a necessary staple for anyone starting a company.

PILOT G2 PENS
Some of the smoothest pens I’ve ever written with. As much as I love my TUL ballpoints, the PILOT G2 is a gel pen that writes like a dream. If you write really small, this is the pen for you. I find that my handwriting is uniquely beautiful when I write with these. Not to mention, they last forever and write consistently throughout their lifespan.

KINGSTON FLASH DRIVE
So I’m on my third one of these because apparently I find them easy to lose. So to keep this one forever, I’ve put a tracker on it. It’s metal which makes it durable, but other than that, there’s not really much of a difference between this and other flash drives. I just like it because it’s small, sleek and it looks nice.

TILE
It’s not an office supply, per se, but it is attached to my Kingston flash drive. I love Tile because it comes with an app and the tracking tags that allow you to not only locate lost items but also, in a sense rallies the Tile community around your lost item. Say I left my flash drive at Office Max (which I think is where I lost the last one). Another Tile user comes up to the print counter and their app detects my lost device. I get a notification that my flash drive is found and I’m good to go.

SHARPIE PERMANENT MARKERS
I mean they have a whole rainbow and who doesn’t love a good Sharpie?

EXPO ULTRA FINE DRY ERASE MARKERS
I use these for writing my daily tasks on my desk. I have a glass top desk and I figured out that if I tape a couple of note cards on the underside of the desk, I’ve basically made myself a built-in whiteboard. So that’s where I keep my daily to-do lists. I like these markers because they have the ultra-fine point, and it allows me to write normally instead of in big blobby letters. When I have better penmanship on my to-do list, I feel like my desk is cleaner. When my desk is cleaner, I’m more motivated. It’s a small item that makes a big difference.

You know your favorite products by how often you use them. You can see that some of these things are showing wear and tear. That’s not a bad thing. Wear and tear is the stories you write into your favorite products. They are artifacts of the journey. It might be just a grocery list scribbled on scrap paper, but it might also be the story of how an empire was built.