Ah, office supplies. The bane of your supply manager’s existence, a huge nuisance if you happen to be your supply manager. Tracking the ebb and flow of pencils, pens, paper clips and paper is half the battle. Figuring out what to do with the leftovers is the other half!
Pencil Necklace. Photo by Derwent Pencils.
Looking for a way to jump start your morning after a lazy Labor Day weekend? We polled our social networks to see if they could come up with 15 fun ideas for their leftover pencils (strictly in the interests of creativity, of course) and here’s what they had to say:
1) Pencil jewelry (Take a second to take a look at this site, hosted by Derwent Pencils; this is actually an amazingly cool idea.)
2) Make a peg-leg for the office mascot. (Only works if your office mascot is inanimate-I don’t think the office cat would appreciate this nearly as much as you would.)
3) Jenga. Do I need to say anything else?
4) Typing tools to avoid the germs on your neighbor’s keyboard.
5) Use as a temporary earpiece for a pair of broken glasses.
6) Aerate the office plants-just stab into the soil, then repeat. Not a viable substitution for the regular addition of water and sunshine.
7) Tie to a string and use as a pendulum. (I’m not sure about the practical applications, unless you’re trying to hypnotize your co-workers, but this one was popular.)
8) Use the shavings as fuel for your campfire on the next office camping trip.
9) Carve out the leftover graphite, crush into a powder and mix with water to make watercolor paint. (Does
"Tiniest Key Ever" Photo by Dalton Ghetti
that actually work?)
10) Make a + using rubber bands and use string to transform peg-legged office mascot into a marionette.
11) Pencil carvings. (Some of these are amazing, but you have to wonder who, besides Mr. Ghetti himself, would have that much time on their hands!)
12) Build a log cabin with the assistance of leftover poster putty.
13) Photo frames for a touch of professional décor.
14) Tie up the office plant after you forget to water it.
15) Pencil fights!
How do you use your leftover office supplies?