25 Ways to Repurpose Office Supplies

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Ladies, what are your best suggestions for ways to repurpose office supplies? Everyone likes to stock their office with the stuff they need — but from time to time you find yourself caught off guard and just need to make the best of a bad situation. We rounded up 10 other uses for office supplies a loooong time ago, but I thought we’d expand on the topic and discuss today!

{related: the best places to get cute office decor}

First up: ways to repurpose office supplies to help with fashion emergencies:

Clothing Hacks with Office Supplies

1. If you need a lint brush, try a Fed Ex mailing label or packing tape.
2. If you need to stop a run in your hose and don’t have nail polish, try using a glue stick or white out (obviously best if the run starts somewhere hidden).
3. If you need to reduce static cling with pantyhose/skirt, try rubbing hand lotion on your hands and then smoothing it on your pantyhose.
4. If you need to fix a fallen hem, try double-sided tape or packing tape folded double, or try stapling your clothes with the solid bar on the inside — many readers noted the holes rubbed right out when the staple was removed later in the day.
5. If your pants are too tight after lunch (and/or you’re pregnant), try a rubber band or hairband to help extend the waistband.
6. If you need to fix a broken zipper pull, try a paperclip.
7. If you need to fix a broken bra strap or shoe strap, try a teeny tiny binder clip.
8. If you’re going desk to dinner and forgot to wear or pack a racerback bra, try a paperclip to make your regular bra a racerback.
9. If you need to remove a stain, try hairspray (for ink), or wet paper towels beneath your shirt with dry ones on top (especially for coffee stains).

(If you’re looking for better ways to stop a gaping shirt, check out some of our favorite products for that, below…)

Some of the top products to help you fix a gaping blouse include:

Above, some solutions for gaping blouses: 1) Topstick toupee tape 2) double-stick medical tape 3) Flash Tape 4) Fearless Tape 5) black & white and colorful safety pins — see more clever solutions for workwear problems in our Amazon shop!

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Accessory Help with Repurposed Office Supplies

10. If you need to hide scuffs in dark leather or even small tears, try a black Sharpie.
11. If need to replace a lost earring back, try a pencil eraser.
12. If you’re removing a delicate necklace at any point in the day (to switch outfits, go to the gym, etc.) and don’t want it to get tangled in your bag, cut slits in a business card and wrap your necklace around it. (I love this trick for general necklace organization anyway!)
13. If you need to get scuffs out of patent leather or light colored leather, try a traditional pencil eraser.
14. No hair tie? Try a pencil bun.

Substitute Office Supplies for Drugstore Products

15. If you need dental floss, try post-it tape flags, a business card, or a folded post-it note.
16. If you need blotting papers, try toilet seat covers.
17. If you need a mirror at your desk, turn your phone camera to selfie mode.
18. If you need to remove regular nail polish from a chipped manicure, try Scotch tape — just lay it across the manicure and lift up.

Other Uses for Coffee Room Supplies

19. If you need to cover funny smells in the office, get a cup of mint tea.
20. If you need to amplify your iPhone speaker volume (perhaps if you find yourself working in a conference room all day), try putting your phone in an empty plastic cup or getting crafty with an empty toilet paper roll.
21. Get a cup of hot tea or coffee to defrost food. (It works great for Vitatops.)
22. If you feel like cooking at the office, try these recipes for mug cakes or other mug snacks.

Rainy Day Uses for Office Supplies

23. If you’re surprised by a rainy day and you find your pants too long, try a binder clip as a temporary hem – it’s not pretty but it will work, particularly on dry clean only fabrics that don’t stay while folded, like triacetate.
24. If you don’t have an umbrella, try a file folder if you’re making a quick dash — they’re more durable and less floppy than a newspaper.
25. If you already keep a wrap or blanket in your office, use it to cover your hair or business suit during a rainy-day dash — it may not be super-fashionable but it will work.

Ladies, what are your favorite ways to repurpose office supplies? Any office supply hacks we haven’t thought of? 

Pictured: Pixabay (modified).