Now is the season to pick up some great deals on school and office supplies. Places like CVS and Staples have been practically giving stuff away for free! And as usually happens as soon as the red, white, and blue are done, Target and Walmart have stocked the school items and it’s time to move on to a new “season.”
But, you don’t have to use school supplies just for school. With some clever thinking you can repurpose those items for gifts and other household uses.
1. Bic pens can be transformed into flower pens which make great gifts for teachers and friends.
2. With binders and copy paper and these free printables from Organized Home, you can create a household notebook for yourself or as a housewarming gift for a friend. Read how Simple Mom sets up her home management notebook for more inspiration.
3. Simple composition books can get new life as journals when you decorate them. My sister gave these as Christmas gifts last year with a coffee gift card and a beautiful fabric coffee sleeve. The makings of a great Saturday Morning Off.
4. Crayons are a dime a dozen right now — literally. Stock up for your own children, but also lay in a supply for your gift cupboard. Crayons make a great birthday bag filler or part of a coloring kit.
5. Crayons, pencils, erasers and little notebooks make great stocking stuffers. Plan ahead for Christmas and avoid the crunch — for time and money — later.
6. Check with your local homeless shelter or foster children’s care board. Kids who live transient lifestyles, obviously through no fault of their own, still need school supplies. Find out what your community’s needs are and how you can help fill some of them. A backpack loaded with extra supplies can help one more kid feel better about his trip to school.
7. Likewise, plan ahead for “Love in a Shoebox” and other similar ministries where collections are taken of items to send to children in Third World Countries. Often times the simplest things, like a Hello Kitty pencil, can brighten the lives of children.
Got another great use for school and office supplies? I’d love to hear it!
PS: Please take a minute to read the comments. Readers suggested some more wonderful ideas. I was so blessed by everyone’s thoughtfulness. Thank you!
PPS: Be sure to visit We Are That Family for Works for Me Wednesday.
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Great ideas! These flower pens would make pretty favors for a wedding or baby shower too. They could be placed in a bucket in the middle of the tables and used as a centerpiece until the guests take them home. Thanks for helping me think creatively about how to use all of these school supplies we're getting free!
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We stock up for our Operation Christmas Child boxes that will be packed in November. I include things like paperclips and binder clips, which people in 3rd world countries use for things other than school/work (I saw them used as picture hangers, a belt buckle, among other things) but aren't so easy to find at the markets there.
Thanks for the list – you've given me some good ideas!
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Wow, these are much better ideas than I was expecting when I followed the link from Freebies4Mom. I like to donate Christmas gifts that are neither too educational nor too mindless, so that journal idea is AWESOME, especially since I give a lot in kind to a shelter for runaway teens. And last year, I assembled gift bags of craft supplies for Toys For Tots donations – the deals in the drug stores right now make dollar stores look expensive!
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How about putting up new pencils, pens, colored pencils, markers and crayons in our children stockings Christmas. Even though my children are 13, 15 & 16, they love new crayons. By Christmas, our homeschool supply of some of these items is bedraggled and they love the new stuff. Or put up items to use for long car trips. We also so Operation Christmas Child and buy the items on sale year round.
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I love these ideas! Art supplies (crayons, etc) are a great birthday gift and donation idea. Just linked to you…
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We donate supplies to the art teacher at school. The art teachers have limited budgets and are always appreciative of crayons, markers, glue, aluminum foil, and toilet paper rolls. Ask your child's art teacher what she needs. You'd be surprised at the answer.
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Such great ideas! I linked to you! Thanks!
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Love these ideas! Thanks so much for sharing! Linked to you…
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I like to stock up on the notebooks when they are cheap. My kids use them for drawing and games when they need a quiet activity or for road trips. I love to stock up for the shoebox charities also.
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I had a similar idea that I wrote about at http://jdaniel4smom.blogspot.com/2009/07/adopt-teacher-school-or-charity-give.html.
I have seen great school supply deals on the internet and in newspaper ads lately. As a teacher for twenty years, I used to gather supplies to use in my room each year. There was always someone who didn’t have what they needed to start the year or had run out of things mid-year. Some years I hadn’t ordered enough pencils for daily use and all the standardized tests and had to pay full price for them mid-year.
Now that I am at home mom, I still gather school supplies to donate. I donate to school supply drives (I’m in a teaching sorority Alpha Delta that collects school supplies.) and give them to teachers at my son’s future school. (It can’t hurt to make a positive impression early.) I bet in these hard economic times that are lots of places that could use them and you can get many of them free or close to free.
Check out the sites below that I found on Cincinnati Cent's web site:
Target – Amy at Cutting Coupons in KC
CVS – Kristi at More Than Cents
Walgreens – Julie at Kingdom Klipper
Meijer – Becky at Nickels-N-Dimes
Office Max – Andrea at Mommy Snacks
Walmart – Tara at Deal Seeking Mom
Staples – Katie at Cincinnati Cents
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great ideas.
I just bookmarked your site.
Dawn
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I never even thought of #6—what a great idea!!! I have a ton of old but still in good condition backpacks around here (let's face it, eventually they outgrow the Dora or Barbie backpacks!!) that could be filled with supplies and donated.
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I also take advantage of the deals to buy supplies to keep in my own classroom, but to also create "first day" bags. I fill up a ziploc bag with several pencils, pens, box of crayons, blue stick, bookmark, cap erasers, highlighters, etc. This bag is waiting on the students' desks when they walk in on the first day. It's fun to see the looks of surprise on their faces. Makes for a great first day!
I like the idea of dressing up a regular compostion book to look like a journal. This might be a fun first day activity for my classroom…if I can find some cheap supplies!
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Wonderful post! I linked to it. Also, a group of 8 of us are rounding up the best back to school deals each week- in case you are interested.
I love the free household printables! What a great resource, thank you for posting that!
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I like your journal idea. Personally, a gift like that at Christmas would be greatly appreciated. The Christmas in a Shoebox ministries are also wonderful, and stocking up now on needed items for cheap means that you can fill even more boxes!
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what great ideas! thanks for sharing.
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Another great idea is Jared Boxes. You can read more about them here.
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My son has leukemia and spends a lot of time drawing at the hospital. The playrooms at hospitals can always use "school supplies" for the art center or to give to students who may be working on school work while waiting to see the doctor.
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These are great Ideas, I love the journal, I have 2 sisters and I know now what to give them for Mothers day or their bdays! I have a daycare in my home and I love back to school time, bc I can not only get things for my kids that are in school but also to stock up on my craft stuff. Plus our church is always looking to give to those members that cannot buy for their kids. I love to shop BACK TO SCHOOL!!!!
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I stock up on everything on our teacher's list- try to send in 2 to 3 times what they ask for- sometimes more (I go straight down the list even though I have a girl I get the boy stuff too…)- in case there are kids in our class that dont have the necessary supplies. I also usually go to my teacher's store at the beginning of the year and get a gift card for the teacher- in part to bribe her LOL in case my kid is bad but also because I know that they dont always have the supplies in the room they could use.
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I donate them to my local humane society. Many shelters are in need of office supplies like pens, tape, office paper, highlighters, dry erase board markers etc.
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ooh, thanks for the reminder! i need to get stocking up on (home)school supplies while they're cheap! by the way, loved the pieces on reorganizing your homeschool room!
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Another great place to donate that most people don't think about is the local hospital.
The children's wing can use crayons, coloring books, paper, markers, stickers and other things and all the other areas can use notebooks, pens, pencils (for the psychiatic ward, they can't have pens), binders, etc.
I have been hospitalized unexpectedly several times and sometimes just having something to do with your mind and hands can make a big difference in recovery.
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