Creative Uses for School Supplies
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School supplies aren’t just for school. Consider these ways to make the most of back to school sales and BTS clearance racks.
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Now is the season to pick up some great deals on school and office supplies. As you know, places like Walmart and Target have been hawking their wares for months. The back to school season seems to begin as early as July 5.
Now that kids are actually in school, the “sales” are mostly over, but the deals are still to be had. My mom regularly snatches up bags and bags of supplies on clearance about this time. I’ve found backpacks for a couple bucks each that I’ve used for our kids’ Go-Bags. I’ve also stocked up on different items to use for travel such as small pencil bags, hand sanitizer, and tiny notebooks.
Clearly, 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. Check out these ideas:
1. Make decorative pens.
You’ve seen these in doctor’s offices – the Bic pens transformed into flowers. Sure, they can look cheesy, but that really depends on the type of fake flower you buy. They can make great gifts for teachers and friends and grandmas.
2. Build a household notebook.
School and office supplies can help you get your head on straight at home! With binders and copy paper and a copy of my ebook Organizing Life as MOM, you can create a household notebook for yourself or as a housewarming gift for a friend.
Read how to set up your own home management notebook – one that rocks.
3. Make decorative journals.
Simple composition books can get new life as journals when you decorate them. My sister gave these as Christmas gifts years ago along with a coffee gift card and a beautiful fabric coffee sleeve.
These are the makings of a great Saturday Morning Off to gift to a friend. Just be sure to make yourself a set!
4. Use crayons as gifts.
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. Repurpose your old crayons into Muffin Tin Crayons.
5. Stock up on stocking stuffers.
Crayons, pencils, erasers and little notebooks make great stocking stuffers. Plan ahead for Christmas and avoid the crunch — for time and money — later.
For more clutter-free stocking stuffer ideas, head here.
6. Give them away.
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 day at school.
7. Send them away.
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.
Read Carrie’s tutorial on the best ways to pack for Operation Christmas Child.
Got another great use for school and office supplies? I’d love to hear it!
PS: This post was originally posted on July 21, 2009. Please take a minute to read the comments. Readers suggested some more wonderful ideas. I was so blessed by everyone’s thoughtfulness. Thank you!
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
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.
Love these ideas! Thanks so much for sharing! Linked to you…
Such great ideas! I linked to you! Thanks!
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.
I love these ideas! Art supplies (crayons, etc) are a great birthday gift and donation idea. Just linked to you…
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.
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!
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!
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!