New Uses for Things in Your Office

Corral office tools like scissors, letter openers, and rulers in a pretty pitcher on your desk.

Use the knife strip you already have in the kitchen to hold tonight’s recipe. Hang another as a sleek, streamlined memo board under a kitchen cabinet or in another small space. A strip by the door or the garage can hold reminders or stash keys where you can actually find them. It's a sharp way to keep track of your to-do list.

Technically, the metal (as opposed to wooden) keys make this instrument a glockenspiel, but no matter. Hang it on a wall and use magnets to display invitations, photos, art, and more.

Streamline tangled cords. Shorten a too-long one by looping the center and wrapping with a tie, or secure several cords together.

Use leftover, adhesive gift tags to label file folders. Holly leaves = medical records, Santa = bills (obviously—you owe him for the bike, the LEGOS, the dollhouse…).

Secure a cupcake liner over the top of a jar with a rubber band. It can be a temporary fix if you’ve lost the lid, a pretty solution to keep flies out of the lemonade, or a cute topper for a gift-in-a-jar.

Distinguishing chicken salad from tuna is no picnic. Next time you’re packing sandwiches, stretch a thick rubber band around each one and label it with a permanent marker. Divvying up lunch will be a snap.

Keep a retractable cord from rewinding too soon. Just clip the cord near the opening to prevent the cord from being sucked back in too quickly.

To prevent a smelly, waterlogged sponge, air-dry it in a binder clip away from the sink.

Safeguard your taste buds during holiday card season. Replace a dried out ink pad with a damp sponge and use it to seal envelopes and attach stamps—no licking required.

Dialed back on late nights? Corral some clutter with that poker caddy. Glue a poker chip to the bottom of each slot, then close the gaps on the sides with playing cards to create compartments for stray pens and pencils.

Let’s see—you need milk, eggs…and something to replace the stark white memo board that’s sucking all the style from your otherwise charming kitchen. Frame a pretty piece of fabric or paper, then write temporary to-dos on the glass with a dry-erase marker.

Store your car insurance, registration, manuals, and maps in a neatly bound holder to avoid an avalanche of papers every time you reach in for your sunglasses. It's the first step to getting your car chaos under control.

Set the baking sheet inside a 16-inch plate hanger mounted to the wall. Make sure the sheet is magnetic—so good ideas will stick.

Reduce handbag clutter by catalogging the family’s club cards and gift cards according to store name. Your back will thank you for toting a lighter wallet around.

For the 359 days of the year when you’re not hauling cupcakes, use the cups to store jewelry or craft supplies.

If you're the flaky type, cereal boxes (including the single-serving minis) can corral desk-drawer chaos. Slice off the tops and the bottoms and fill them with loose odds and ends.

Face it: That long-lost earring is probably gallivanting with a wayward sock in Ye Olde Land of Misplaced Items. (What a stud!) Let its lonely, abandoned mate rebound as a pretty thumbtack on a bulletin board.

 Courtesy of reader Bailey Mulholland of Appleton, Wisconsin 

Hang a clipboard on the wall (or inside a cabinet) to clamp down on place mats—and that old “I can’t find them!” excuse from the person setting the table.

Use this office supply staple to create an easy-to-update photo display. Stand clips on their flat ends and place pics between the two arms.

Showcase favorite walletsize photographs, or make a timeline of school portraits by stashing them in a business card file on your desk.

Size up a piece of fleamarket furniture. Checkbooks are roughly six inches long, making them ideal on-the-go measuring devices.

If a key is sticking in the lock, scribble on its edges with a trusty number two. Graphite in the lead helps the key glide and turn more easily (so it also makes your day go more smoothly).

With the machine turned off, disconnect the keyboard and trace between the keys with a cotton swab lightly dipped in isopropyl alcohol. If your mouse is the kind that rolls on a ball, unscrew the bottom and go over the ball and the interior with a cotton swab, too.

Use a non-skid chopping board as child's placemat or deskside placemat.

Prevent your beloved volumes from acquiring a musty smell by inserting a fabric-softener sheet between the pages.

Safely loosen a hard-to-remove lightbulb. Press the center of a footlong strip of tape to the middle of the bulb. Fold each loose end in half so it sticks to itself. Gripping each end between a thumb and index finger, give a counter clockwise twist to loosen the bulb.

Create a custom paint palette for an afternoon art session.

To revive a dried-out eraser or clean a smudged one, lightly rub it over an emery board. The board's fine grain will shave off the eraser's old top layer, leaving you with a good-as-new mistake-removing surface.

Attach adhesive file-folder labels with the names of the cords' owners (for example, phone, computer, fax, and lamp; or TV, DVD, VCR, and phone) near the plugs. This way, you can quickly ID which cord belongs to which machine—and you won't unplug the wrong one.

Unspool stamps by cutting a slit in the side of a film canister and threading the end of the roll throught it.

Superglue the lid to the underside of a cabinet and gather bits and pieces—thumbtacks, say, or nails—into the jar itself. Then screw the jar into the lid to whisk clutter up, up, and away.

Those little boxes are so sturdy and tidy that you hate to throw them out, so don't. Instead, clip them together to create a neat divided storage area for pens and pencils, lipsticks, plastic flatware—whatever it is that clutters your drawer.

Neatly open an envelope by slipping the tip under the flap.

To loosen stubborn glue lids, dip a cotton swab into nail polish remover and rub around the bottom of the cap.

Set your correspondence apart and use a "Hello My Name Is" tag as a mailing label.

Stop pens and paper clips from rolling to the back of a desk drawer with a layer of liner.

Find the number for your favorite restaurant faster by clipping its page in the phone book.

For easy access when you're wrapping, slide spools of ribbon with at least a one-inch diameter opening onto the towel stand's post. Stack the spools from largest to smallest, bottom to top, and tape the ribbon ends to their spools when you're not using them.

Corral unruly comptuer cables by running them through a spare tube.

Run junk mail and private documents through the device and turn the crank.

File frequently used business cards in a brag book (two will fit in each slot) for a purse-ready Rolodex.

Surf smarter. Employ a plastic mat as a mouse pad.

Tear into plastic-wrapped CDs and DVDs without wrecking your nails.

Give unattractive filing cabinets the boot and store all bills and documents inside shoe boxes covered in decorative paper.

Use these squat, clear-topped jars (sold at kitchen supply stores) to keep all those loose bits cluttering your desk drawer—stamps and Post-It notes, thumbtacks and rubber bands, safety pins and stickers—under control.

Neatly file bills, mail, and invitations between the coils on your desk.

Make cleaning your computer keys simple: Slide a 2½-inch strip of tape between the rows of your keyboard. The adhesive side will remove dust and crumbs.

Place a small piece of Velcro next to a desk calendar and on a pen so you’ll never have to search for one again.

Roll up the most recent issues and slide into the spots usually reserved for your favorite reserves.

Cushion precious cargo in a box. Before closing it all the way, slide a straw into the top, and inflate. Then remove the straw and completely seal the protective bubble.

For lint-free viewing, grab a coffee filter to wipe down dusty and staticky computer monitors and TV screens regularly.

Dispense yarn or twine at a craft station by placing the spool inside the funnel and pulling the end through the hole.

Make hard-to-maneuver files easier to remove from high shelves with the help of pretty knobs (available at home stores). Punch a small hole in the file with the tip of a pair of sharp scissors, push in the knob, then secure it from the inside with a small screw and nut.

Keep your papers in check—and mimic the look of the wooden racks in library reading rooms—with a painted ladder propped against the wall. Drape newspapers over the rungs and let them hang until you're ready to toss them into the recycling bin.

Protect photographs when you send them via snail mail. Flatten the corrugated cardboard box, then slide photos of loved ones (the true lights of your life) inside. Grandma will appreciate the wrinkle-free snapshots.

When the flap of your letter won't stay stuck, find closure with a coat of clear polish.

Instead of keeping bills in an office file (or a messy pile), try organizing them with something more attractive. As you open mail, stash the bills in order of their due dates.

Clamp the nutcracker around the top of a glue, nail-polish, or beverage bottle to give you extra gripping power. Your reward: Tight caps no longer drive you nuts.