I don’t know about your local Goodwill®, but mine always has tons of office supplies!
The allure of office supplies always sucks me in. There’s so much promise in organizational items, and when I look at blank notebooks, clipboards and pencil boxes, I always feel as though it’s time to get my life organized. Of course, it never turns out as tidy as I think it will, but I’ve found that even a couple of little updates to the home can make me feel instantly different. In this post, I’ll be sharing a few ways that you can alter a clipboard to be appropriate at home as well as the office.
The first, and one of the easiest ideas that I had is to hang the clipboard in a high traffic area of your home — say, by the door or next to the phone — stick some paper and a pencil in there, and use it as a message board. The clip will help to keep messages, tickets for events, and other random scraps of paper in place when they’re relevant to the message. Having one designated place for this type of communication (like right up on the wall!) will keep notes from getting lost in the shuffle of the kitchen counter or table. You can also stick a photograph in there for a super simple spur of the moment picture frame!
Now that summer’s here, I want to spend every spare minute I have outside! Bringing a clipboard along to a picnic will give you a place to clip your napkins so the wind doesn’t carry them away. It will also double as a tray and fit nicely into a basket for the trip to and from your picnic spot. Should you decide to read while you’re out, you can clip a book under the metal to keep the pages from turning against your wishes, thus giving you free hands to sip your lemonade. Adding contact paper or painting the clipboard a fun color will also help to make it feel less official and more multi-functional.
Speaking of painting it, in March I shared a DIY on my personal blog about how to turn a clipboard into a chalkboard using chalkboard paint. Ryan and I use ours along the same lines as the message board above, but like being able to leave notes for one another without having to find or use up a lot of paper.
If there are no picnics in your near future, and you’re already pretty good at communication, you might also consider using your thrifted clipboard as a jewelry sorter. Although I don’t have a whole lot of baubles for myself, I still like to keep them nicely displayed (otherwise, I forget I have them and they don’t get worn). So here’s an easy way to turn this piece of office-ware into a pretty little display for accessories:
If you decide to support your community by shopping at Goodwill, you’ll find that you save a lot of money while also helping to fund job training for those who are facing challenges finding employment. It’s such a great way to know that you’re making a difference not only in your wallet, but in someone else’s life. And if you liked what you saw here today, make sure to check out our DIY pinboard for more ideas about how you could use clipboards in the home!
xx, Julia
