Part 5 - The Home Office - 101 New Uses for Everyday Items

Make your office supplies work double time with these new twists.

The Home Office

Transparent Tape

Prepare to pucker up. For a smoother finish, press the sticky side of a piece of tape to your lips to remove dry skin (that is not cracked) before applying lipstick.

Identify plants. Use clear tape to cover seed markers in the garden. You’ll be able to read the names all season long, rain or shine.

Try a new color. Find out what “Hot Tamale” nail polish will look like on you. Place a small piece of tape on your fingernail, then brush on a test coat.

Arrange flowers. Clear tape, when applied across the mouth of a vase in a grid formation, makes an invisible guide for arranging flowers.

Seal the frayed end of a shoelace.

Get hung up. Before hanging a picture on a plaster wall, put a small piece of tape where the nail will go. This will prevent the plaster from chipping when you hammer in the nail.

Corkboard

Soak it up. Cut a corkboard liner for the bottom of an umbrella stand.

Place under doormats, seat cushions, and laptops — anything on a slick surface — to keep them from sliding around.

Store hair accessories. Mount the corkboard on a wall and hang thin hair bands, elastics, and clips with thumbtacks or hooks.

Slip corkboard sheets under plates for a new take on place mats. Use letter stamps to personalize them with family members’ names or an appropriate message (“Bon appétit!”).

Cut into four-inch squares to use as minimalist coasters.

"Hello, My Name Is"

Maintain your book collection. Write your name on the tags and stick them inside book covers so borrowers know where to return your best sellers.

Keep track of coats at a party. When a guest arrives, jot the person’s name on a tag and attach it to his or her coat. Then, as people leave, you can quickly retrieve the right black wool peacoat from among the many.

Send a letter using a name tag as an address label.

Sort dishes. Label the bases of pans and Tupperware containers at a potluck dinner so each one is returned to its proper owner.

Permanent Marker

Cover small bleach spots on black garments.

Save a photograph. Use a permanent marker, such as a Sharpie, to black out unsightly red-eye in prints.

Fill in scuffs and scratches on shoes, furniture, or a car’s interior.

Update a lamp shade. Apply a guide of masking tape around the bottom of a lamp shade, a half inch from the edge, then use a marker to color in a dark border. Repeat for the top edge. For the more artistically ambitious, make a design on the shade with a stencil to create a filigreed or stained-glass effect when the light shines through.