A Unique Way of Managing Office Supplies

The Squirrel Hole

You're at the office printing out an important report that's due on your boss' desk in ten minutes. You notice that the printer toner is getting so low that you can barely read the text of your report. You must replace the toner cartridge immediately. Do you:

(a) Stride confidently to the supply cabinet and open its door, revealing a neatly ordered row of toner boxes, among other carefully placed supplies?
or
(b) Rush to the supply closet in a cold sweat, fling open the door, and find nothing but paperclips and a few pads of paper?

If (b) describes a typical scenario at your office, it's time you learned the secrets of the "squirrel hole."

Supply management

Printer cartridges

The squirrel hole is Elizabeth McAbee's creative way of keeping track of office supplies. An Administration Ministry Assistant at the Idlewild Baptist Church in Tampa, Florida, McAbee is responsible for stocking and ordering supplies for her office.

The workroom at Idlewild, which is used by 50 to 100 staff members, has open shelves for office supplies and all staff members are welcome to take what they need from the shelves — on one condition. They must let McAbee know if they take the last item, either by putting the empty package in her mailbox or on her desk, or by leaving her a note. "For the most part people are good about letting me know," McAbee says.

In addition to the notes and reminders from co–workers, McAbee takes a visual inventory of what has been used about once or twice a week. When McAbee has determined what items need to be restocked, she doesn't pick up the phone or go online to order more. Instead, she unlocks a 72" high by 36" wide supply cabinet–also known as the squirrel hole — in the workroom. This locked cabinet contains duplicates of everything that's out on the open shelves, including extras of heavily used supplies, such as phone message pads that McAbee says "sprout legs and walk away" and more expensive items such as toner cartridges.

"This squirrel hole allows me to immediately restock the shelves or provide additional supplies for those who need more than what is normally kept on the shelves without depleting the supply," says McAbee. "I purchase to replace what I've taken from the cabinet."

Buy on sale

Paper

McAbee also stores items that she buys on sale in this supply hide–away. This allows her to take advantage of low prices on popular items without cluttering the shelves of the public supply area. "Recently Staples had PaperMate FlexGrip Ultra pens two for the price of one and I purchased three to four packages — which meant I had six to eight boxes." These extra boxes went into the locked cabinet for future use.

McAbee keeps the key to the cabinet in her desk, and leaves the key with Idlewild's director of finance when she's away from the office. Says McAbee, "I keep the cabinet locked because experience has taught me that staff will only take a cursory look at the shelves [and if they don't see what they need, they] immediately take what they want from the cabinet." For example, staff members often overlook supplies that are packaged in bulk. McAbee explains, "I buy invisible tape in a box of 12 — staff members look for individual packages of tape and overlook the open box on the shelf. Of course, if it had teeth it would have bitten them on the hand!"

This organizational method is so successful that over the ten years that she's been working for Idlewild, McAbee has only run out of supplies only a few times — because a staff member took the key to the cabinet without her knowledge and did not leave a note. McAbee says that she uses this principle at home, as well. "When I need one can of something I buy two because a recipe may call for two instead of one, or I thought I had one of the shelf but I don't." McAbee doesn't find her organizational philosophy particularly unusual. "I've never known to do it any other way," she admits.

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