GPI 132 – Gather Up Excess Supplies, Take Action, Clean House!

Gather all the excess supplies that have accumulated in your company from layoffs, purchases that were mistakes and never returned items that were thought to be unique. and were not and were forgotten and everything else found in abandoned drawers, desks, side cabinets and closets that normally remain closed.  Bring all of these unused items to one location in the company and take one or more of the following actions.

Actions to clean out your excess office supplies:

• Assign a kid.  Hire a kid from college or even from high school (summer and out of school) to go retrieve all supplies sitting in empty desks, supply closets, conference rooms and any other place where there was an office at one time.  Send out a notice to all that you are gathering unused office supplies.  Once this is distributed, hand your assignee and empty box and ask that he go to each office and gather items left in empty ones and ask for the unused items in the occupied offices.  Instruct employees to be ready.
• Identify them and bar new purchases.  Gather these unused items, note their names and brands and then decide that they are to be barred from further ordering.  The best action is to make a list of only those items that are allowed to be ordered.  Throw the catalogs away after this money-saving decision is reached.
• Use them regardless.  Put the items gathered up in stock and try to use them up.  Announce to everyone nothing will be ordered until the old items are used.
• Return or exchange them.  If they are not used or no longer applicable, try to get your supplier to take them back and give you a credit.
• Sell them in a garage sale.  Try to sell these excess items as a garage sale to employees or to the public.  Mark them down so you do not pick them up again.
• Donate them.  If you cannot get a credit, donate them to the school, church or local nonprofit charity and get a tax-deductible receipt.  These items are worth money to charities as donations and will be picked if substantial.  Call them and ask when their truck is in your area.  Ask that a donation receipt is brought with the driver in order to substantiate your donation.
• Act:  Do something with excess supplies; open space, earn a little money, earn a tax deduction, learn what not to buy again, take control of supplies purchases to save money.  Take away the ability to order and allow only one assigned person this duty once a month (you pick the reorder point in order to maximize the savings).  Restrict purchases to a defined list.