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Personal Shopper: Undorky Desk Stuff

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

I only have one reader at the moment (hi, Cat!), so I thought I'd indulge her with my very first reader request posting. Apparently, she has just inherited a desk with some hideous floral office accessories, which need to be fixed and fast. And so, suggestions:

The highly lovable Museum of Useful Things (or, MUT) has an online shop with lots of fun desky things, including a very cool old-skool stapler and this awesome measuring tape tape.



Museum shops are apparently the way to go, because the Moma store is also rocking a lot of good desk stuff, and it's not all outrageously expensive either. Plus, Moma continues to be the only place in America where you can buy Muji, the sleek Japanese lifestyle brand whose name literally means "no brand" (or something like that. I speak Chinese, not Japanese!) About 90 percent of all my stationary and desk items come from Muji, because if you shop for Muji in one of their own stores (so, basically, anywhere outside of the U.S.), it is this enormous megastore where everything from watches to wastebaskets is really well-designed and about three dollars. I carry their blessedly non-neon post-it tabs with me everywhere, so I can constantly mark off pages of books and magazines I want to remember. Kind of like a poor man's version of Lucky.

While I don't mean to rub it in, but you can see the full-on Muji desk accessory range on their UK site. The clear office set might be the way to go for one-stop desk accessorizing, if you don't mind being slightly matchy-matchy. That see-through hole puncher alone is genius.


This is not technically a "desk accessory", but everyone will be jealous: Ooms twig memory stick card.


And, on the supercheap side, Ikea has a desk accessories section as well. I love their tapestry-print cardboard magazine holders (though, ahem, some surgery will be necessary to get them to fit very large magazines). My tapestry print is silver and white, which isn't on the website anymore but still is stocked in my local store.

I also suggest Ikea's kitchen section for lots of industrial-looking pencil holders and organizers and stuff. (My current pencil container is actually their stainless steel cutlery caddy. Only $3.99, kids!)

Finally, I can't stop thinking about the Electri-tree for my home office. In pink, of course.


If I had any other readers, this is where I would invite them to leave their own suggestions in the comments area. However.

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