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toronto_veterinarian

Do you have a stapler?

I just had to refill my stapler, and I realized that the box of staples that I'm still using must be 20-25 years old, at least. I can't imagine how I've moved it multiple times over the years, and somehow it never got lost. I sent a photo to my sister as a blast from the past -- Grand & Toy hasn't had retail stores for over 10 years. She was surprised I even had a stapler, let alone staples to go with it.

Do you have a stapler at home? I use mine not infrequently. I'm old - I still use paper for records and bills.


Comments (51)

  • 9 months ago

    I also have an old stapler and staples, can’t remember the last time I used it.

  • 9 months ago

    Yes.

  • 9 months ago

    I used mine today. Tax stuff, and sorting finances for my newly widowed MIL. I use it fairly regularly.

  • 9 months ago

    I have one regular desk stapler in a desk drawer at each of my two locations. When you need a stapler, a paper clip (which I also have) usually won't do. I don't use them often.

    The cheap ones I get (like at an Office Depot) tend to get clogged when trying to staple more than a few pages. When that happens, I'll try but not struggle to clear the clog. It's easier to buy a new one.

    All of my bills and financial records are electronic, as are my payments. I have a number of devices and PCs holding mostly identical backup copies that are refreshed regularly and kept in different locations. There is also one device with backup files in a safe depot box at a bank.

  • 9 months ago

    Several at home - all vintage - and many new ones at work - I use them most often at work tho.

    And I have one of these at work - they're great for making books with the kids.



  • 9 months ago

    I have a few staplers, box of staples, and staple pullers. I have a couple of old ones fom my parents’ house, at least one is almost as old as I am, and it is the most reliable. Like reader glasses (when I wore them), they are in a few rooms around the house. My office, DH’s office, the kitchen drawer, my music room. Here’s a use you might not have expected: I will put a couple of staples on the outside edge of music, it gives the sheet some heft to turn more easily.

  • 9 months ago

    Do you play the piano, bpath? Or is this for your bell ringing activities?

  • 9 months ago

    We have staplers, but I guess we do not use them all that often.

    We also have staple guns for upholstery, and I think one of them is electric, but I haven't used it for the past couple of years.

  • PRO
    9 months ago

    I have a couple of staplers, one quite old - may have got it when in university about 70 years ago. Box of staples has been around for quite a while, as has a couple of boxes of paper clips, leftovers from when I bought multiples a number of years ago.

    I have clamps, as well, with two wire handles that one can fold out to squeeze together to open the clamp - better than paper clips for holding a dozen or so papers, relating to income, charitable deductions, etc. at income income tax prep time.

    ole joyful - currently dealing with verification requirements re: last years charitable and political donationdonations: wish me luck, please!


  • 9 months ago

    Yes. Somewhere. It was a gift. Its pink and included in the gift was some pink staples to go with it. Can't say I have ever used it, but it was a very thoughtful gift. Practical and personal at the same time.

  • 9 months ago
    last modified: 9 months ago

    Binder clips?



    I have a small staple gun and I'd like a bigger one. We received a donation at work of many boxes that included small staple gun staples - since the staff had no use for them, I now have several lifetimes' supply - guess I need to come up with a project that uses lots of those staples - maybe something like this...





  • 9 months ago

    I have two. I use them often. While I have lots of items in digital form, I keep copies of certain things in paper form as they would need to be accessed by others quickly in the case of my death or incapacity. My box of staples is probably 20 years old, though. I had to buy some binder clips recently as I can't figure out where mine disappeared when I moved. All the desk/office supplies were packed together, but the binder clips are nowhere to be found.

  • 9 months ago

    4-5 staplers and a TOT size one in my desk. Theres a stapler gun in the basement workroom. Of course the staples are old ---they came in boxes of "enough to last your life" size. I use them all the time to staple this n that. I have purple staples from when scrapbooking supplies were popular about 20 years ago.

  • 9 months ago

    My husband has one in his home office. Not sure what he uses it for & I haven't used one in years

  • 9 months ago

    I'm definitely old school. I have a stapler and lots of paper clips. When I first started working in a real job, I got to order the office supplies and I loved it. I have paper copies of bills and taxes and such. I like to be able to put my hands on them.

  • 9 months ago
    last modified: 9 months ago

    " I like to be able to put my hands on them. "

    We're all different.

    I don't want to put my eyes on them, much less touch them. I use autopay to the max and that way I don't need to even look at most bills. I keep an eye on them by looking just at totals shown in the notification email or text messages sent before payments are made. Our spending patterns are pretty regular, and blips are easy to anticipate.

  • 9 months ago

    I also have a magnetic dish full of paper clips and binder clips


  • 9 months ago
    last modified: 9 months ago

    Elmer, bell-ringing. There are some people who use tablets for the music, I ring with only one person who does, in the bass. Maybe some day for me.

  • 9 months ago

    Which of those items bring you joy?

    How many years' supply do those represent?

  • 9 months ago

    Binder clips! I love binder clips. They hold a lot of things together, including chip bags, or use as the loop to hang something on a hook.

  • 9 months ago

    Yes to all of the above. We have a desk so we have ALL the accoutrement. Well the staple gun is in DHs shop.

  • 9 months ago

    I have a manual one and an electric one. Use the electric one the most. Use both frequently.

  • 9 months ago
    last modified: 9 months ago

    I've been able to shred and recycle so much of my filing. But I do print out bank statements and income taxes. I have a stapler for those. It's a cute tiny one. Hot pink.




  • 9 months ago

    I have had the same stapler since 1985, when I transferred to Kansas City for my job. I was an excellent typist, and computers were just starting to be used by my company, so I did a lot of data entry in the beginning. After loading a group of papers, I'd staple them together for filing. Because back then, you definitely kept the "hard copy" of whatever you input.


    My hands are small, and the normal office staplers were large and difficult for me to use. I often didn't have the strength to press the staple through all the papers repeatedly throughout the day. So I'd need to whack! the stapler to force the staples through. Bruises!


    One day, my boss gave me a new stapler. Not huge like the regular ones, but just my size. It's an ACE Cadet, and solid as can be. I could hold it in my hand. It's never let me down in 40 years. I took it from job to job as my career changed, and then took it home with me when I retired. My box of staples probably came home when I retired, too. LOL





  • 9 months ago

    I have a stapler. I'm not sure how often I use it, but recently I'd say somewhat frequently as I ready things for tax time. I don't risk handing my accountant anything that might confuse her.

    DH will put paperclips on absolutely everything and it makes me crazy.

    My stapler probably has been used a dozen times before I would think to reach for a paper clip.

    His staplers in the garage are the swing and hope you've hit type, as for attaching a sign to a fence post or putting a grading tag on a log end. My sister is coming for lunch today and i asked her if they have one with more finesse. Of course they do, her husband has every tool known to man and he's bringing one. I have a vintage armoire that Habitat has agreed to take later this month and I noticed one of the back upper panels is loose - stapled originally. BIL will make it more secure for them.

  • 9 months ago

    I have one and am using it now to organize papers for tax returns. You just made me think that I don't know where the refills are. Thanks!

  • 9 months ago

    We have 4 and more staples than I care to admit.

  • 9 months ago

    Thirty years ago my father gave me the stapler and box of staples that sat on his desk when I was a child. I recall the box looked antique to me even then. I would guess the stapler is from the 1940s. We did use up all those staples but have a second newer box that he later found among his possessions.


    It was also my father who gave me our staple gun, but he bought that new for me. It disappeared years ago, and I've had quite a few times when it would have made a job quicker and easier.


    I have used both the stapler and a paper clip today.


    When was the last time you used one of these?


  • 9 months ago

    We keep a Swingline stapler at hand on the desk. May use it a couple of times a year. I can’t remember when I last bought staples for it. But there it sits, locked and loaded so to speak.

  • 9 months ago

    I have at least 5 staplers but the only ones I use often are the 2 staple guns in my shop. They are used mostly in the garden.

  • 9 months ago
    last modified: 9 months ago

    matthias, I used brads like that daily to fasten together large "files" during the earlier years of my career when I was a young'in functioning as a worker bee during the development state of advancement. My firm had that idiosyncrasy, to put together files "differently" from others. The brads were in various sizes and could be up to 6 inches long - for the BIG files. Everyone was issued a corner punch that made diagonal slit holes in the paper to accommodate the brads. At higher levels of management, one used such files but didn't assemble them.

    Preprinted pages and file covers the firm bought were prepunched.

    The brad would be oriented upward and a washer fitting the brad would go on top to anchor the folded back ends.

    They stopped being used when the work flow became electronic but used up until the end - late 20th century.

    Edit to add - in my firm they were called "spikes". As with the instruction given to a co-worker, "please spike those pages together".

  • 9 months ago

    I still have my tiny (TOT?) stapler from my HS years. I think I'm on my third box of staples. I lost the TOT temporarily and bought a cheap plastic thing -- junk. I had an electric stapler at work.

    Do you have a staple *remover*? How about the little 'knife' (Exacto?) to cut something out of the newspaper?


  • 9 months ago

    Chisue, I stiil have my Tiny Tot stapler, too and a box of teeny staples.

    I have a funny story of how I got one of my staplers. I bought some gifts at a men’s store, back in the day when they stapled your receipts together. I put the bag aside until Christmas.

    When i went to wrap the gifts, i found the store’s stapler in the bag! I also have a lifetime supply of staples. My friend closed his business and had to rid of office supplies. He gave me many boxes of staples. I do use them

    Binder clips are my favorite office supply although i use them forchip clips now.

  • 9 months ago
    last modified: 9 months ago

    Yes an old black mid-sized, desktop Swingline that lives in a mesh pullout in my desk cubby along with tape, paperclips and rubber bands. The decades old large box of staples lives in a lower drawer with a more modern 3 hole paper punch. We also have two different styles of staple guns in the garage toolbox. I rarely use binder clips at home but keep a few in two different sizes in my travel kit. Very useful for multiple things.

  • 9 months ago

    Binder clips reminds me that when I started working for the local Farmers Market as Treasurer, I had a fair amount of paperwork to keep track of and I thought it was the perfect excuse to get some fun supplies (at my own expense, of course). I found some great binder clips in different sizes and more importantly, in different colors!!!! And of course colored paper clips too. It doesn't take much to make me happy.

  • 9 months ago

    I use brads for lots of kids crafts




  • 9 months ago
    last modified: 9 months ago

    murraysmom -- I want some pretty colored paper clips too

    As a child I wanted to work in the post office so I could STAMP things. There was a sort of lazy susan with a dozen or more wood handled stamps of different sizes and a couple of different colored ink pads. I was just able to see over the bottom of the window, but I could smell the ink and see the action. BAM! There's that letter seen to! (And they pay you to do it.)

  • 9 months ago

    Just thought of the fact that I must have collected over a dozen broken staplers at work until I laid down the law that only adults were allowed to use them 😄

  • 9 months ago

    I still have a bulletin board in the kitchen, the large calendar is binder-clipped to the frame. The calendar has a couple of binder clips on it to help turn the page, and to clip reminders to the edges. On the bulletin board itself, there are of course push-pins and thumb tacks, and some of the push-pins have binder clips hanging from them, holding things I don’t want a hole in or are too thick, like my envelope of theater tickets.

  • 9 months ago

    I recently cleaned out a cabinet that held some office supplies among other things. I discovered three boxes of staples i didn’t realize we had when I needed to refill the stapler I use. I also discovered an additional stapler besides the 2 I knew about. The extra 2 boxes of staples and extra stapler are now in a donation box among some other items. I use a stapler occasionally, mostly because I copy things for people I volunteer with and distribute at meetings.

  • 9 months ago

    Yes, of course! I might have at least 8 in the house. Old Stapels also.

  • 9 months ago

    ^^^ Yes. Different uses.

  • 4 months ago

    Yes! I always used my stapler in fact i have several . Also, when grandkids have a project guess who they can rely on ?

  • 4 months ago

    Yes one like the OP and Nicole. I have a hole punch too. Single and multi punch.

  • 4 months ago

    I have a stapler, hole punch, binder clips, small and large paper clips. I love office supplies and love to go in office supply stores, and happy when I can get new pens and Sharpies I like!

  • 4 months ago

    I'm another lover of office supplies. My dad always had good paper and everything that goes with it when I was growing up, and now I'm the same. I have a stapler, and my box of staples has definitely seen better days. Don't get me started on my favorite pens and Sharpies!

  • 4 months ago

    I get twitchy around back-to-school displays in the stores. Every year I limit myself to a pack of Bic automatic puzzles and a pack of crystal Bic pens. But if I should die today, the family will be amazed at the couple of hundred pens and pencils and highlighters (which I buy on amazon because I only want blue) that I have squirreled away in my desk.

  • 4 months ago

    " and highlighters (which I buy on amazon because I only want blue) "

    I only want non-neon yellow, and Amazon is the only place I've found that sells them as well.

  • 4 months ago

    Do you remember the Staples commercial: "It's the most wonderful time of the year!"?