Having a well stocked office is just as crucial as a well designed one to the function of the space. We often tell you a lot of ways how you can spruce up your office environment. But now it’s time to talk about increasing the usability of your space by making sure you have all the materials you need for a productive day at the office, ready for any and all emergencies. Some may be obvious and others not so much but check out our list of what we keep stocked and let us know if you have anything to add.

Writing instruments: we keep a full stock of a single brand pen + pencil which we happened to fall in love with last year and never decided to switch. Some people may think variety is the spice of life but we like returning to “old faithful”. There are plenty available in the drawer when we need to grab some on the go.

Highlighters and sharpies: always a necessity when reviewing documents or making quick notes to oneself

Post-it notes: speaking of notes, we can’t imagine working/brainstorming without post it notes in hand. We prefer the full adhesive kind in classic canary color.

Index cards: blank on both sides for easy sketching and note-taking. Instead of the computer, we always jump to these guys first when we need to take rushed notes. When we’re finished we can easily rearrange the content as needed to help further flesh out our ideas.

Batteries: AA and AAA for all sorts of wireless goods around the office and house. The last thing you want is for your wireless mouse batteries to die and not have a back up.

Label maker: Organization is key! And although you want to be careful not to over-label, achieving the perfect equilibrium of labeled goods will drastically improve your workflow and ability to quickly find files and whatever else in your space. The Brother PT-90 has never steered us wrong!

To-do list: Whether it’s digital or analog, having a to-do list nearby to quickly jot down new tasks is very important. It’s surprising just how many things we can easily forget after only minutes of thinking them up! We love the Things app which syncs across our computers and iPhones.

Calendar: Much like the to-do list, having a calendar on hand is crucial. We use the default iCal app because it syncs so nicely with our iPhone and various computers via Apple’s MobileMe (and soon to be iCloud).

Spare phone charger: Because cables to charge your phone are so inexpensive these days, we like to have one at our desk so we can always attach the iPhone easily to our Mac, rather than take our main charger from the bedroom simply to transfer files or charger our phone while we’re at the desk.

(Image: Flickr member Connor Walsh and donovanbeesen licensed for use under Creative Commons)