Designate a shelf, shelves, cabinet, or closet for supplies and keep everything in its place for easy retrieval.   Create inventory lists of all regularly purchased items, with their item numbers, page number, and price, along with the supply company information.  This will make purchasing quick and painless, so you don’t end up running out of important supplies.  Every week, all you need do is quickly scan your list to see which items you are running low on.   Add any new items to your list as you add them to your supplies.   

(I found that sale catalogs to be waste of my time, in having to find, over and over, the items and their changing item numbers in the monthly sale catalogs with ever-changing layouts.)

I strongly advise opening an account with an office supply company that carries a wide selection of items with unchanging item numbers, and offers online shopping and free shipping.   Online accounts allow you to automatically create your inventory lists on the supply company’s website, which is a great time-saver.  I use and highly recommend Office Depot.  They have a great business center.  http://www.officedepot.com and free shipping for orders of $50 or more, as well as an excellent Advantage Rewards Program that gives you back 10% of all your purchases at the end of each quarter.

When your business grows large enough, it’s worthwhile to open a corporate account, for even greater savings and no minimum purchase for free shipping.