“Look for the bare necessities The simple bare necessities Forget about your worries and your strife I mean the bare necessities That’s why a bear career girl can rest at ease With just the bare necessities of life”
These are the bare necessities that I have in and around my desk to make my life easier at work.
- Heels, Flats and Band-aids: Heels for when I’m having a lazy day in flats and get called in to a meeting. The flats are to rescue me on those days that I’m silly enough to think I can walk 5 blocks in heels to meet my lunch buddy, and band-aids, well pretty much for the same reason.
- T-Shirt, Yoga Pants and Thongs: For a quick yoga session at the gym across the road during my lunch break. I should be able to claim my gym membership from work because really, the whole office benefits when I am slightly more zen.
- Coin purse: To uhh…generously contribute to the kitchen’s charity chocolate sales, and for 3.30pm coffee runs.
- Green tea and muesli bars: For those rare intense moments of concentration where going out to get lunch or taking a bathroom break is optional.
- Tissues: For when I spill my coffee, sushi, fruit salad, tomato sauce (not all at once) all over my keyboard. Or for that one time I simultaneously broke down into tears and got a blood nose in front of my Manager. Yep, that was kind of a stressful day.
- Clear water bottle: This must be clear with a wide screw top lid (for easy cleaning) because for some reason, I get super paranoid about micro dust particles accumulating in the opaque aluminium bottles.
- Retractable phone charger: So I can obsessively check my text messages without cluttering my desk. Is it sad that I feel ultra high tech for having this device? Yep, that’s me, always on the cutting edge of technology.
- And finally, some hand cream which I actually never, ever use but keep anyway because it makes me seem like a responsible adult who has it together enough to be concerned about their hand moisture levels.
- I have edited this post to add: Mints and Ibuprofen (as pointed out to me by the lovely blogger at Through The Looking Glass and Down The Rabbit Hole. I am waay too OCD not to add these to the list as they are definitely essentials! If you have Ibuprofen, you have the power.)
That Career Girl
That Career Girl 
It’s a great list 🙂 I have much of the same, and I also keep Ibuprofen and mints on hand 😀
Of course, how could I leave those out! Ibuprofen is a great bartering item in the workplace 🙂
Great list! I have almost the same things, minus the extra shoes, and instead of yoga clothes, I keep a yoga blanket for seated meditation (I have decided yoga is better done completely away from my work day). I keep nuts on hand for snacking. I keep an extra pair of earbuds for lunchtime walks and webinars. Recently, I began carrying around a tiny jar of aromatherapy ointment. That’s it!
Of course, earbuds! How does the aromatherapy help? Is it calming?
It is calming and helps me to re-focus, and also helps to open my sinuses. It is bitterly cold in the Midwest of the USA right now, and the dry indoor air (OK, it’s dry outside, too) is wreaking havoc on my sinuses! I like rosemary and mint with a bit of tea tree oil thrown in, mixed together in a shea butter/avocado oil/vegetable glycerin ointment.
Oh I see, that sounds lovely.
This list covers the essentials of my office cubicle! haha. I also always keep a scarf on hand that doubles as a shawl when the air conditioner gets too cold.
The scarf is a great idea, also great for wardrobe malfunctions like stains 🙂
Sounds like your the perfect person to sit beside in the office to borrow all the necessities in case of an emergency!
Great post! My desk necessities are pretty much the same. I always have tissues, band-aids, mints, and some ballet flats in my desk.
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Let’s not forget a stain remover pen for when I spill coffee on my white shirt EVERY DAY.
Curse those coffee cup lids! Not gonna lie, it’s 6.35am in Australia and I’d gladly spill some coffee on my shirt if it meant I was holding some coffee 🙂
The bare necessities lyrics were a great inclusion. Made my day and I will find a way to re-post them somehow in reference to minimalism in the future 🙂
Haha I’m glad you enjoyed the nostalgia factor 🙂
Reblogged this on Lives of Women 101 and commented:
Things you MUST have at work! Flats, retractable phone charger, and green tea. YES!
Reblogged this on Jewel Newsome.
Homeopathic Rescue Remedy drops – help calm you down when stressed. Highly recommend! Enjoyed the post – will be tracking down the retractable cord!
Thank you 🙂 do you have a Daiso where you are? I bought mine from there for 2.80 Aus dollars about 2 years ago and it’s still going strong.