Nobody thinks about the supply room until the printer is out of toner, the scissors have disappeared, and the last roll of tape was used three weeks ago to wrap someone’s birthday present. A well-organized printing and supply room prevents that chaos — and it is cheaper to set up than most people expect.

This guide walks through everything you need: the right printer for your team size, essential supplies to stock from day one, storage solutions, and the small details that prevent the supply room from becoming a junk pile within 30 days of opening.

This post is part of the Complete Amazon Office Setup Guide series.

Start With the Right Printer

The printer choice drives everything else in this room. Get it wrong and you will spend months dealing with slow print speeds, expensive consumables, or a machine that jams every third job. Get it right and it disappears into the background the way good infrastructure should.

Black and White Laser: The Workhorse Choice

For offices that print primarily documents, reports, and contracts, a monochrome laser printer is the most cost-effective choice by a wide margin. Laser toner costs less per page than inkjet ink, the cartridges last longer, and the print quality on text is excellent.

• Small team (under 10): Brother HL-L2350DW (~$120) — Wireless, automatic duplex printing, prints up to 32 pages per minute. Reliable, fast, and the toner cartridges are widely available. This is probably the best printer under $200 for a small office.
• Mid-size team (10-25): Brother MFC-L2750DW (~$230) — All-in-one (print, copy, scan, fax), wireless, 36 ppm. The fax function is still useful if you deal with legal, medical, or financial clients.
• High volume (25+ staff or heavy printing): HP LaserJet Pro MFP M428fdw (~$380) — Up to 40 ppm, high-capacity toner available, built for demanding environments. HP’s toner program (Instant Ink for Business) also reduces per-page costs.

Color Laser: When You Need It

If your team regularly prints presentations, marketing materials, or anything client-facing, add a color laser. The per-page cost is higher than monochrome but far lower than inkjet, and the quality is professional.

• Budget color laser: Brother HL-L3270CDW (~$280) — 25 ppm color, wireless, automatic duplex. A strong entry-level color laser for offices that do not print color constantly.
• Mid-range color all-in-one: HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M479fdw (~$480) — Print, copy, scan, fax. 28 ppm. Built-in security features. Solid for client-facing offices.

Wide Format: For Design and Marketing Teams

If you produce signage, architectural drawings, or large-format marketing materials in-house, a wide format printer pays for itself quickly compared to outsourcing. The Epson EcoTank ET-5850 (~$600) handles tabloid (11×17) at minimum. True wide-format 24-inch plotters start around $800-1,200. Most small businesses do not need this.

Printer Supplies to Stock From Day One

Whatever printer you buy, order at least two spare toner or ink cartridges at setup. Running out in the middle of a deliverable is a morale and productivity tax you can avoid.

• Paper: Hammermill Copy Plus 8.5×11 (case of 5 reams) (~$50) — 20lb, 92 brightness, runs clean through laser printers. Buy by the case, not by the ream.
• Legal-size paper: Hammermill 8.5×14 legal size (~$20 per ream) — If you deal with contracts, have at least one ream on hand.
• Card stock: Card stock 65lb or 90lb, 100-sheet pack (~$15-20) — For printing certificates, business cards, or anything that needs weight.
• Labels: Avery 5160 address labels (750-pack) (~$20) — The standard for mailing, filing, and organization.
• Envelopes: #10 business envelopes, box of 500 (~$25) — Buy in bulk. You will go through them.

Essential Office Supplies to Stock

A supply room that is not stocked is just a room with a printer in it. These are the supplies that disappear fastest and matter most when they are gone.

Writing and Filing

• Pens: BIC Round Stic, 60-pack (~$10) — The standard office pen. Cheap enough to never worry about inventory.
• Markers: Sharpie permanent marker variety pack (~$15) — Permanent markers, fine point. Every office needs them.
• Highlighters: Sharpie highlighter set, 24-pack (~$12)
• Sticky notes: Post-it 3×3 value pack (18 pads) (~$20) — Stock multiples. They go fast.
• File folders: Pendaflex Manila folders, 100-pack (~$18)
• Hanging file folders: Pendaflex hanging folders, 25-pack (~$15)
• Notebooks: Mead composition notebooks, 12-pack (~$25) or spiral notebooks in bulk (~$20 for 6).

Fastening and Binding

• Stapler: Swingline 747 Business Stapler (~$25) — The classic. Handles 20 sheets without effort. Buy the 5,000-count staple pack (~$10) at the same time.
• Heavy-duty stapler: Swingline Commercial Heavy Duty (~$55) — If you staple large documents, get this. Handles up to 160 sheets.
• Paper clips: ACCO paper clips, 1,000-count box (~$8)
• Binder clips: Binder clip variety pack (small/medium/large) (~$8)
• Tape: Scotch Magic tape, 6-pack with dispenser (~$12) — The invisible-dry tape standard. Buy refills in bulk.
• Rubber bands: Alliance assorted rubber bands, 1-pound bag (~$7)

Cutting and Mailing

• Scissors: Fiskars 8-inch scissors, 3-pack (~$15) — Buy multiples so there are always scissors in the room. One pair goes missing everywhere.
• Box cutter / utility knife: Stanley 99E retractable utility knife (~$8) — For packages, cords, and general cutting tasks.
• Paper trimmer: Fiskars SureCut 12-inch trimmer (~$30) — For clean straight cuts on flyers, documents, and card stock.
• Postage scale: Dymo M10 digital postal scale (~$30) — If you mail packages, this saves real money on over-stamping.
• Shipping tape: Scotch shipping packaging tape, 6-pack with dispenser (~$20)

Desk and Wall Organization

• Label maker: DYMO LabelManager 160 (~$25) — The easiest way to label shelves, drawers, and storage bins so things actually go back where they belong.
• Dry-erase markers: Expo Low Odor markers, 12-pack (~$15)
• Push pins and thumbtacks: Assorted push pin set, 200-count (~$8)

Storage and Room Organization

The biggest failure mode for supply rooms is not understocking — it is poor organization. Supplies pile up, nothing has a home, and within a month you have a room that defeats its own purpose.

Shelving

• Wire shelving unit: Seville Classics 5-tier wire shelving unit (~$80) — Open design lets you see what is on each shelf. Adjustable. Holds a lot. This is the backbone of a good supply room.
• Closed cabinet: Locking metal storage cabinet (~$150-200) — Useful if you keep toner, expensive supplies, or anything that walks away. Also keeps the room looking clean from the doorway.

Bins, Baskets, and Dividers

• Stackable storage bins: Sterilite stackable bins (~$30 for a set) — Use one per supply category (pens, clips, tape, etc.).
• File bin or inbox tray: Safco three-tier desktop organizer (~$35) — Keeps paper and envelopes organized on a counter without eating shelf space.
• Paper ream shelf dividers: You do not need special hardware. Buy a few wire shelf dividers (~$15) to keep paper types separated on their shelf.

Small Furniture

• Work surface or counter: If the room has no built-in counter, a simple 48-inch folding work table (~$60-80) creates a surface for sorting mail, printing labels, and packing boxes.
• Recycling bin: The supply room is one of the highest paper-waste spots in any office. A dedicated paper recycling bin (~$25) prevents shredder overflow and keeps the space cleaner.

Add a Shredder

If you handle anything sensitive — client information, contracts, financial documents, employee records — a shredder in or near the supply room is not optional. The FTC’s data security guidelines specifically include proper document disposal as part of a reasonable security program.

• Personal / small office: Amazon Basics 8-Sheet Cross-Cut Shredder (~$35) — Cross-cut (not strip-cut) provides meaningful security. Fine for low-volume shredding.
• Mid-size office: Fellowes Powershred 12-sheet Micro-Cut (~$120) — Micro-cut shreds documents into confetti-size pieces. Handles 12 sheets at once and runs continuously for up to 8 minutes.
• High-volume: Fellowes Powershred 225Ci (~$350) — Shreds 22 sheets, continuous run time, handles CDs and credit cards. Built for a busy shared shredding station.

Total Budget Breakdown

Here is what a complete supply and print room setup costs for a team of 10-15:

Keeping It Organized Long-Term

The supply room will drift into chaos if nobody owns it. Assign someone to run a five-minute weekly check: verify paper stock, check toner levels, refill bins, and add to the reorder list anything that is running low. Use a shared Amazon Business account to simplify reordering — everything ships fast and the order history makes budgeting easy.

Label every shelf and bin with a label maker from day one. When something has a labeled home, it goes back there. When it does not, it ends up on the counter forever.

Review your supply list quarterly. Eliminate what nobody uses and increase stock on what runs out constantly. The goal is a room that works without anyone having to think about it.

For more room-by-room setup guides, see the full Amazon Office Setup Series hub. You might also find the front desk and reception area setup guide and the break room setup guide helpful for rounding out your space.

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