FAQ: How do you use your typewriters?

The question “How do you use your typewriter(s)?” pops up for me fairly frequently. Often it’s collectors who love the machines and only think of using them for writing the “Great American Novel”. However there are a variety of tasks one could use them for besides conversation pieces or functional art in the home.

Below are some various recent uses I’ve made of my typewriter collection:

I’ve got writing projects sitting in two different machines.

I use one on my primary desk and another on the table behind it for typing up notes on index cards, recipes, my commonplace “book”, letters, and other personal correspondence.

I use a few of my portables on the porch in the mornings/evenings for journaling.

One machine in the hallway is for burning ideas, jokes, poetry and an occasional bit of typewriter art.

I often have one in the trunk of the car for typing on the go or the impromptu busking session.

One machine near the kitchen is always gamed up for adding to the ever-growing shopping list.

I’ll often get one out for scoring baseball games. (See also other baseball scoring experiments.)

Participating in One Typed Page and One Typed Quote

Typing up notes in zoom calls. I’ve got a camera mount over a Royal KMG that has its own Zoom account so people can watch the notes typed in real time.

Labels for folders, index card dividers, and sticky labels.

Addressing envelopes.

Writing out checks.

Typecasting

Hiding a flask or two of bourbon (large standards, and especially the Fold-A-Matic Remingtons are great for this)

Supplementing the nose of my bourbon and whisky collection.

At the end of the day though, unless you’re Paul Sheldon, typewriters are unitaskers and are designed to do one thing well: put text on paper. All the rest are just variations on the theme. 😁🤪☠️

Looking for other ideas? I’ve indexed a number of times people have asked this question and some of the answers I’ve run across.

Looking for the opposite of this list? Try: How do you use your typewriter? [Wrong Answers Only Edition] This is where you’ll find the quirky off-label use cases like “boat anchor”, “doorstop”, “paper weight”, etc. that the non-typewriter afficionados will be sure to appreciate throwing about.