I’m no minimalist myself but over the years filled with bad consumerist habits I’ve learnt that we really don’t need as many things as we feel like we do. We’re just fine with a few things that we actually put to good use and once these things run out or we can’t use them anymore for whatever reason, we can replace these things easily. It’s 2020 after all. Everything is at your finger tips. Literally. And one of the big bugbears that took me years to overcome was hoarding stationery. Open that dreaded top drawer and ask yourself: Do I really need this many notepads?!
What do I need a notepad for?
- a big notepad for work things
- a little handbag-sized notepad for shopping lists
- a fancy notepad for inspirational quotes
- a Moleskin for gratitude journaling
- a day to day bullet journal
- a budgeting journal
- a notepad for blog planning
- and another trillion of notepads that you scribble on the first three pages of and shove it in a drawer never to be seen again
Do you actually need all these? Of course you don’t. Over the past year or so I’ve minimised my stationery cabinet(!) into one stationery drawer that’s not even over-flowingly full.
What do I REALLY need a notepad for?
There are three key items in my stationery drawer. They are as follows:
- 1x A5 Moleskin (contains EVERYTHING – it’s a work planner, a blog planner, a bullet journal, a gratitude list, I write budgeting notes in it, absolutely everything which means I ALWAYS know where to find ALL my notes)
- 2x packs of USEM note cards (credit card sized cards which fit perfectly into my Kate Spade card holder, I use them to write down lists of things to do usually on a daily basis, which I need carry around even when I don’t have my Moleskin on hand, they have various layouts of the note cards from lined ones to grid ones and lots more)
- 1x pen (make it 3x – I use a Pilot v10 Grip which is a very fine ink pen, but I also have two vintage pens which I don’t use as often because I don’t like taking them out of the house just in case I’d lose them)
- Rubber stamps, a string, a few washi tapes (because that’s all you need to wrap presents semi-sustainably)
The point of this post is to show you that you really don’t need to pick up another notepad or any other stationery next time you’re in TK Maxxx or casually strolling through town past Paperchase. Create a system that works for you – be it two notepads and some post-its, a pack of highlighters that you use to the very last fluorescent drop or a stack of beautiful rose-scented papers that will make you smile every time you use it. Re-wiring your brain to think in this intentional low waste way is the key to better, happier you!
Thank you USEM for sending me some of their note cards to try, they are fabulous and ever so handy!