Office Space: Where I Plan

I have been on an organizing kick lately and so it only seems fitting to post a blog showing my creation space… my office. I made a commitment to myself when I moved back from Florida to keep a tidy office and leave my laptop out of my bedroom and so far I am doing pretty well! In order to keep my space clean though, I feel like it has to be visually appealing. Just like with planners… I am more likely to look at my schedule and to do’s if it is in a pretty planner and fun to look at. So, without further ado, my office! I racked my brain and scoured the internet before posting this blog looking at others blogs and video tours of their planning supply organization and craft areas. I came to two conclusions; 1) I’m not everybody else so I can have my own style 2) I am not good at making videos. At least not yet. So I took some photos instead. Hope you enjoy and are inspired to organize your own areas!

Where the magic happens 🙂 Notice the Target Dollar Spot Haul supplies as decoration!

So here is my desk… God bless Ikea for letting us create our own spaces. It’s as if that place was made for planners. You will see the name Ikea more than a couple times throughout my blog. I love that place. I got two drawer units and a table top from Ikea and made my own desk. I feel like it’s a large enough space to utilize without being overbearing. Of course in a dream world I would have an L shaped desk that took up half the room but this is reality and I am working with the space I have. O:)

My laptop doesn’t leave my desk. It’ s a HP Envy, the first non-Vaio I’ve had, and while I am not a huge fan of the new Windows I like the size of my laptop and it definitely holds it’s own with the amount of damage I do downloading and saving files. Pinterest, WordPress, Facebook, Instagram, and Google+ are all neatly settled in my favorites bar ready for me to surf the internet for hours on end!

I won’t show you all the drawers because they aren’t all planner related. This drawer dutifully holds my electronics; my camera, camcorder, Pringo photo printer, and label maker. It’s also home to my 6 hole punch which is a Japanese import you can easily purchase on Amazon and adjusts to punch holes for all three sizes of Filofax! It can be found here. I also have a recently purchased flag punch, binder clips, pen loops, paper clips (who knew I would one day pine over paper clips), and an assortment of charms as I recently started making my own planner charms.

This is where I display my planners… the highlight of the room! The shelving unit is also from Ikea and is meant for the back of a desk but was repurposed with the help of a good friend to fit on my old dresser so I could show my entire collection! ❤

In this mix we have several Filofax (Domino, Saffiano, Finsbury) in different sizes and colors, a Heidi Swapp planner used as a memory planner, a Heidi Swapp planner used as a blog planner, the Happiness Planner, a Get to Workbook, a gold Lovedoki, two fauxdoris, Websters Pages Color Crush planners, two journaling prompt books, and my Listers Gotta List notebook. And can’t forget some of the most useful money I ever spent… my laminator! Extremely inexpensive considering the use it gets!

   

In my dresser, I have one drawer full of paper (A4, letter, photo paper. Pringo paper, cardstock, etc) and extra print cartridges [not pictured]. Then I have a one drawer dedicated to my personal size inserts and one for my A5 inserts. Personal size inserts are stored in a mix of Target Dollar Spot accordion folders, a color crush planner box (great for storage!), and an Avery mini binder filled with folders and mini sheet protectors. The A5 inserts are also stored in mini binders with file inserts made from scrapbook paper as shown in a previous blog to accommodate the size of the inserts. I have my Passion Planner stored in here also as I have unbound certain sections and periodically used them in my A5 Filofax. I just used binder rings to bind my collection of dividers and dashboards neatly together. I also store another mini binder in this drawer with sheet protectors containing acrylic stick on stamps sorted by type and a small dollar haul accordion file containing some journal cards that I printed out from Pinterest.

Now this beauty is a new family member… it was actually a gift from a friend and also another Ikea find. It’s called the Sprutt and it was found in the closet and shoe storage section of Ikea. It is a 6 drawer unit that is made of metal like a high school locker. I just found a pretty font and printed out labels glued to blue scrapbook paper for the front label section. The unit goes back approximately 12 inches and the drawers are nice and deep!

The six drawers contain 1) notebooks 2) stickers 3) post its/sticky notes 4) page flags 5) stamps 6) ink.

            

I’m a lucky girl! I just got this over the weekend and he even built it too! 😛

Then in the corner of my room I have a drawer unit from Hobby Lobby that was in my bedroom in Florida that I have repurposed as a printer stand since I now use my dresser as a display for my planners. And the room would not be complete without my Ikea Raskog. For less than $45, this cart comes in so handy as you can stock it with current supplies and move it around not only your office but your house and it tucks away neatly in a closet when I am cleaning up. I use the top section for pens, scissors, hole punches, glue, etc. The second shelf contains some more stickers and washi tape (all my pink themed stickers and washi as I am going through a phase where I feel it is necessary to have my decorations match the patent cover of my Filofax…. it’s really hard….). Then the third shelf contains small containers (also from Ikea) with all my remaining washi tape. The green container is actually full of black, gold, and tan washi tape sectioned out for when my Nude Original arrives… I am telling you… this color coordination thing has a grip on me right now!

  

Well I hope that you enjoyed my photo tour. I am proud to say that no matter how messy I make this room while planning and decorating, I always make sure to leave it tidy before I close the door. This is a big deal for me considering my innate ability to be a clutter bug. 🙂 I take pride in this room though and since it is where I spent a large percentage of my time outside of work and sleep, I feel it deserves to be well taken care of. 😀

Sweet dreams folks!

XOXO

Sarah

Planner Organizing and Such Things

I am on a mission to blog consistently this month so what better excuse to hit up the Target Dollar Spot!?! Normally, I find nothing and leave swearing I will never waste my time again because clearly all the cool dollar spot stuff is simply a myth. Well not this time… I went to a Target out by my work and further out from Atlanta and I found ALL THE THINGS. Well not all…. but PLENTY! And I even scored some for my cousin in England!! #bestcousinever

So recently I feel like I found the end of the internet as I think I mentioned. It’s like I ran out of things to be amazed by and I feel disheartened as between Pinterest, Instagram, Bloglovin’, Facebook, etc… I am bombarded by all things planning all day. I really wanted to reorganize my office though because everytime I sit down to decorate or plan I get up to find my office looks like a crime scene so clearly I could better organize and hopefully not have to empty my entire desk and closet only to put it all away again at the end.

I scoured the internet looking for videos and blogs. I found a few. Most people have videos that show their neat desk with a couple drawers and three packs of stickers a few washi tape rolls and some scrapbook paper and it you wonder how on earth their planners look so amazing with their tiny supply kit! I could have access to an entire Michaels AND a Hema store and still not produce something so pretty. The other blogs just had brief descriptions with no pictures (the voice in my head sayinng uh huh suuuuure you’re organized!)

Anyway, I figured maybe I could finally blog about something I haven’t seen a million times and be a little original. It’s been an all night event (but my perfect way of spending the evening) so I won’t post the entire she-bang. I sat down and wrote out all the things I would need to find homes for…

Then I realized INSERTS! Inserts are my biggest problem. I can find homes for washi tape, stickers, post its, etc… pens are easy to put in cups… but those darn inserts… they end up crammed in drawers and then I can never find what I am looking for when I need it. So I put my brain in gear and found a pretty cool way to organize inserts. Personal size inserts are easy to sort in accordion files but A5 inserts seem to disappear in to the legal size accordion files we have over here. It may be easier to find storage solutions in the UK but A5 isn’t a size in the US so I had to get creative.

I used small binders (like the ones you can get from Avery or the Dollar Target Spot if you have a good Target supply), scrapbook paper and tape. That’s all. I found old scrapbook paper that I have had forever and has been collecting dust under my bed and matched up pieces.

Then I laid an A5 size piece of paper on top and traced around it with enough space to punch holes on the left side and some room on the right.

Once the paper was cut, I lined the two pieces up and cut a diagonal edge off of the top sheet just like a folder and taped the whole thing together on all edges. A few hole punches down the side and viola! We have a divider that fits in an Avery small binder but is also big enough to hold A5 papers!

I made several more and the end result is rather lovely. A neat tidy binder full of Filofax A5 inserts organized by type! This one is a 1 1/2 inch binder I found at Target.
  I liked the system so much I made two others with random inserts and then a binder with sheet protectors to organize my customized personal size inserts so I could just flip through and find what I needed easily. I also found some large gold rings and hooked all my dividers and dashboards together.

I was on such a roll I even reorganized my Raskog cart. 😇

And now, with all my planning supplies neatly in their place (until I change my mind and reorganize) it’s time for bed!

Xoxo

Sarah

Emma’s Filo Update!

I had some followers ask about my cousins Filo and how its coming along… since she doesn’t have  a blog of her own I thought I would share her work. I am super impressed and continue to realize how strongly we are related each time she shares! 🙂

There is nothing like a neat filo….

The inside is beaming with personality!

She has gotten addicted to Project Life as well (that one wasn’t me) but she is so like me and it absolutely makes sense.

 She is planning a trip to NY later in the year so she had to find room for this!

  

And she’s decorating like a pro!

    

She reads the blog so if you guys have any suggestions, comments, compliments, I’m sure she’d love to read them!!!

Sarah

xoxo

P.s. Ordered my first Fauxdori this past weekend… can’t wait for its arrival to share!

 

A Day Off!

So I was browsing through Michaels with my hands planted firmly in my pockets so as not to pick anything up and buy it when I found the Heidi Swapp Memory Planner at 40% off… so I cracked.
You can pretty much follow all the reviews along the way and most of them sing the same tune. It’s clunky, the pages don’t turn, it has four holes, even more difficult than Filofax in the US!, and it for how huge it is, there isn’t much content. I went through and kind of made it a quote binder. That’s about all it will be good for. For goodness sakes, the decoration pouch that came WITH it didn’t even fit the rings. I will say it is pretty on the outside and I am facing outwards on my bookshelf (I won’t mention that when I first put it up there it jumped in the trash can…hehe).

I found an awesome website called Tatter Tots and Jello that gives you advice on how to print your own instagram pictures. They even have a word template you can download for printing. Find it here The site that loads your instagram photos is Instaport and it connects to your Instagram and uploads your photos to a zip file for a donation. Totally worth it. I’ll be taking the mason jar brain dump idea over to my Filo. Sorry, Heidi, you do scrapbooking wonderfully… but Filo is a planner for planners.

Bringing me to my new beauty, I scored a light pink personal size Finsbury online and I adore it. The rings on this are much better than the Saffiano. I thought I would be a Domino only girl until this beauty.

And, because we all know planner peace never really lasts very long, I have switched over to DIYFish inserts!!! I am using Series 3 Version 3.

Things I love: the times down the side to stop myself from double scheduling, extra space all over for writing and doodling, the fold out bullet planner style. Things I’m not so much a fan of: hard to decorate (I am not that great of a doodler and stickers and washi like you would a filo page make it too busy, small space to write appointments (so I have switched down to the Pilot Frixion Slims I got around Christmas, it takes up a lot of room and you can only really keep 1-2 months in at a time, the cost (but hey I paid it). If anyone has any ideas for decorating, I am looking viciously all over pinterest and not finding much so I am open to ideas! Anyone else use DIY Fish? Feelings?

Want to start taking bets on when I order a new set of pages and start all over again? Maybe I should make my own ideal page…. I mean everyone else seems to. Mental note to self: write task in Filofax to find information on making own inserts!

Oh and before I sign off, I scored a Create a Sticker maker for cheap and I am having a blast making stickers of my friends faces for when I hang out with them. 🙂 🙂 🙂

xoxo

Sarah

p.s. I was browsing Hey Charlie’s Etsy shop and saw this… she literally is selling a dashboard that perfectly matches the background I use on my laptop. Great minds think alike!!!!

Etsy Store – PlannerAddiction

This year has been about goals and we all know how I love my Filofaxin’…. so I am opening up an Etsy store! I love the Filo community and want to share my creativity with you guys. It will also help my promote this site and get some more pennies to do more contests and RAKS because we all know we love free planner stuff!!!!!!

The Store name is appropriately called PlannerAddiction. Find my shop here.

I hope to see you guys visit as I build the shop. I am always open to suggestions and consider you all my muses! I would like to especially thank Charlie who is not only an awesome person but one of my Filo muses! Check out her blog http://heycharlieblog.com and her etsy store at here.

Thank you for all the support this year!

xoxo

– Sarah

So I am opening up an Etsy store! I love the Filo community and want to share my creativity with you guys. It will also help my promote this site and get some more pennies to do more contests and RAKS because we all know we love free planner stuff!!!!!!

The Store name is appropriately called PlannerAddiction. Find my shop here.

I hope to see you guys visit as I build the shop. I am always open to suggestions and consider you all my muses!

Thank you for all the support this year!

xoxo

– Sarah

Question for All my Lovelies!

The topic of buying beautiful post its that don’t post very well came up and I showed you my creation in a previous post. It got me thinking and my creative juices flowing and I have made a couple things since then. Mostly decorative paperclips and post its put together and laminated so they can not only be used but reused with a washable board marker. Here are some of the things I’ve come up with……

                              

I also found some Disney postcards and came up with some mock dividers (Winnie the Pooh – A5 and Alice In Wonderland – personal)…

My question is would any of you be interested in purchasing things like this or should I just keep it a hobby? Clearly I would need a better camera. 🙂 Opinions welcome!!!

– Sarah

xoxo

Filofax Tour Video… as Promised!

So I did my first Filofax Tour video. It took me forever to upload with this slow internet I have on the “first floor” (aka basement) of my condo building so I didn’t get a chance to edit. I have work stuff I have to work on top of this tonight so… please be kind. 🙂

I can’t wait to show you some new setups and stuff I’ve gotten. More to come!!

And don’t forget about the free surprise giveaway to my readers on the previous post!

Without further ado….

Shout outs to TheDelightfulDeer and BellaCreationz on Etsy!!! Just search their names. Tons of cool stuff!