Systems
I’m a systems kind of guy. I find it hard to really get into something if I don’t have a system to properly do the enjoying. Most of my systems are essentially “use it up in a structured way.” And most follow a general pattern of saving the best for last. This has the unintended consequence of leaving me to always feel like I’m using the less-than-ideal things in my collection - whether it be my collection of pencils, papers, inks, bath soaps or refrigerator leftovers. I would love to write a letter on the beautiful new Rhodia pad I just bought, but first I have to make it through this 2000 pages of crap I salvaged from Hilroy notebooks.
Still, despite the obvious state of perpetual dissatisfaction this likely leaves me in, at least it means eventually I’ll have nothing but the best, right?
In order to put these systems in place, I need to be organized. Let’s start with the pens, which I keep in a simple and inexpensive pen case. I have them currently divided between “good pens from brands I like,” “good pens from brands I don’t like,” “bad pens from brands I should stop liking,” and “bad pens I should just get rid of.” As I started this hobby collecting European and Canadian pencils, I’ve decided of late to focus all my stationery interests there. This requires I slow down the accumulation of cheap current stuff and move to more vintage searches, learn to do some restoration and check for more used stuff.
My paper accumulation is everywhere. Honestly when I started using pencils I found most papers to be total trash, and still find this the case. Pen paper from the big Japanese brands like Tomoe River, Life and Midori was my initial exposure to good paper, and it took me a while to find European papers that were as good. Even Canada makes a fairly good paper for fountain pen in the form of Sugar Sheet, a printer paper sourced from imported cane pulp. Finding a way to organize this paper both by purpose (printer, pencil, pen, none of the above), size and quality is an unending struggle for me.
Stamps for mailing my letters I generally acquire from eBay auctions for below-face-value vintage stamps. These must be assembled to the proper value for mailing, so I organize them in several groups by value and use them in random rotation in those stages depending on how much remaining postage is needed.
Postcards for Postcrossing are kept in a box where new cards go into the middle of the stack and I pull cards to use from the two outside ends, allowing a fairly random selection of the mostly-oldest cards to be used.
Finally, as I compose my letters, I have a system for decorating! Right now this involves a strip of washi tape down one side, and keeping 3 stacks of stickers of different kinds and putting one of each on the page. I’m somewhat losing my interest in washi tape over time so this might change eventually.
I also transcribe all my letters in my journal. That is my journal, in fact - I find it impossibly difficult to keep a journal without having someone to write to, so my letters have taken that place quite well. These journals I also decorate with the same stationery and ephemera currently in rotation for my letters, in saddle-stitched/stapled A5 notebooks, decorated ahead of time in my systematic manner to ease and speed the transcription time when it comes.
Uncreative? Anal retentive? What do you think? Do you use any systems for your stationery usage? Let me know!
