Planner Showcase: My Snail Mail Planner

     So, the other week I introduced you to my pocket address planner, showing you a different way to use ring planners. Well, today I have another planner to introduce you too – my snail mail planner!

     This here is a really cheap A5 planner that I got on www.aliexpress.com. It’s the same style planner that I used for my pet scrapbook, just a different colour. I wanted to set up a snail mail kit that I could fill with all the things I’d need to be able to write letters to my pen pals but for all those things to fit in something small that I could grab if I was going somewhere, even if that somewhere was just a different room in the house. I thought about making something but then I just had this extra planner lying around so I went with that instead and it’s worked out really well for a snail mail kit.

     I’ve tried to fit everything I thought I might need in this planner. There’s a lot of pockets on the inside which have been great for places to store postcards, stickers, journal cards, sticky notes, washi tape samples, paper clips and of course, stamps (wouldn’t be a useful snail mail kit if I didn’t have stamps in there now, would it?). There are two pen loops, I think with the idea that you stick your pen into both loops to keep the planner closed like you see in a Hobonichi, but I’ve just used them separately so I can have a pen and a pencil.

     I haven’t seen anywhere I can get A5 plastic pockets so I resorted to making my own by cutting some A4 ones down to size, closing up the side with some washi tape and punching the holes. It’s a really easy thing to do and it gives the planner a whole new use. As you can see, I’ve used this first pocket to store envelopes that I’ve already decorated and put stamps on.

     Following my decorated envelope section, I have a few pockets with matching letter and envelope sets. These are mostly the La Papierre sets. I forgot to photograph it, but I have a separate section for miscellaneous loose sheets of paper and another one for miscellaneous envelopes followed by a pocket for notecards.

     I have more notecards and envelopes in the drawers on my desk because there are too many to fit in this one planner. The idea is that if I use anything in this when I’m out, I can just replace them with more from my stash.

     The final pocket in the planner is somewhere I can put letters and things I’m going to respond to. My ‘to reply to’ pile lives on my desk but if I’m leaving my desk area I can pop the letters into a plastic pocket to keep them along with everything else, neat and tidy.

      Finally, in the back pockets of my planner I have a few more loose sheets of paper that are too big for the pockets and I also have a small notebook that I’ve filled my pen pal addresses into, just the addresses so it’s much simpler then my pocket address planner but useful to have there if I’m out and ever want to send a postcard or something.

     And that, that is my snail mail planner. I think it’s a good system. If I ever can afford to go on a holiday, I can easily bring this planner with me and be able to send things to pen pals while away or, in the more likely scenario, if I’m staying overnight at my sisters, I can easily bring some snail mail supplies with me.

     To planner nerds out there, have you ever used a planner like this? I’m curious as to other uses people have found for their planners other than for planning.