This weekend is a long weekend here in Spain so I wanted to do some catch up cleaning, decluttering and organizing around my house. So I started by deciding to slim down my pen and marker collection. It was preceded by the fact that I bought myself a 100 pack of Crayola Super Tips. I didn’t have room for all of those with my current collection. I decided if I was bringing in 100 new markers, I wanted to get rid of around 100 other markers.
As I’m setting up my Bullet Journal for next year, it was a perfect time to test out all of my markers and pens and make some decisions on which ones I use and will continue to use. Several pages of pen and marker tests later, I ended up with a good idea of which ones I actually reach for day to day.
I ended up texting a teacher friend and asking her if she would like to take these perfectly functioning pens and markers for school. So what did I decided to give to a new home? Let’s find out!
If you don’t know, we have a store here called Tiger which sells home goods, decorations and stationery. When I first arrived, I was going through an adult coloring phase so I bought these markers to facilitate my short lived hobby. These markers are actually pretty good – the colors aren’t my favorite. They lean a little bit less saturated than other markers I know which is probably these got the boot.
On the tips – one of the tips is a thing marker and the other is pretty similar to a Crayola Super Tip. I’m not a brilliant hand letter-er. It seems like these aren’t too bad to manipulate and write in a calligraphy style. I would say for the cheap price tag, I’m a fan of these markers. They just don’t really have a home in my collection anymore.
Giotto Turbo Colors
I sort of have the opposite feelings on these to the Tiger Markers. My favorite part of these markers are the colors. I think there are some pretty unique colors for a standard 20 color set. However, the tips on these are pretty lousy. They fray extremely easily and you can see that the line thickness varies from color to color. These were definitely better for my coloring days than they are for bullet journaling. So a school is literally the perfect place or these.
Staedler Tri Plus Fine Liner
This one was something I had to think a lot on before I made the decision to cut almost all of them. The fact of the matter is this: I just don’t ever reach to use these Staedler fine liners. There is a wild color selection – I have around 30 different colors. I bought this set around 2 years ago and most of them still work pretty well. The thing is – I don’t really use this kind of pen in my Bullet journal in any color but black. In my Life Planner, these don’t write on stickers well. So at this point, why would I keep them?
I’ve decided to part ways with almost all of these. I am going to keep a few of my favorite colors just in case I want to do other types of journaling using these. But I know that my friends at school will be able to use these to grade papers or color code their own agendas.
Crayola Supertips
But wait, I just said that I bought more Crayola Supertips! Exactly – I now have a 100 set. So I wanted to pass along my older set to my school. Considering these are some of my favorite markers, I’m glad to share the wealth of these markers to other people. I use at least one super tip every day in my bullet journal – to color, to letter or to decorate. The 100 pack obviously has way more colors (#math) and some of my favorite original markers were starting to get a little worn down and weird. Considering how much I use these, it’s kind of shocking that only two or three are at the end of their lives.
I love looking at different aspects of my life and making them more functional. The new year and new bullet journal is a perfect time for me to take a look at my stationery and make some critical decisions. As a lover of stationery, it can be tough to admit when it’s time to let go of supplies.
I hope this helps some of you consider your own stationery supplies and streamlining it to fit your needs. Let me know if there’s any supplies you declutter below!
The Minimalist Abroad 