Confessions of an Office Supply Junkie

I LOVE good paper and nice pens. Poking around Staples and Grand & Toy for hours is my idea of a great time. I'll hit the SUB just to see what new pens & notebooks they've got. I could spend half an hour choosing a note pad, easily. I personally own 12 colours of hi-lighters. Hi, my name is Melissa, and I'm addicted to office supplies.



I know you're laughing right now, but it's true! I love love love love love pens, notebooks, hi-lighters, day planners...it's my secret little obsession.

In some ways, I'm quite an easy-going person. In other ways, I'm incredibly picky. My day planner is one place where I'm ridiculously picky. In fact, I'm quite a bit obsessive-compulsive. But hey, at least I'm organized! I will only only only use Quo Vadis planners (told you I was obsessive), and generally I use the Textagenda #29. This year I've got it in the Wildstripe Polypro cover in that fun turquoise colour. It's so cute. And they use this amazing Clairefontaine paper, which is really strong, smooth, and great feeling under a pen. I figure, if obsessing over the perfect agenda makes me actually use it, it's totally worth the money. Did you have those school agendas when you were in elementary & high school, the ones that you had to use and get signed by your parents every night? I think that's the root of my little addiction, and it grew from there.

The other element of my obsession/ organization strategy is hi-lighters. I wasn't joking when I said that I own 12 colours. I really do, and I use them all. I colour code my agenda to death. Every subject, type of event (social, family, holiday, appointment), and to-do list has it's own colour. I love it when a day has got a good colour scheme going on! I'm very much a visual learner, and colour-coding lets me see at a glance what's going on in my day..and I just love the fun colours.

There you have it. I'm a weird office supply junkie. But I'm not alone: Ernest Hemingway loved his Moleskine notebooks, the movie The Hours shows Virginia Woolf carefully choosing which pen to write with as begins the first line of Mrs. Dalloway, and one of my classmates has a special pen that she calls "The General." I'm happy to be in good company with others who love with the wonderful & wacky world of office supplies.

If I go missing, look for me at Staples...