Favorite Functional Planning Supplies

If you know me, you know I am a sucker for a pretty, colorful, paper product. I love all things planners, notebooks, pens….sticky notes 😉 you name it. Over the years I have tried a LOT of different products- between my love for planning, DIY and teaching, I would bet that there is not much that I haven’t tried haha. However, as I’ve gotten older and grown to desire a more minimalistic, simplified home- I have found myself choosing functional supplies over pretty ones. Even better if I can use them for multiple purposes!

This post shares my top eight favorite functional planning products. Ones that I use over and over again and you will likely see used in many of my posts!

Post It Notes

Would you expect anything else?! 😉 You know I love a good sticky note, but I will only buy Post It note brand- they stick SO much better than the off brands. My very favorite are the full adhesive Post Its. They lay completely flat and don’t budge (until you want them to!) I also use the smaller square size frequently in my printables.

Astrobrights Colored Cardstock

I love using Astrobrights cardstock for my printables. The colors are beautiful and it is just more durable than regular paper. I also like that my pens don’t bleed through when using it! I also like using white cardstock (rather than plain white paper) when I need a more neutral option 😉

Laminator

I think a small at home laminator is a great $20 investment if you like printables and/or have kids! Having one allows you to reuse a printable over and over again- just write with fine point dry erase markers!

Bullet Journal

There are tons of great options for bullet journals out there! This one is a good choice for a more traditional bullet journal and it is just as good as the more expensive ones that I bought in the past! (Check out this post if you want to learn more about bullet journaling!)

More recently I have loved these spiral bound dotted notebooks. They have the same bullet journal pages, but I love that they lay flat and that the pages are so easy to turn!

Pens

I LOVE a good pen. Out of all that I have tried, I have two tried and true favorites. The first are Paper Mate Flair pens. They come in a ton of colors and I choose them when I need to use a finer point; they are also my go to black pen.

When I want a bolder tipped pen, I adore the Stabilo Pen 68. These are more like a fine tip marker, but I love how bright the colors are! I use these all the time in functional planning.

Clipboard

I often get asked how I store my printables and my very favorite way is on a clipboard! Not only does a clipboard give you a hard surface to write on, but it keeps all of your papers together so they don’t get lost or ruined. I love this colorful set!

Bag

I recently started keeping all of my planner supplies in this organized tote bag so that I can move it around my house and have all of my supplies in one spot! I LOVE how many compartments it has!

It’s easy to get sucked into cute planner supplies and go completely overboard (trust me-I know from experience!) I’d suggest investing in these materials and then see if you need any others- I bet you’d be surprised with how much you can do with minimal supplies! 😉