I saw one of my favourite Youtubers post a video about this and wanted to do the same

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These aren’t my top five Hobonichi branded accessories, more the top five things I need to plan in my Hobonichi.

1. Fountain pens

Purchasing my first Hobonichi led me back to fountain pens.

They work so beautifully on the paper and make my handwriting look so much better than any other pen I’ve used. Despite gel pens being my favourite pens (and the Pentel Energel* in particular) I very rarely use them in my Hobo. My writing looks messy and scratchy in comparison. Also, gel ink tends not to work as well on the Tomoe River paper and doesn’t completely dry sometimes on it.

Depending on the planner, I have a different go-to fountain pen.

In the Weeks I love my Platinum Preppy. It’s a cheap, simple pen with a fine point that isn’t scratchy. The ink also dries wonderfully quickly on the paper and I very rarely smudge it.

In my Cousin I use my TWSBI Eco in clear. I actually bought one of these for my ex as a graduation gift and when I decided to start using fountain pens again, I knew I had to purchase one for myself.

The style of this pen is simple and modern, and I always like my writing with this pen. The fine point on it is thicker than that on the Preppy, but it still produces a thin line and doesn’t make my writing look large.

2. Page flags

I’ve written a whole post on my love of page flags, so this won’t be much of a surprise.

As I use the daily pages in the Hobonichi Cousin for more collections than daily plans, I need page flags to go between pages without having to refer to an index.

I prefer plastic page flags that I can reuse and ones that I can label (with my label maker).

My favourites are Coco Fusen tabs*. These are available on the Hobonichi website, but frustratingly not for International shipping. A close second are Avery tabs*, and I recently realised my little icon stickers fit on these to create some cute tabs.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CFusLo5p7wl/

3. Washi tape

I have a whole drawer of washi and love the stuff. I don’t use it as much as I used to but I couldn’t be without it in my planner. It’s perfect for adding a bit of colour to my pages.

MT is my favourite brand. Great designs and high quality. They’re on the more expensive end of washi, so I don’t have loads of them. Muji don’t have a wide range but what they do have is pretty and high quality.

The thing I love most about washi is the flexibility. It will always be in my craft/planning stash because it can be used for much, and no matter what planner I’m in, it works!

4. Covers

Specifically, clear covers. Hobonichi do a great cover on cover for the Weeks that protects your planner, gives you a little storage and a pen loop. If you play with it a little, you can also adapt it to create a closure with the page marker that is built into it. They also come in some pretty designs.

For the A6 and Cousin, sadly the only clear covers Hobonichi sell go over the large covers that they sell. If you just want something to go over the planner on its own, you need Midori covers. This* is the one I purchased for my A6. I can’t remember where I purchased the one for my Cousin, but the A5 size cover is a lot more readily available than the A6.

If you’re using a full size (not a day free) these covers will take a little work to get round the planner, but they’re a perfect simple cover with a pen loop. If I could only buy one kind of cover for my Hobonichi planners, it would be a simple plastic cover like these.

5. Stickers

Obviously I couldn’t create this list and not put stickers in!

My tastes have definitely changed over the years, but I don’t think I’ll ever plan without stickers. For me, they break up the planning, and I do find I’m more productive if my planning looks prettier.

Word stickers are also a regular favourite as mine as I hate my handwriting. I much prefer being able to use a pretty sticker that says ‘to do’ instead of trying to write it nicely myself.

There’s my top five accessories!

Is there anything you think I’ve missed out?

It’s interesting to see how my planning tastes have changed and how things like sticky notes that I’d have classed as an essential accessory are rarely used now. In fact, I only use them now for pre-planning in my monthlies.

What would your top five accessories be? Let me know in the comments!

Related posts

Fountain pen collection
My favourite page flags
Planner pouches review

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