I’m coming for you 2026! (Gamify Your Life handbook from The Well-Appointed Desk.)
As 2025 comes to a close, I thought I would take a moment to look back at a few recurring themes of my stationery usage over the past year. Overall, it was great. I mean, it’s pens and paper and pencils and ink and notebooks and EVERYTHING - how could it not be great? Here are a few topics that I spent more time thinking about than most.
Micro gel ink pens still rule the day.
There is very little that gets me more excited than getting a clean, sharp line from an 0.38 mm gel ink pen. Add in smoothness that shouldn’t be possible, plus vibrant colors, and congratulations, you designed a pen I want to use all day, every day. They don’t always have to be gel, either, with two uniball products - the Zento and Jetstream Light Touch - finding their way into my regular rotation. The LAMY x uniball Jetstream M17 refill is great, too. Keep making them, and I’ll keep using them.
Find yourself a fancy barrel for your favorite micro tip refill and you’ll never go back. (Spoke Pen Model 2.)
Accessories are exciting.
I want to say it’s the little things that get me going, but stationery accessories can be big as well. I’m an avid washi tape user because I love all of the designs and colors. I’m also a bag/tote/backpack user so I can carry around all of my stuff. I have small pen rests all over my desk, and a large pen storage box behind it. 3D printed ink vial holders? That too. I’m always looking for something fun, functional, or fidgety to add to my collection.
I’m tapped out of the high-end fountain pen market.
Everyone has a different idea of what constitutes an expensive pen purchase. For some, paying more than $10 for pen is outrageous. For others, paying over $1000 is something that might happen a couple of times a year. I don’t have a rigid budget, but I do have a feeling that there is very little that comes on the market - in let’s say the over $500 price bracket - that interests me.
Sometimes a Platinum Preppy is all I need.
I’m lucky to have a great collection of pens that I’ve worked to build up over the last decade plus, so any new purchase has to “beat” something I already own. That doesn’t happen very often, and I see it happening less now with rising manufacturing costs, and rising life expenses.
I still love looking at expensive pens, but my usage needs are fulfilled by what I already own. I’m sure there will be some wild exception down the line that makes me eat my words, but otherwise, I’m good.
Creativity drives usage.
One reason why my work rarely feels like work is because I enjoy putting pen to the page more than anything. It could be writing - which I do the most of - or drawing and doodling that scratches my creative itch. Even slinging ink on the page to learn more about them fulfills that need. I never thought that I would be part of the Ink Pony Club, but here I am, and it’s glorious. More ways to be creative with my stationery in 2026 is the plan.
My first attempt at painting on a pencil.
Talking about stationery never gets old.
Related to the previous entry, I could talk about this stuff all day. I get genuinely excited to be able to say these words out loud, which, for a nerdy introverted hobby like ours isn’t something that happens frequently. Want to talk about the Bic Cristal? I’m in. Fountain pen ink? What color. Why some paper doesn’t work with your favorite writing combo? How much time do you have?
2025 couldn’t shut me up, so here’s to another year of making stationery fun!
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