Building up a collection of notebooks and pens

Recently I've been trying to live a more analogue life, spending some time away from my smartphone. I have started to plan my days with a Bullet Journal, and after spending some time in various subreddits on the subject I started to journal again. Along with my existing notebooks for general notes and quotes I now have quite a pile of notebooks and pens which follow me around the house! They are all quite similar in appearance but they each have a specific purpose, and they each have their own dedicated pen which I use to write in them!

My Bullet Journal is an A5 sturdy book from Hobbycraft with nice thick dotted pages. To write in it I use a black Stabilo fineliner along with Zebra Mildliners for highlighting and crossing things off. The black pen is easy to write with and looks good on the page, but I have had some problems with smudging if the page gets wet so I might need to reconsider.

My new journal is an A5 Amazon basics journal with blank smooth pages. I chose a cheap book in case I didn't stick with it, but I'm really pleased with it and I'll buy another the same if I fill it up. To write in it I use an Oxford fountain pen and cartridges which I treated myself to last year. I love writing with the cartridge pen as it's so smooth and satisfying, but it does eat the cartridges quickly. At the moment I'm using blue but I might go for a change with the next pack, maybe purple.

I'm writing in it daily, a sort of stream of consciousness as well as a diary of the things that I've been up to if there is something that I particularly want to remember. I'm also gluing in ephemera like tickets, or something that I've printed that relates to what I'm writing about (I'm not ready to share the unblurred thoughts with the world just yet!)

I write quotes that I want to remember from books in a smaller A6 black notebook which I bought from WHSmiths with lined pages. I use my cartridge pen again for this notebook, although it does bleed through the pages. I don't use this book often but it's filling up nicely.

My rough notebook is a cheap one from Asda, but again cheap doesn't necessarily mean bad quality as it has done really well! It has smooth blank pages and I write it in using whichever biro I have closest to me. I don't worry at all about what this book looks like, it's full of scribbling out and very rough notes. Mainly it's for planning blog posts but I also use it to brainstorm things like new craft ideas. 

Finally I recently bought a little Rhodia notebook to keep in my handbag. The idea is to use it to jot down thoughts that occur to me while I'm out and about (I was inspired by the video below!) and I often use it while I'm sitting in the car waiting for the children at pick up time. I make lists of songs to add to a playlist, books that I want to read and so on. I chose one with quite a dark grid which is a bit difficult to write on, so I would choose a blank one next time.

I probably should think about combining some of these notebooks so that I don't have to keep swapping between them. But I love writing in them!