10 Happy Planner Essentials

Just getting started with the Happy Planner? Here are 10 Happy Planner essentials to help get you started with decorative planning.

On this blog, you may know I share my love for all things Happy Planner. It is my very favorite tool for staying organized and having a creative outlet in just a few short minutes a day. You can read how my love affair began in the post, “How Happy Planner Changed My Life.”

Recently, I’ve had lots of friends convert over to the Happy Planner and I always get the same questions. What are the best supplies I need to start Happy Planning. Well, I finally made time to write out a list of my favorite planning tools. Here are 10 Happy Planner essentials.

Washi Tape

If you are unfamiliar with Washi tape, let’s start out with the basics. Washi tape is Japanese masking tape, but it’s decorative and comes in all kinds of colors and prints. It even comes foiled or glittered. Washi tape is a great, inexpensive way to decorate your planner pages. That’s because Washi tape has many feet of tape on one roll making it a great addition if you’re on a planner budget. If you want to know how to decorate with it, take a look at my Planning On a Budget Series below.

Sticker Books

Stickers are kind of the quintessential ingredient to a decorative planner. Stickers are generally what you’ll be using to decorate your planner pages. In a YouTube video, I share my favorite sticker books that I think new planner girls should start with. Some of my favorite starter books are:

Colorful Boxes (any of the colorful boxes books)
Mega VP Florals
Mega Greatest Hits
Planner Basics
Appointments
Colorful Shapes
All the Plans
Planner Babe
Mega VP Pastels
Household Chores

Watch my video below.

Highlighters

One thing that most Happy Planner babes love is highlighters. But the hands-down favorite brand of planners is called Zebra Mildliners. These highlighters come in an array of colors. They have a dual tip (fine and chisel). The nicest aspect of them is that they aren’t fluorescent. They do have brights but they also have muted tones that are easy on the eyes.

Lots of us use them in our spreads along with stickers. In fact, you can actually decorate your entire planner spread with nothing more than these awesome Mildliners. Take a look at my first episode of “Planning on a Budget” series where I show you how to decorate with Mildliner Highlighters.

Pens

Pens are one of the few necessities when using a paper planner. To me, a good pen is like an instrument. I love the feel of a really good pen. I’m currently filming a video of my favorite pens and I’ll update this post as soon as it’s uploaded to YouTube. But for right now, here are some of my favorite pens:

Notepaper

Filler paper is available in a variety of sizes and styles. There is graph paper, lined paper, and dot grid. They are available in all three planner sizes and they are in full sheet and half sheet sizes.

Additionally, there are to-do lists, grocery /shopping lists, hourly schedules, and a variety of other styles to help you meet your needs. I love these for brainstorming and for making lists that would otherwise take up too much room in my planner.

Full Sheets (classic)

Half Sheets

Sticky Notes

Sticky notes are a lifesaver for me. Personally, I hate seeing things scratched out in my planner. Let’s face it, sometimes plans fall through and when that happens, I love sticky notes. Happy Planner babes will tell you that some love to plan weeks or months in advance, while others don’t. This is where I think sticky notes are really helpful. You can “dog ear” a date in advance with a sticky note as a placeholder. If plans fall through or change, you can simply move or throw away the sticky note. Voila! You haven’t lost any real estate on your planner pages. I use sticky notes for everything that might be subject to change.

PRO-TIP: Store prepunched sticky notes on extra rings.

Extra Discs

If you are a newbie to Happy Planne r you may realize that as you add accessories, your planner will run out of room on the medium-sized discs that come with your planner. You have two choices. You can remove items or you can simply change out the discs to expander discs. Expander discs are larger and hold more. If you need more durable discs, you can move from plastic discs to metal ones.

Additionally, lots of Happy Planner accessories like sticky notes, dashboards, and notepaper are pre-punched and can easily be stored on extra discs.

Punches

One of the best things about the Happy Planner’s disc-bound system is that you can completely customize your planner. This includes being able to punch things and put them on the discs – even non-Happy Planner stuff. For example, whenever I get a paper invitation to a party or wedding, I punch it and put it in my planner so I don’t lose it. I’ve punched business cards, bills and other things I don’t want to lose.

Punches are available for both the big and classic-sized planners. There also box punches. With those, you can use scrapbook paper to create your own boxes for your planner. A word of caution though: the box punches are just ever so slightly smaller than the current boxes. This is because, in the early days of Happy Planner, the divider lines between the vertical boxes were much wider. Over the years, the lines have slimmed down creating a small gap, so they may not fit perfectly. I make it work though.

Stamps

Stamps are a great alternative to stickers. Some people prefer using stamps for things they do all the time. In my video below, I share how you can use stamps instead of stickers to decorate your page.

The nice thing about stamps is that they are reusable. Meaning, you purchase once and then use them again and again, unlike stickers where you use once and they are done! Using stamps can be an inexpensive alternative to stickers.

Pocket Folders, Envelopes & Dividers

One of the nicest things about Happy Planner is the ability to completely customize and organize your planner and the Happy Planner has a number of accessories that can help you do that.

Pocket Folders

The first is pocket folders. You can find them sold separately and also find them in the accessory packs. These are really helpful for helping tame the odd pieces of paper all over your desk and counters. I use my folders for anything I need to deal with – a bill, something I need to drop in the mail, you get the idea.

Envelopes

I love the little punched envelopes that the Happy Planner has. They offer them in a variety of sizes and I use them to keep small, loose things in my planner. Things like postage stamps, business cards, and other small things I don’t want to lose. I use their larger envelopes for a cash envelopes system and it makes budgeting very easy.

Dividers

Dividers are great. For instance, I run a playdate group. I don’t need to dedicate a whole other planner to it, so I simply created a section in my planner for the scheduling, member contact numbers and to-do lists. I simply created a section using a divider so as to keep it separate from my other stuff. You could use one for anything – church activities, bible study, names and addresses, budgeting, etc. Dividers are typically sold in packs.

That’s it friends. I’ve hope I’ve narrowed down the best 10 Happy Planner essentials for you! Be sure to PIN this post for later and don’t forget to check out my other Happy Planner posts. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube Channel where you can get lots of planner tips, tricks, and inspiration!

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10 Happy Planner Essentials