I’ve done plenty of posts talking about my favorite planner supplies, but not many about the planner supplies I don’t use.  With so many pretty / clever / expensive / functional / decorative planner supplies available nowadays it can be a bit overwhelming (and costly) choosing between all of them. Here are 7 supplies I’d remove from your wish list.

Bullet Journal Supplies I Don’t Use

1. Stencils

I’ve tried them a few times but just didn’t really get into them. Maybe because I think they work better on a completely blank page rather than dot grid. With dot grid I focus too much on aligning the stencil to try and fit between dots which almost never line up.

Stencils never seem to be made of very good quality material (usually flimsy cheap plastic). Or I’ve had a metal stencil before where the cut outs were too narrow to fit most pen tips.

Most stencils have basic icons like circles, hearts, lines, boxes etc. which I can just as easily draw myself without a stencil.

You’re also limited in that you can only use the colors that pens, brush pens, pencils, highlighters etc. come in. I can create the same icons, turn them into stickers and use any color I like – many more possibilities!

Related: How to make planner stickers for free using Silhouette Studio (Introduction – Video Tutorial)

Bullet journaling on black paper with white & gold pens

2. Stamps

Stamps that require you to peel them off, stick them on acrylic block then dip in an ink pad are too much hassle for me. Plus I’ve found that ink pads dry out faster than the ink in self-inking stamps.

I tried roller stamps but they don’t seem to roll very well (even expensive ones like Happy Planner and Kikki K) plus they’re annoying to clean.

I only use self inking stamps – the MAMBI checklist stamps and the Frixion erasable stamps – I just wish they came in more icons!

Planning the week using stamps (MAMBI, Carpe Diem & Creative Devotion)

3. Sewn bound notebooks

They’re ok… but there are more and more coil bound + prettier notebooks with bright white paper so I tend to use those.

The stitched binding rarely lays flat and the pages are just a bit too skinny – If I try and rule up 2 lists on one page there’s not quite enough space.

Plus they tend to be A5 or smaller, is just a bit too small for me. I’d need 3 x A5 pages for each week and then flip back and forth.

4. Pencils

You could draft up your spreads (and count the dots) using a pencil, but I prefer to use the erasable pens. I’ve used pencils before but when I went to rub out the pencil it would erase the pen too and the pen would usually smear. Hence why I switched to solely using erasable pens for counting / spacing out spreads and ruling up the spreads.

My all time favorite planner pens: Pilot Frixion Erasable Pens Review

5. Fineliner & Inky Pens

Fineliner pens are just that – fine. Great for most planning but the tips are bit too small for bullet journaling. The fine tips can get damaged when using them against a ruler too.

The other extreme are gel pens which can be too inky and prone to bleed through on the thin, crappy paper that most bullet journal notebooks have.

6. Wide washi tape

Thin washi for bullet journaling? Yes please!

Thick washi tape? Definitely not. It’s too fat for the small page size most bujo notebooks come in. If I’m using a notebook with a bigger page size or didn’t have much to plan that week it’d be ok, but otherwise it takes up too much space.

The only time I use wide washi tape when bullet journaling is to cover up an oopsie or to create a DIY sticky note.

Landscape page orientation bullet journaling in the Northbooks dot grid notebook

7. Liquid White Out

I’ve never been a fan of liquid white out. It takes forever to get out of the tube and then it comes out in a big blob. Then you have to wait for it to dry which takes forever. Plus it’s really expensive and the tube empties quickly. I use white out tape only.

Bullet journal layouts

• Bullet journaling with planner stickers in the Happy Notes Book
• 12 Planner Layout Ideas for Monthly Habit Tracking in Your Bullet Journal
• Bullet Journal Layouts: 26 Non-typical 2 page weekly spreads to try

Bullet journal tips

• 7 Useful Bullet Journal Tips
• Lined, dot grid, graph or blank: what paper type is right for your bullet journal?
• Dot Journaling: A Practical Guide (Book Review)

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