A Review: The Erin Condren LifePlanner

I am a stationary junky. I love nice paper and pretty graphics. I enjoy a good list and like to have my weeks and months planned out. So, it was sort of destiny that my Erin Condren LifePlanner and I would come together. It is the ultimate (in my opinion) of fun paper products, considering the great designs, the personalization, and just pure functionality. Plus, if you're one of those people who likes to accessorize to the max, Erin Condren's stuff will just do you in.

Earlier this year, I bought my first LifePlanner and was so excited by the prospect. I watched YouTube videos, hunted down blog tutorials, and read just about everything I could about the planner. When the planner finally arrived I was so thrilled, but a small part of me was worried about whether or not I would use it faithfully enough to justify the investment. Well, five months in (I got mine just at the beginning of February), I am happy to stay my planner has certainly seen quite a bit of use and I feel like I'm at a place where I can write a review that is really truthful.

My planner!

One of my favorite quotes, by Lao Tzu.

The number one coolest thing about the Erin Condren Planners (and a lot of her products) is the level of customization available. You can totally customize the cover of your planner AND you can get several covers, allowing you to interchange them depending on mood, season, or just when you're looking to spice things up.  There is a huge array of covers to choose from, dozens and dozens of color combinations, as well as the opportunity to add photos and quotes. I chose to have one of my favorite, favorite quotes on the front of my planner. It's a saying that has been my mantra for the last year or so and I thought it was apt for the front of a planner.

Just a little example of one of the "extra" spaces.

As far as the inside of the planner, I love the layout and the multiple uses. Lots and lots of people like to decorate the planners and create wonderful color schemes and color-code everything, but I'm not there yet. I really do like things just the way they are (though I might implement more of a system in the fall when things start roaring again). There are lots of great little spaces that can be used in multiple ways, besides, of course, the basics of a calendar and then daily spaces. I use, for example, the lines beneath each day as a little mood journal.

So, one of the cool things about the LifePlanner, as mentioned above, is that the covers are interchangeable as well as customizable, but, for something to be interchangeable that means it's able to come off, and sometimes that means coming off when you don't want it to. When my planner is especially full, the cover occasionally comes off. Now, it's very simple to reattach, but this has caused some wear and tear in the lamination along the side of my cover. There's also been some fraying at the corners of my cover and along the edges of the two dashboards I purchased (the grocery list/meal planner and to do list). While this isn't enough to prevent me from making another purchase with the company, it's enough to make me a little peeved and consider a cheaper or DIY option before I open my wallet.

"Frayed" edge of my grocery list dashboard.

So, besides the wear and tear issue, I have one other problem. Shipping. Now, $50 is steep for a lot of folks for a planner, but considering it's custom made, designed and manufactured in America (always a plus!), and it's woman founded and run company, I don't mind shelling out the extra cash for the product. Also, the accessories are pretty reasonably priced and, at least what I've purchased thus far, decent quality. But shipping is expensive. Whatever you purchase you can add at least an extra $8 (more if you want it sooner). With a planner, an extra $8 isn't so bad, but that is the flat rate, so even if you forgot or suddenly decided you wanted to order a less expensive accessory, like pens or the meal planning or to-do dashboards, $8 is ridiculous. I really wish shipping could be organized in such way that smaller orders would cost less for shipping. That would be fabulous!

Now, I just wanted to share a couple of little tips I've picked up from around the internet that I've implemented in my planner:

I really love the dashboards that are available through Erin Condren. One is grocery/meal planning themed, the other is blank, but I use it as a to-do list. Initially I was writing on both with a Sharpie and then wiping away when it filled up or it was time to make a new list or meal plan for the week. While it looked nice, it was a huge pain to wipe off Sharpie (which, by the way, is what's recommended on the Erin Condren website, and the Sharpie does wipe off, just not easily). Then on someone's blog (I cannot remember for the life of me, otherwise I'd link up), I saw them using sticky notes. Brilliant. I love, love, love this and use it on both of my dashboards.

Another neat little thing I've seen is a special use for the perpetual calendar that comes with each planner. See, I don't really have a need for the perpetual calendar - there really isn't that much that consistently goes on in my life, at least not at this point. However, I spotted on a blog (again, I don't remember which one, otherwise there'd be a link) someone using their perpetual calendar as a daily, one line journal. I thought it was a fabulous idea, especially since it's something I had wanted to do in other formats before, but this is just so easy. And if I'm going to order a planner every year it just makes sense, because I'll receive a perpetual calendar with each one. Also, it's good to point out that other people have suggested using the calendar as a thankful journal for each day as well.



Overall, I'm super pleased that I made this investment. I've already ordered my 2016 planner and it should be arriving Tuesday along with a new cover for my current planner a couple of other goodies. I'm so excited (probably more than I should be). I think it really says something about a product and it's design that even despite some of the flaws I mentioned above, I still love and want more of this particular thing. I know that as time goes on, things will only get better, more functional, and more beautiful.