Plum Paper Planner Review

At the end of last summer, I realized a busy season of life (school days and holidays) were fast approaching.  One look at my little, but pretty pocket planner and I realized it just wasn't going to cut it.  I had my eye on an Erin Condren Planner.  But it's extremely pricey and there are too many other big names to compare it to before I go spending a ton on one planner that I need to keep for a whole year.   So I put a call out on Facebook for help and opinions on planners.

So many people swore on their Erin Condrens, elegant Day Designers, and pretty Lilly Pulitzer Agendas, but one name was mentioned that I hadn't heard before- Plum Paper Planners.  So I started doing a little research and decided to give it a try.  It had all the bells and whistles of the Erin Condren, but cost less and offered more layout options for personalization.

I grabbed a coupon from a Plum Paper Fan group on Facebook, and ordered the new Large ME Planner.  It took about 10 business days to ship, and about a week later, it arrived covered in bubble wrap in a cute little box.

After a full year of using it, I can honestly say, I LOVE IT!

So lets find out why it's so great.

The cover design:

Plum Paper offered a LOT of pretty prints to choose from and every one could be customized with a name or monogram.  The cover is thick but an extra clear plastic protector cover on both sides.  (You can see mine is a little folded- thanks to the leaving it in the car and that was my mistake because Louisiana heat and plastic just don't mix) An extra bonus, they just revamped their cover material- it's completely tear resistant!

Right inside the cover is section for your personal information, but just your name and phone number.  Really- loosing my planner has always been a fear of mine.  A phone number is plenty of info; I'm not keen on putting my address down as well.  There is also a full year(s) calendar to cover a year at glance for the dates you choose for your calendar.  Then a couple pages for special days to remember in each month as well as a page for goals, ideas, and plans.  It's a little more than I need, but many love this section and find it very helpful. 

Then onto the months...

This is the part that SOLD me on Plum Paper.  My Lilly Pulitzer planner before was an 18 month planner that started in July and ended in December the following year.  I didn't like that you couldn't flow seamlessly from one planner to the next and having so many wasted pages (if I do year at a time, which I do) bugged me!  However I needed a new planner in the middle of the year so I could keep up with the busyness of life.  Plum Paper lets you personalize your planner right down to the month it starts and ends.  Your planner can be anywhere from 6-18 months long.  My current one is to get me through from late summer in 2016 all the way through 2017.  I'll order 2018 only in November. 

Each month comes with its own colorful tab to flip to making navigating the planner super easy.  It starts the section with a monthly highlights page (super handy) and a notes page.  I'm displaying last year's September because a certain six year old traced her hand on all my 2017 September pages in church this last Sunday. 

Then you get to a month at a glance which is all I used to really need... before I became a mom that is.  The squares are generously sized with a section for more notes in the margin as well as a glance to the next month. 

The next pages in that month section are broken down one week at a time on a two page spread with vertical days- you have the option to select a horizontal spread instead.  This is where it gets cool- if you are a student keeping up with classes, a professional blocking out sections of your life, a mom managing multiple kids, a blogger managing multiple tech and social media aspects, etc. etc., you can have Plum Paper label the sections to give each person or subject a designated space.  I started to label them as so in this order "Angel, Lane, Jude, Aubrey Lane, two for The Mustard Seed, and one for Misc".  However, just like I knew having empty sections in my planner would bother me, I knew having one section for each family member would do the same.  What if AL needed two and The Mustard Seed needed 3 that day?  I'm too OCD for to right something for them in someone else's "space".  Then I thought about breaking up the day into time slots, but I write in my planner as I think about it like a to do list for the day.  So that wouldn't work either.  In true Angel fashion, I just opted to keep that section blank and write them in as I needed. 

At the end of each month is a page for notes.  All of this comes pretty standard.

The add on sections are where the fun begins.  You can choose from many different options of add ons: notes, meal planning, to do list, address book, financial planner, etc.  You can choose how many pages you want in this add on section.  And you can even choose how the add ons appear in your planner- either divided up with a few pages in each monthly section or with its on section and tab at the end of the book.  I chose todo lists and notes for mine.

After that come a short little section of dotted paper, a sheet for passwords and usernames (this is blank for me), one sheet of an address book, a page of holidays for the next few years, and a year at glance for the upcoming year.  And to top it all off, it ends with a folder for keeping things in your planner as you need them.

I have used a lot of planners in my life.  Each one I try to keep so I can look back and remember what was going on in my life during certain times.  This planner is large (there are smaller options from the same company), but that's what I preferred to keep up with all aspects of my life in one place.  I don't have a separate planner for my littles or my work.

I have seen a lot of questions asking for planner recommendations over the past couple months, so I knew I had to share this treasure of a planner I found.  Hope this was helpful to anyone inquiring!  Have a great day!

**This post is not sponsored by Plum Paper or anyone else.  (I'm not that cool, LOL).  This is just me sharing a product I love and find very useful!