I have adored notebooks and planners and papers and pens for as long as I can remember and have had little loyalty to any one product – apart from my own planners I made year to year, but even then I changed the format and style each year. But this past year has been different. I stumbled upon the idea of a Traveler’s Notebook – a leather cover that holds multiple notebooks within it.
It made so much sense to me and appealed to my desire to simplify, organize, and be stylish and functional. I haven’t even looked at another notebook since Paul made me this Traveler’s Notebook. (I can make another post on making your own with leather, however they are easily available on Amazon to purchase, and a full list of the supplies I have purchased for my Traveler’s Notebook can be found below!)
I currently have eight notebooks in my Traveler’s Notebook. It goes everywhere with me and is one of my favorite possessions. Some of my notebooks are homemade – I purchased beautiful linen paper to be able to make my own customized notebooks- and others are Midori brand or a cheaper knock off brand (because sometimes it is just easier to have them premade!)
My notebooks that currently reside in my Traveler’s Notebook are:
A scratch notebook for my bullet journal, all ideas, plans, doodles, etc. (This one gets tossed when it is full, with ideas moved into the second one if they are worth keeping.)
A long term notebook for all ideas and plans I want preserved. (When this gets full it moves into a box.)
A homeschool lesson planner.
A calendar covering 18 months.
A notebook devoted to my blog.
A Family Adventure notebook where I plan and then journal our trips.
A notebook for my collection of questions. I take my collection very seriously. haha.
A notebook for my collection of quotes, which also includes a page for grandparents and other special people where I write down special memories of them.
A few months ago I started playing around with adding my school planner into it and it is still a work in progress – I love the size of it much more than my large planner, but I am still working on finding the right format and what to include within it. I think I am going to end up settling on having a large binder or folder that holds everything for the school year, and update this weekly planner once a week. 
There are some beautiful Instagram accounts of people’s Traveler’s Notebooks that are both inspiring and intimidating to follow. I have found the addition of stickers and washi tape to be a cheerful little extra to use throughout, but I don’t put much time into making mine stylish as others have done. (But I do love looking at their masterpieces!)
While Paul made me my Traveler’s Notebook cover, you can purchase them easily online Midori is an excellent brand and you’re going to get a quality product if you buy one of theirs. There are many knock off brands, too. In addition to the cover and notebooks the only other essential are the bands that hold the notebooks together. Here are all the products I have used or are similar to:
Midori Traveler’s Notebook (mine was made, but modeled to look like this, then stained darker)
Midori bands (I purchased two sets)
Knock Off brand Notebook Refills (these are inexpensive and work just fine! This link is exactly what I purchased, one of each style – lined, graph, and blank.)
Premade Monthly Calendar (I made my own calendar to print on linen paper, and am happy to include an upload of it if anyone else wants to play around with getting the printing just right, but it is pretty cheap to purchase a premade one like this!)
I haven’t settled on a format for our school schedule, but once I do I will be happy to share that as a printable for others!
If this was helpful to you, please share in your social media platform of choice! Also, check out my post on printing your own planner.
