Review: Planners by Erin Condren

I love to organize. To make lists. To plan. I also love well-designed things, so when I got the chance to review one of Erin Condren’s planners from TinyPrints.com, it was right up my alley. There are a lot of designs to choose from and I really had a hard time choosing just one. Finally, though, I settled on the Candy Lace planner. I love the pattern, don’t you?

Erin’s planners are all personalized, too. Mine has my first and last name on it, but I removed my last name for this post ’cause I’m all private like that. :) Like I said, I love the pattern and the colors – it’s vibrant without being over-the-top. I was a little surprised at the material for the cover; I guess I was envisioning something a little less glossy. The cover seems to be a thick plastic lamination over the printed material, which does give it a good substantial feel – I just couldn’t tell from looking online what the cover material would be like. I love that the inside of both the front and back cover have the pattern printed on them.

The pages of the planner are great. You’ll find bright, cheery color combinations and well-organized calendar/planner layouts. There are monthly pages, year-at-a-glance pages, and of course the day-to-day planner.

I’ve been using the planner for several days now and it works really well for me. The clip that’s included with the planner makes it easy to flip between my week and my month to keep track of what I’ve got going on short-term and longer-term too. Each day is broken down into morning, day, and night, helping provide a visual breakdown of where items on your schedule fall.

The planner includes stickers to help note special events; it includes the standards like appointments and birthdays, but you’re also provided with a sheet of blank stickers so you can make your own. I loved this, because the bright stickers really stand out and would be great to remind yourself of something important on the horizon.

There’s also a pocket to store any loose papers you might accumulate throughout the week. Grocery lists, coupons, business cards, or any other odds and ends would work well to store here.

At the back, there’s a zip loc storage bag to keep other odds and ends. I store my pen and some business cards in it, and the planner even came with some extras in the bag! The labels are great to have on hand for gifts, and it’s a fun touch to have some personalized labels in there too.

The Erin Condren planners would make a wonderful gift for anyone on your list that loves to be organized. There are options available to include photos – you could make one for your mom that includes a photo of the grandkids, for example. These planners are somewhat pricey, usually around $50, but you can often find discount codes that will help shave some of that off. Right now Tiny Prints has a code for 15% off that’s good until March 15 – just enter tp15off to get your savings!