Frixion Pens: A Review

I've been using Pilot Frixion Pens in my planner for the last 6 months and I love them! But others hate them...which makes it confusing if you are trying to decide to buy some because who do you believe?

I decided to do a video review so you could see them in action and make an informed decision! In the video I cover things like:

• Color choices
• Erasing & then rewriting--what's the secret to smooth/clear writing?
• Erasing when the ink is still wet vs. dry
• Can you laminate a page with Frixion ink on it?
• What does Frixion and Freezers have to do with each other??
• What should you use these pens on...and what should you NOT?

Check out my review and if you use Frixion pens, let me know what your experience has been!

**I have purchased these pens on my own and these opinions are my own...Your mileage may vary!**

Planner Obsession

Okay, I'm going to be honest with you guys...I LOVE my planner! I love my new DIYFish inserts! I love my new erasable Frixion pens...I think I have a problem. LOL

In fact, I spent some time over the weekend making a new planner for my office. I have been using a monthly 8 1/2 x 11 spiral bound calendar for the last few years, and then I add post-its for things like meeting notes, etc. But honestly, it just ends up a scribbled mess. So, I decided to try out DIYFish for work. I admit, I didn't get an ARC binder because I'm not ready to commit yet (and I don't want to carry my heavy punch back and forth from home to work...LOL) But, I found a half-size binder that will work for now. If this is something I think will work out well (and I suspect it will), I'll probably get an ARC for obvious reasons (reasons being: I love ARC. The End.).

Since I'm still fairly new to using DIYFish, I have been watching a lot of YouTube videos on how others use planners to get some inspiration and ideas. I've just found even more awesome organization systems that I can't wait to implement, like Bullet Journaling. Where has this been all my life?? It's like something I've naturally gravitated towards doing already, but much more polished and logically laid out. I have a feeling this is going to be a great system for me.

I wish I could be super creative and decorate my pages or use my graph paper for sketching or whatever. But the honest truth is I'm just not like that. It's not my personality! But I'm so grateful for everyone else's creativity because it makes this world a more beautiful place. In the meantime, I will stick with the basics.

And, just so this isn't a random post about a somewhat strange obsession (although I'm not alone in this--did you know there is a whole internet subculture out there all about planners?), I wanted to share with you a find: I ordered this personalized freezer inventory printable from IHeartOrganizing and I love it! For just $3 I have an unlimited supply of these (I can print them as much as I need). I punched it and keep it in the Menu section of my planner. Since we've moved, our garage freezer has just been a glorified ice bucket, so I am looking forward to refilling it and doing it organized!

Desk Cords

Part of the moving process has been to unplug everything, pack it up, move it, unpack it and try to plug everything back in. Before you can plug everything in, you have to make sure you have all the right cords...and believe me, that box was a nightmare!

We used to have a black computer armoire that held all of our equipment, supplies & cords. It was beneficial in two ways--being black, it automatically camouflaged all of the cords and equipment; and being an armoire, it had doors! So when I had company coming over, I could easily & quickly close the doors and the evidence of my disorganization was safely hidden away.

When we moved, that piece of furniture just didn't fit in the spot we had designated for our "office". So we went to Ikea and picked up a nice white corner desk. But it doesn't have doors. And it's white.

Which brings me to my current dilemma.


The desk sits in the corner of my kitchen/dining area and it's open to the whole house. So, the most likely spot to get cluttered is also the most visible!

So, I spent some time reorganizing it and really focused on the cord situation. I have a lot of things plugged in under there, and it's hard to tell which cord is which without spending several minutes trying to trace it back through the tangled mess to find out what it actually goes to...and trust me, I have unplugged the wrong thing before!

This is why I am so in love with my label maker. I'm sure there are other ways of doing this, but I had fun with it and so because of that, it actually got done.

Here's what I used:

My label maker,

a cable tie kit that I got on sale,

and a pair of scissors.

First, I looked around my work space and figured out what I had that was already plugged in. I have a router, a monitor, a tower, a cable box (for my phone/internet), my phone, a printer, an external hard drive, a pencil sharpener and a CD player.

I made the labels run vertically, so I could read them easier. I wrapped the top of the label around a small zip tie, and then I replaced the back of the label so the whole thing would hang more like a tag and not just stick to everything. Then I trimmed it and attached it to the cord.

Once I labeled all the cords, I went through each cord and gathered the extra length and just wrapped another zip tie around it so it was somewhat contained, instead of just laying around in a jumbled mess.

I also added these cool clips to the back leg of the desk to help gather the cords in one place to help hide them from view.

 It's not perfect, but it's better than it was!

Take the time to tame the cord mess and you will save yourself a lot of headaches in the future!