How to Choose Accessories for Your TRAVELER'S Notebook
When we introduce customers to the TRAVELER'S notebook, it’s easy for folks to see their appeal: they’re both visually lovely and practical because they’re so easy to refill and customize. But after the initial excitement, we sometimes hear a bit of confusion from our customers: what now? The world of TRAVELER'S has so many accessories and bells and whistles that it can be a little overwhelming to configure your notebook in the way that works best for you.
There’s a lot more potential to a TRAVELER'S notebook than just a refillable cover, and it’s largely the accessories that make this notebook stand out—not only their utility, but their aesthetic and the whole world of imagination that their nostalgic leather and brass and paper designs conjure.
Below, we’ll explore the different types of accessories that the TRAVELER'S COMPANY makes and look at different options for kitting out your notebook so it’s most useful for you.
Notebook Refills
The power of the TRAVELER'S notebook is that you can use it as one central location for all the notebooks and organization tools you use instead of needing to carry multiple notebooks around with you. You can use the cover to hold your planner, your notebook, your sketchbook, and much more. To that end, the Traveler’s Company makes many different kinds of refills to choose from.
Different rulings: When you choose any notebook, the first factor you usually consider is page ruling: lined, blank, dot grid, or graph. You can choose any of these rulings for your TRAVELER'S notebook, or use several different rulings simultaneously for different purposes.
Planners: It’s a hassle to carry your planner around separate from your favorite notebook—which is why TRAVELER'S makes planners that will fit inside your notebook cover. Each year they come out with dated weekly and monthly versions of their planner, and they also make undated versions that you can start using year-round. The undated planners are also great for project planning when you’re working on a long-term project that doesn’t follow a traditional calendar.
Sketching, scrapbooking, and creativity: If you like to keep a sketchbook or do any other kind of art journaling, TRAVELER'S makes many different refills to support that: refills with sketch paper, watercolor paper, and fountain pen friendly MD paper are all great options for drawing and painting. They also make kraft paper refills in a variety of colors that are great for creative projects, accordion fold refills that are perfect for getting crafty, and sticker release paper that you can use to collect your favorite stickers.
Travel: As the name suggests, the TRAVELER'S notebook is great for journaling and planning when you travel. Their Short Trip refills have half the number of pages as a regular refill, making them perfect for journaling during a shorter journey without lots of extra pages left over.
Pockets
Pocket accessories are the next category we love to recommend when you’re setting up a TRAVELER'S notebook, because they add a lot of versatility to your setup. You can use them for carrying writing tools, loose papers, business cards, and more. You can even use them to turn your notebook into a wallet, so you’re carrying all your necessities in one spot.
Card files: Add a card file to your notebook to hold credit cards, bus passes, library cards, and so on. It’s also great if you collect a lot of small papers like business cards, ink swatches, tickets, and stamps.
Pen loop: This one isn’t exactly a pocket, but it will let you carry your favorite pen or pencil right on your notebook cover for easy access.
Pocket stickers: You can add pocket stickers in different shapes and sizes to the insides of your covers for extra storage—they’re great for loose papers, tickets, boarding passes, and small stationery items. Traveler’s also makes film pocket stickers you can add to the pages of your refills, which are perfect for scrapbooking during your travels—use them to keep ticket stubs, stamps, and other memorabilia.
Folders: For yet more storage space, you can slide a folder into your notebook setup. This is great if you tend to carry a lot of loose papers that are on the larger/longer side.
Additional Tools
Aside from the essentials of paper and pockets, the TRAVELER'S COMPANY makes a lot of additional tools that are handy for organizing and setting up your notebook.
Connecting rubber bands: Connector bands let you secure multiple refills in your TRAVELER'S notebook. Use the bands to connect notebook refills together inside the cover. The notebook is designed to comfortably hold up to three notebook refills in addition to accessories (though we’ve seen folks stuff even more refills inside!).Brass clips: Brass clips are one of the most popular accessories for the Traveler’s Notebook: you can use them to hold your notebook open while you write and to bookmark your page when you close the notebook. (They’re also very handsome and definitely add to the overall vibe of the notebook!)
Sticky notes: Traveler’s sticky notes come in a thin folio that you can insert into the body of the notebook so they’re always on hand when you need one.
Rulers, stencils, clips, and pens: There are lots of handsome brass accessories to go with the Traveler’s Notebook: rulers, bookmark clips that double as stencils, index clips you can use to create tabs in your notebook refills, and even brass writing tools including fountain pens, ballpoint pens, and pencils. All these are handy tools, and if you love the leather-and-brass aesthetic of the Traveler’s Company world, they add a lot of charm and appeal to your notebook!
Repair kit: TRAVELER'S notebooks are sturdy, but after a lot of wear and tear the elastic band that holds notebook inserts can eventually break. Thankfully, they have a repair kit with spare elastic so you can replace the band if that should happen.
Decorating
Part of the fun of setting up your notebook is customizing and decorating it to your liking. The leather notebook covers come in different colors for you to choose from. The TRAVELER'S COMPANY also makes little charms that you can hang on the outside elastic of your notebook to add personality to your cover.
Archiving
Finally, once you’ve filled up your notebook inserts, you can archive them so you’ll always be able to look back at your notes, sketches, travel journals, and so on. The TRAVELER'S COMPANY makes a refill binder for just this purpose.
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So how do you choose from this wealth of options for setting up your notebook? Start with the items you know you’ll use most often: for example, a lined notebook insert, a monthly planner, and a sketchbook. Think about the types of tools you use most often: do you want to carry your favorite pen, some sticky notes, and all your credit cards? There’s an accessory for each of those things! As you use your notebook, you’ll notice additional items that might be handy to add to your notebook setup. Over time you can continue to adapt your setup to make it as handy as possible for daily use.
Check out our full TRAVELER'S COMPANY collection to see all these accessories and more!
I have 2 travelers notebooks, I love the both, I use them for bible journaling to take notes, favorite verses, prayers, artwork stickers etc. There very portable and come in all different sizes.
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