Guide to an Aesthetic Office Setup: Part 8 – Office Stationery + Productivity + Paper

I love office stationery. I love paper. I love all of it, even though I try my best not to fangirl over items and buy things for aesthetic value.

I love paper books for instance, but because I want to read hundreds of books, or carry them with me, I use an e-book reader instead (Kindle Oasis is my favourite device in the world). I like beauty, but I want functionality too, hence why this is one of my favourite posts in the series.

Psst! If you have missed the first of the series, I fell down a literal rabbit hole a month ago, and am gathering all my insights into multiple part posts, with examples and actual product links, plus my take on them.

• Series: Cosy + Minimalist Aesthetic Desk Setups

I will give you what I see repeatedly pop up over and over again and what has endured through their hundreds of videos. I sometimes see paid partnerships or sponsorships from brands for certain things, but by the next video it is gone.

So I am also looking out for longevity in choice. I will also note afterwards, what I personally use / do and why.

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DESK ORGANIZATION

A tidy desk needs organizing products that keep things in their place so that when you reset it daily or weekly, you are able to put it back into their designated spots.

Everything must have a place… and it doesn’t have to be ugly!

POI + HUN

Hands down, the most aesthetic brand out there (they have a serious marketing team and must gift a lot of items), is the brand POI + HUN.

Here are a few of their products, which I find super cute.

• Mini Acrylic To Do / Weekly board set – you use erasable markers on it, and it looks very aesthetic as you prop it up on a stand
• Writing on reusable acrylic not your thing? Here is the paper version with a clipboard stand.
• Calendar desk set is also adorable so you don’t have to hunt for dates
• They also have a plethora of notepads, journals, you name it.

But you don’t need to stop with them! There are also a TON of other things out there you could use, if what they have doesn’t quite fit your style

DESK PRODUCTS – PART I

• Acrylic organizing boxes – This is a must-have for any drawer, or any sort of space underneath to keep your small items organized.
• Acrylic mail slot boxes – which you can use to store other items vertically, not just mail
• Acrylic desk organizer tray with a drawer underneath because drawers are super useful
• Acrylic vertical magazine holder which can hold file folders and other things

DESK PRODUCTS – PART II

• Gorgeous oatmeal felt organizing boxes if you want a warmer vibe
• This rotating desk organizer is very useful, and has cute gold legs. I use it to store pens, post-its, scissors, etc.
• Gold-bottomed acrylic desk organizer – another beautiful, luxe product for items and this one is in glass, but framed in brass
• Sculptural gold vertical magazine holder that is low profile and looks elegant.

DESK PRODUCTS – PART III

• This very chic gold mesh organizer has a tiny drawer! And this is a matching gold mesh drawer set and another style of organizer for paper trays.
• Blu Monaco Grey and Gold Desk Organizer
• Russell + Hazel Acrylic Easel for papers and for your tablet too
• Desk container sets to hold a notepad, pens and other smaller items

CALCULATORS

I actually use a calculator quite a bit, so if you are like me, it is much easier to use a physical one than to always try and use your phone to calculate things.

• UNIONE flat key minimalist calculator – also comes in pink and other colourways
• Lofree Typewriter Pop Key mechanical calculator
• Danrong Mechanical calculator in various gradient colourways
• Large Digit Mechanical calculator in various colourways

TO DO LIST DESK PADS

• Russell + Hazel Acrylic Drafter’s To Do pad (refillable)
• Ugmonk Analog Steel To Do List – this was the viral To Do List stand that kept things simple available in Black + White colourways
• Notsu Orange To Do List
• Mind Design To Do List – it is the cheaper version of the Ugmonk. There are so many knockoffs now.

PRODUCTIVITY PADS

• Hemlock & Oak Priority Pad – I like this Canadian brand a lot, but their Priority Pad is the best because there is no date on anything and it can go from week to week (I work on projects so this is great). I don’t plan a specific week out, necessarily.
• Ink & Volt Dashboard Deskpad – Similar vibe to the Hemlock one, but it has a different setup and is more geared to weekly usage (here are cheaper spiral binder options – here, here and here.)
• Two Tumbleweeds Project Planner – An action item list for you project managers out there
• Pinesman Notes – A simple dot matrix pad if you don’t want any constraints

DAILY PADS

• Hemlock & Oak Daily Pad – It has a schedule (the hours on the side), and then you can put a date as well as a To Do on the side
• Ink & Volt Daily Pad – Similar vibe again, to Hemlock.
• Kunitsa Weekly + Daily Pad – It is two in one
• Forvencer To Do List with a spiral binding

WEEKLY PADS

• Ugmonk Weekly Steel Pad – Comes in Black + White and its own stand. Very sleek.
• Notsu Weekly Undated Pad
• Pinesman Weekly Planner (also a Mousepad) and here is another version of the Pinesman Weekly Planner
• Lamare Weekly Planner that has some pink on it, and a different style to the others

STICKY NOTEPAD HOLDER

To hold your neutral, aesthetic sticky notes of course!

• Sticky notepad holder in acrylic and gold
• Another one in a gold frame with acrylic
• NatSume Basics white sticky note holder
• If you work a lot with sticky notes, this monitor memo holder is rather useful

MY TAKE ON PAPER + ACCESSORIES

I am a serious fan of the Hemlock & Oak Priority Pad. I have multiple projects at once, so I start a page for each, and I can use it from week to week rather than having to start a new one every week which can get wasteful if you haven’t made much progress on your project and don’t need / want to.

It is for this reason that I prefer having an undated priority pad like this one that is a running To Do list of sorts, and then a daily or weekly planning pad that I can tear off and use to focus for this specific day (when I want to).

I haven’t gotten my perfect To Do list pad yet, but I am really eying those To Do stand options, as they seem to be the simplest analog way to keep track of my life.

If I start going on my phone to look at my To Do list, I find I get sidetracked into social media and emails, and before you know it, my morning is gone.

As for organizing accessories – I AM A HUGE fan. HUGE.* If you don’t want all that aesthetic stuff, think about secondhand pieces. I found a lot of lovely brass and porcelain / ceramic pots that I use to hold a multitude of things from USB keys to remote page turners, and they look so cute on my desk too.

*Pretty Woman reference for those of you old enough…

PENS

People are really into the aesthetic pen thing, but I have to tell you, I have never used a better pen than this Hemlock & Oak Brass pen that uses Pilot G7 refills.

It writes like a dream. I also am not a fan of buying pens just because of their colour aesthetic, and I highly recommend fountain pens (I understand if you don’t because they can get messy to refill), and these brass pens are the perfect in between.

If they don’t have any in stock, this kind of hexagonal refillable one is beautiful as well.

Pens are really subjective, so if you want pastel aesthetics, here are a few here, here, here and here.

And here are your pastel highlighters.

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WANT MORE?

This is the series that has all of the posts: Cosy + Minimalist Aesthetic Desk Setups.