Planner Sticker Organization

Flipping through a bunch of planner sticker pads was not making me happy. I wanted to create a better way to see all my planner stickers. Most of them are from Me and My Big Ideas (#MAMBI) The Happy Planner (#thehappyplanner) line; some are Carpe Diem, etc.

First I went to Office Depot and bought 2-inch, 3-ring binders. The hot pink ones were on deep discount (like 75% off), so I bought all they had in stock. I specifically chose the ones with the ring mechanism bolted to the BACK of the binder, not the spine. (Click on photos to enlarge, or go to the end and click on the slideshow.)

Choose a ring mechanism that is bolted to the BACK of the binder, not the spine.

I cut cardstock to 2 inches wide by 11 inches high. I punched each one with a 3-hole punch. Then I put a very thin line of glue (Aleene’s Tacky Glue) as close to the non-punched edge as possible. I adhered the sticker to the cardstock strip with about a 1/4-inch overlap. Wipe up any glue so it doesn’t get on the front of your stickers!

Place a thin line of glue along the cardstock strip, as long as the sticker sheet. Overlap the back of the sticker sheet onto the glue, about 1/4 inch.

Closeup of thin glue line.

I then adhered another sticker to the reverse side the same way. I don’t know if stickers will smear or transfer when they are stored face to face; I decided it was okay to find out.

I trimmed the covers of the sticker packs and adhered them to a piece of cardstock (4.25 inches wide) to serve as tabs. About three pads will fit in one 2-inch binder.

Sticker sheet pad cover is now a tab.

Once I ascertained which packs I wanted in which binder, I made covers and spines. The covers are on regular-weight paper, but the spines I printed on cardstock so they were easier to slip into the binder’s clear spine. I made them about 1/2-inch narrower than the stated capacity of the binder (i.e., 1.5 inches for a 2-inch binder).

Each binder is clearly marked with the contents.

I actually ran out of binders, so used an old navy one I had.

This binder contains the Tiny, Mom, and Productivity packs, but I didn’t keep them in their respective sections. I rearranged them so they made sense to me (Travel, Planner Basics, Beauty, Emojis, Celebrations, Food/Drink, Fitness/Health, Home).

Be brave! Rearrange your stickers so they make sense to you. Index them, if you wish (by adding page numbers).

When I began, I overlapped the sticker onto the cardstock strip much more (as shown below). This doesn’t help; it makes it harder to bend the sticker sheet to take off the sticker. This photo also shows how I incorporated, for example, some of the sheets from the MAMBI 5,144-sticker/100-sheet pack into the Colorful Boxes section.

Don’t overlap the stickers with the cardstock this much. Aim for a 1/4 inch overlap.

It would have been silly to glue all the small stickers to cardstock. I inserted those into a page protector.

A small page protector holds small stickers (from the MAMBI rolls).

Another thing I did was to sew page protectors (here, 12×12) to create more pockets.

Hard to see, but white stitching on a page protector makes more pockets.

For 12×12 sticker sheets, I started out cutting them in half and adhering them to the cardstock strips the same way…

You can cut 12×12 sheets approximately in half and adhere to cardstock strips.

…but decided I didn’t mind the 12×12 sheet protectors hanging out, so went back to this:

Or you can just wing it with 12×12 page protectors. Yes, there are 12×12-inch, 3-ring binders, but I don’t have any. And I don’t like regular 12×12 post-bound albums for sticker storage (I’ve tried them).

A nice side benefit of getting more organized is that I do NOT want to buy more stickers right now! I want to try working with what I have (which, let’s face it, is plenty). I buy all stickers on discount, either at the usual places with coupons or at Tuesday Morning.

Here’s a slideshow of all the photos above; click on one to start.

: Choose a ring mechanism that is bolted to the BACK of the binder, not the spine.

: Place a thin line of glue along the cardstock strip, as long as the sticker sheet.

: Closeup of thin glue line.

: Sticker sheet pad cover is now a tab.

: Each binder is clearly marked with the contents.

: I actually ran out of binders, so used an old navy one I had.

: Be brave! Rearrange your stickers so they make sense to you. Index them, if you wish (by adding page numbers).

: Don’t overlap the stickers with the cardstock this much. Aim for a 1/4 inch overlap.

: A small page protector holds small stickers (from the MAMBI rolls).

: Hard to see, but white stitching on a page protector makes more pockets.

: You can cut 12×12 sheets approximately in half and adhere to cardstock strips.

: Or you can just wing it with 12×12 page protectors. Yes, there are 12×12-inch, 3-ring binders, but I don’t have any. And I don’t like regular 12×12 post-bound albums for sticker storage (I’ve tried them).