I’ve done a decent job of not accumulating an excessive number of pens over the years. (“Decent” and “excessive” should be construed liberally, in the context of community of enthusiasts. Normal people would would - and should - still consider me certifiable.) That said, despite reviewing and writing about fine writing instruments for nearly a decade, I don’t have hundreds of pens, and possibly not even 100. I regularly give pens away to friends, family members, and those just getting into the hobby. I sell off pens that I can’t afford to just give away, sending them on to new homes where hopefully, they’ll be used and loved and won’t just sit in the case. But still, at the end of the day, there are pens. Lots of them.
Lots of pens that need to get moved around.
And while this isn’t an article about pen storage, it’s impossible to touch on “organization” without briefly mentioning it. I mostly use a combination of pen boxes/cases/folders to store my pens. I have one primary 36-pen “display” box where my most prized pens live, and the rest are kept in various folios and covered pen trays. I know some people who pick one storage medium and roll with the same case or box, so they have a uniform storage system. I’m not one of those people, and generally use a combination of different cases that fit into different locations in my office. This article from 2019 remains my most up-to-date discussion of my favorite ways to store pens.
Montblancs and Leonardos, after this morning’s reorganization.
What I want to talk about today is how to “best” organize those pens that are in storage. I currently have my pens loosely grouped by brand, but not consistently. My 36-pen display case contains most of my favorite writers, and those are grouped by brand within that case. For example, my Auroras and Pelikans sit next to one another on the top level, but I also have other Auroras and Pelikans that don’t “make the cut” for the “favorites” box, and those are separately stored together in a different folio. While I enjoy having my favorites in one place for easy access and reference, I have other pens that I know go unused due to simple disorganization and the fact that I don’t regularly lay eyes on them. I recently had to move my office, and I can’t tell you how many times I came across something that I hadn’t seen in years because it was inadvertently tucked into storage I had forgotten about.
All those Lamys line up pretty, especially the “propeller” clips on the Studio. It’s been WAY too long since I’ve inked them up, and I need to pick up a Lamy Glacier.
So what do I plan to do? As of this morning, I’ve started the process of overhauling my current system of organization, grouping all pens I have together strictly by brand. Most of my favorites will remain in the 36-pen chest, and certainly those higher-value pens that I want to give maximum protection, like my Montblancs (some of which are uncommon) and Leonardos (some of which are very uncommon). But others might get moved to, say, the “Pilot” section of another binder, so that when I find myself wanting to use, say, my Vanishing Point, I’ll also come across my Harvest Gold Decimo and remind myself to ink that one up instead.
My very unscientific Instagram poll.
How do you organize your pen collection? I’m interested to hear. I polled Instagram yesterday, and while most people organize by brand, many organize by color, and a few by material and model. I also received several messages in which people suggested “country of origin” and simply “favorites” as options. Those who use or collect a single brand will certainly have their own strategy, as will vintage collectors who likely organize by model and date. To be clear, there is no “wrong” answer here. I’m merely satisfying my own curiosity, as I think through this “pen problem” to make sure all of my favorites get rotated regularly!
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