Show Notes
In this episode Helen and Rob talk about whether there was a defining moment, or time, when they became Stationery Freaks. They start with Stationery Stories: Helen has an occasion to break out a new notebook - an Atoms and Astronauts one from Vinted. Rob's been watching too much Parisian Agency on Netflix - so is trying to adopt a Parisian style and coolness with a new Folio packed with a Yellow Legal Pad and a couple of Moleskine Cahiers. Helen introduces the (potentially) new segment of the show called "Stationery Freaks in the Wild", in which she shares a story of a fellow writing retreat stationery freak who rocked up with a yellow legal and a BlackWing pen Helen introduces a new concept for fellow Stationery Freaks to try - shop at home! Becoming a freak Helen remembers scented pens and rubbers/erasers as a child Helen recalls calligraphy class at school and learning to write using an italic ink pen Rob remembers his Chemistry teacher, Dungeon Master, who ensured students had extremely, dangerously, sharp pencils Rob remembers Christmas Eve gifts of notebooks and pens Both recall gift shops at museums Helen explains that she's always needed stationery to control her life, otherwise it would be a catastrophe Helen also reveals that she uses stickers to denote which type of bin to put out. Rob just goes on what everyone else is doing. Rob recalls putting tunes on and writing film scripts - and how that positive feeling dwindled when he tried to do it on computers. Rob mentions that Domestika has some great tutorials on creating infographics! Helen speaks about how simply the act of thinking back to early stationery memories was a really positive experience. Is there a time when you knew you were a stationery freak? What memories do you have about early stationery use? Let us know - we're on Instagram @stationeryfreaksuk Thanks for listening! Subscribe to the newsletter and find all of our casts at: https://stationeryfreaks.com/
More from Stationery Freaks
After a few months away — and a very welcome "petition of one" from Stacy in Florida — Rob and Helen are back. Rob has been building a public commonplace: twenty-five years of learning, typed onto index cards (possibly breaking his typewriter in the process) and slowly taking over his studio wall. Helen has been redistributing her notebook collection to a room of grateful authors, which may or may not count as cheating in the great notebook challenge. See original hoarding cast here and a revisit to the challenge of using notebooks here. Along the way: why old publishing offices were built around attention rather than productivity, a typewritten daily planning ritual that's quietly replaced Todoist, the strange magnetism of Midori paper, a beautiful Japanese storage haul, giving away index cards to parents and why the whole world seems to be drifting back to analogue. It's like old times. Which is rather the point of the cast. It's good to be back. If you'd like to see images, and more about the show - check out the companion newsletter to this episode. https://stationeryfreaks.substack.com/
In this episode of Stationery Freaks, Rob and Helen dig into the messy, essential world of scrap notes: desk pads, Post-its, legal pads, envelopes, voice memos, and the “grab whatever’s nearby” capture habit. They explore the real question beneath the stationery: what’s the process for turning a quick note into something useful — and what happens when your capture system becomes a pile of open loops.
It’s our first Stationery Freaks episode of 2026, and we’re going deep on goal setting, as we usually do for the first cast of the year.
It’s the last Stationery Freaks episode before Christmas, and after a slightly chaotic month we’re back with a free-form catch-up full of notebook temptation, planning experiments, and advent calendar joy. Helen reviews two very premium stationery advent calendars — Martha Brook(s) and Tom’s Studio — including what you actually get, which one feels more “decorative vs functional,” and the one item she absolutely refuses to touch (again). Rob shares his new structured SmartPlanner time-blocking experiment (and why he’s moved from pen to pencil), an everyday-carry bag confession featuring nine notebooks, and an early idea he’s calling The Wallpaper Method: learning notes on a giant scroll. We also chat about “analog wellbeing,” why January is peak notebook season, end-of-year reflection (hello, Collins ledger), and what we’ll be tackling in the first episode of 2026.