Daily planner, no lines, not leather

December 16, 2008 2:56 PM

Please help me find the perfect dayplanner for my sister with a bunch of requirements.

-She wants something to fit in her purse, so not a desk one.
-one page per day, not weekly
-not leather
-no little lines (blank space is better or wide lines, no hourly stuff)
-no inspirational quotes
-yes holidays (especially Jewish ones)
-she would prefer one that had some sort of closure like a snap or button or elastic
-not a boring cover (this one I think she has to just let go. I think I'll put a sticker on it or decorate it or something)

My budget is $100 or less.
In NY or online is fine.

I've read the other planner questions and the harvard ones, moleskine ones, franklin covey, etc. don't seem to have daily planners without all the little lines. This is driving me nuts! Now I am thinking she is having me get this for her because she already tried and not found anything...

posted by rmless to shopping (10 comments total)

How about the Muji Chronotebook?
posted by needled at 3:20 PM on December 16, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Now I am thinking she is having me get this for her because she already tried and not found anything...

HA! I wouldn't discount this possibility. I've had a heck of time finding the right planner, and my requirements are very similar to your sister's.

One thing I suggest is that many office supply places will cut and glue regular copy paper (no lines!) into pads for you. Then you could get a cover that you think she'll like, and fill it with your own paper.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 3:21 PM on December 16, 2008

Franklin Covey has a Design Your Own Planner Tool but every option has lines. I'm going to go out on a limb and say you will not find a planner sans lines - the lines are the reason people buy these things.

Rollabind is a sort of DIY planner solution that has blank pages available but I don't know if they have daily calendar pages. If you feel especially generaous you could design custom pages and print them on the right size paper and use a Rollabind punch to put them into a binder.
posted by GuyZero at 3:46 PM on December 16, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

You could buy a blank journal and write in dates by hand on each page. This could be a most thoughtful gift. You could also put little notes to her on random days to make her smile. Adding family birthdays as well as Jewish hols might be fun.
posted by Riverine at 3:54 PM on December 16, 2008 [5 favorites has favorites]

Have you checked out Filofax? I'd be surprised if you couldn't fill all of these requirements there.
posted by chez shoes at 4:07 PM on December 16, 2008

I think you should do what Riverine said...and that is actually what I did when I couldn't find the perfect planner. I also hate the little lines and hour marks. I'm a teacher so my days are by first, second, third period, etc instead of by hours, especially if we have an assembly schedule.

I formatted my page in Microsoft Word and printed on nice paper (and you could always shrink down to a purse-size version) and bound the pages together (I sewed them but you could fasten them some other way) and made a cover from some fabric i loved. i get tons of complements. I'm happy to send further instructions if you'd like.
posted by junipero at 4:50 PM on December 16, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

How about this one? I realize that it doesn't fulfill a lot of the criteria, but it's so darned cute. Etsy in general would be a great place to look for this sort of thing -- people make custom things all the time and I'm sure you could find someone to make a planner to your specifications.
posted by peacheater at 4:54 PM on December 16, 2008

I could be convinced to help out. I have a Rollabind planner that I custom-make pages for. I also do one-page-per-day, and this criterion by itself is enough to knock out most planners from contention. I have graph paper pages and can do blank ones too (still with some guides and a spot for the date). If you're interested, please email me at zach [sign] thinky [period] org.

My price will come in *much* below your limit by the way (approximately half, depending on which custom options you want).
posted by zpousman at 5:26 PM on December 16, 2008

Here's a little blog post about the side project.
posted by zpousman at 5:41 PM on December 16, 2008

Cool, thanks for replying everyone!
I think I'll have zpousman make me one and then I'll add some silly extra things, like my bunny's birthday and the anniversary of her getting her first job in NY.
posted by rmless at 8:55 PM on December 16, 2008