Editing The Pen Addict 24/transcript (section)

== Pen Paraphernalia ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' I separate them by brand. Then I have like a – I'll have like a separate bag of just like refill stuff. That's the paraphernalia he's talking about. Refills come in individual packaging or sometimes you get an extra refill when you buy a pen. And I'm always losing those or set them to the side.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So that has its own bag and that's a pretty large bag. And then I have – I use one of my pen cases like we were talking about before. I mentioned earlier just one of the – like an open style pen case. And that holds like all my fountain pen ink cartridges. That way I can dump them all in. And I know if I need a fountain pen ink cartridge, that's where I go to grab it. But I mean it's – I don't have some kind of uber, you know, awesomely engineered storage system. But it really works. And the thing is I can just take that bin, store it in the closet. And when I want to do some pen reviews or I have to go through some of it and rearrange, you know, I can just take that out in one shot, carry it into my living room or wherever, kitchen table, wherever I'm going to work on this. And everything is organized. I can pull it all out, see it right there on the table. When I get new pens, I tend to just set them on the top of the bin until I get the time to open the bin and organize the new pens into the right spot. So I'm anal in the fact that I want – I've set up like things to be with like things, right? I just don't throw all my pens together and have to fish through them. That would drive me berserk.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So you just arrange them by the brand, you said, right?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Generally. And even more so in the particular product. Like Pilot Hitec C has its own bag probably because I have 30 of them. You know, Unuball, Sino DX, same way. Pentel Slissy has got its own bag, Sleechy. But then for smaller brands where I don't have the mass thing, I'll just put them all together. Like all the zebra pens, they go in one spot because I don't have, you know, 30 of the zebra Saracic clip or something like that. So I just try to – I want to be able to find the stuff that I do have when I want to find it. And then I want to also be able to have the parts and replacement parts and other things in one location because that stuff does tend to pile up, which is kind of what Craig's alluding to. Not only do you have the pens, but then you get a lot of extras. And when those things get separated and you're looking for that refill that you bought or that extra refill or this other ink cartridge that you had or anything like that, I keep those nearby too. They all live in the same bin.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So now there's – the one thing I haven't figured out storage for and the one thing that's going to – yeah, I talk about it's going to get me in trouble, but I've been kind of lax on it. It's fountain pen ink. Like I have no clue on how to store that. I don't keep it in the same bin because it kind of rolls around too much. I mean because it's not in a separate container. It's almost like I need to own – my fountain pen inks need their own box. But I just worry about them shuffling around and jostling around. So I actually just have them sitting on a shelf in a closet. But I've only got like maybe five or six bottles right now anyway. So that's not too huge of a problem, but in the future it might be. So if any of you have heavy fountain pen users out there who have 20 and 30 bottles of ink, I'd be interested to see how you store quantities like that, especially not out in the open. I understand if you have a desk or a workspace or an art table where you can keep a lot of that out. But if you're storing that away in a closet, I'd be interested to know what you use, what are those options. So that's my pen bin. And I could probably find some old pictures to link to you. And I'll see if I can get you some for the show notes just so people can see what I'm talking about because literally this system hasn't changed in probably four or five years. It's been the same since the beginning. When the bin gets too full, I purge it. Either my kids get the pens or I take a big batch to work and give them away to everyone at work who they're always excited to get that. And then they come, ooh, I like this one. And they wonder what it is and how did I find it and where can they get it. And then they're like, you really have this many pens? And I'm like, yeah, pretty much so. But they're well aware of my problem now. And now they seek me out at work, which is kind of funny. I'm not an in-the-closet addict anymore.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Not in the pen closet. Yeah. I don't really have a storage system. I haven't got enough stuff. I have a pen cup that I made out of Lego. Oh, cool. And all my pens live in there or they live in the – that's the stuff that I keep at home. And then obviously I have my – the Hit Lab case where all my good stuff lives. And then people are going to hate me for saying this. But I keep all of my stuff on a windowsill.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Ooh, yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Including my ink. Yeah. Yeah, I know, I know.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That's a terrible idea.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, but I only have one bottle of ink. Okay. And the rest is just cartridges in their boxes. Yeah. So I don't think it's going to get too hurt there. And you've got to remember where I live. Right. We get like four days of sun a year.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Exactly. Exactly. But, I mean, it gets hard to manage it when you get all this stuff, which I'm certainly not complaining. I like all my stuff. But it can get away from you quickly once you start accumulating, just like anything else. Once you start accumulating, that gets crazy. The one thing I do do is when I have new pens or pens that I haven't reviewed, those stay completely separate from that whole batch of stuff because I don't want to get them lost. I kind of keep – I have a pouch that I keep – I have a to-be-reviewed pouch that I keep in my desk drawer. So I don't have to go – when it's time for me to sit down and do pen reviews, I don't have to go searching through my big box of doom. But, yeah, I use – that's the big size container. I wish I had the size, I could tell you. I think it's 50 or 60 gallon. Which is not as big as it sounds. And then I use, like, two of the similar width containers but about half the size. And I use those for my notebooks. I don't have a lot of stray storage just, like, laying around. You know, the notebooks either – like, one of them has larger size, you know, like your 8.5 by 11s or that size, that dimension notebook just stacked up in there just so I can move them around easily. And then the other one has, you know, all my dome paper utility journals, field notes, you know, the smaller footprint notebooks just lined up, you know, vertically through there. So the entirety of my pen storage and paper storage consists of those three cases. And I could – if I stacked them on top of each other, I could carry them around, holding them all together. It's not that much stuff. So, Craig, that's my highly engineered solution for my pen storage, zip locks and plastic bins.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Cool. So what more do you need?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I know. I know. It works for me. Like I said, when I first started, I knew I had to have some type of storage. And this is what I landed on in the beginning. And I've had no reason to change it ever since. So it seems to work fine.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' If it ain't broken, don't fix it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That's right.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You're going to need to find me an image.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I do. I will find one. I know I have two or three because I've shared them out before.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Good stuff.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So I have to come up with one.