We should not underestimate the value of recycling. It amplifies frugality and greatly impacts our savings.
As teachers, we should model these values for our students, and let’s begin with recycling an old planner. How do you repurpose an old planner? What do you do with the untouched or unused pages of your planner?
Year after year, we buy planners, because they are among the best tools to keep us organized and systematic. It’s a great planning partner for teachers. Using planners effectively can positively impact our productivity as well.
Keeping on track with deadlines and tasks has been on our plates as teachers. And so, we have teacher planners and we stay committed to it for a certain year.
So, how do you reuse old or outdated planners?
In this article, we will be discussing how to repurpose old planners so they become useful again so you won’t be hoarding them on your shelves. Aside from making it as a budget planner and a life planner in general, how else do you repurpose an old planner?
Make them attractive and cute again. Extend your creative touch-ups and make this stuff useful again.
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Looking for a teacher planner? Check out our list of the best planners for teachers to help you get well organized.
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How Do You Repurpose an Old Planner? 8 Coolest Ways
1. Use it as a conference notebook
As a result of impulsive purchases, at times we didn’t notice that we’d collected cute planners and they went expired for the succeeding years.
Personally, I don’t have the heart to throw the attractive notebook away. To make the best of the outdated yet beautiful pages, I turn them into a conference notebook. I take down notes and pointers neatly during faculty meetings.
The minutes of the meeting can serve as a guide for my future activities in the classroom. Besides, reading my notes after the meeting makes me understand what it’s all about and the significance of the discussions. I know how to remind my students as well.
Perhaps my planner has turned into my best guide for the best discussions we have. Then, my notes help me become more organized.
Most importantly, my recycled planner helps me a lot in remembering important events, activities, and tasks to be done.
As for the outdated pages, I just cover the dates with colorful and cute Washi tape or quality Japanese masking tape. Amazingly, the pages of my reprocessed planner look really cool and trendy.
2. Use it as a scrapbook
But somehow, there are times that planners remained untouched and outdated because we didn’t use them for we happened to buy 2 of them in a year or a friend of ours gave one or two as birthday gifts.
Fortunately, I love scrapbooking. It’s my great joy to create memorabilia and design pages to express my thoughts and create a pic collage. It has been my practice during my college days and I still enjoy doing it now that I am already a teacher.
In fact, I shared this hobby with my students too. But, I was surprised that most of my students already have their scrapbooks. So, I just taught them how to make it more creative and how to make events in their lives more memorable.
Although you can post memories on Facebook, doing it manually on the beautiful pages of my reused planner is a lot more meaningful. Demonstrating memories on lovely pages really makes the past worth remembering.
3. Use it as a diary
Do you keep a diary? Intimately, I love recording my days on paper. I love writing about my moods, thoughts, and feelings. And, expressing my thoughts helps me to unravel more of my perspectives.
Writing my personal experiences doesn’t only refresh my thoughts, but also hone my writing skills. For this reason, I am also encouraging my students to keep their diaries to help them express themselves, increase their focus, and improve their writing.
By showing them how I recycled my planner by making it into a diary, they realized that they can recycle their old and unused notebooks too.
4. Use it as your year’s planner
Expired planners can be made functional again. It’s just a matter of creativity and perfect relabeling of ideas. Relabel the months or cover up the dates using decorative Washi tapes or stickers. Their styles and designs even make your planner more colorful.
This is how I do it. I match the beginning days of each month of the current year with that of the planner to be reprocessed. I will cover the month and relabel it neatly.
Redating the months is another idea to reuse the expired planner as this year’s planner. In this case, crossing out the holidays of the previous planner to match the present year works well too.
But, still, it depends on your own choice of making things a lot easier.
5. Use it as a sketchbook
When stress strikes, I sketch, doodle, or draw. I should keep my hands busy to divert my thoughts and feel better. Hence, to save a penny and reduce stress, I use the unused pages of my planner.
Sketching helps me relegate stress. It’s my cup of tea, so to say. I do it while working on my table. Or, when I’m listening to soothing music. Interestingly, it’s my way of comforting myself.
It feels more incredible that I am not only improving my health but also making my wallet healthy. Repurposing my planner of last year into a sketchbook makes me more creative as well. I brush up the pages with cute stickers and fun designs. It gives me more inspiration.
“Recycling really is a way of life”, I can conclude. Reusing my old planner saves my budget and best of all, positively impacts Mother Earth.
If many people do the same, many more trees and natural resources will be preserved. It’s the big picture if all of us are repurposing our outdated planners.
6. Use it as a record notebook of students’ tasks
I reused my old planner by making it a record notebook for my student’s performance tasks. In other words, I use it as a classroom organizer.
To deepen the student’s understanding, I essentially include varied learning activities. They are in my daily lesson plans and I write them down in my planner so I keep track of the daily activities and routines.
Since old planners obviously have a mismatch of the days and dates of the current year, I spread out my creative juices to make my planner still useful. As mentioned, I either cover up the dates, redate the boxes, or relabel the months.
I should be guided on exactly what my students will perform on a specific date and day. I wrote down the class jobs and class schedules as well.
I just can’t take it having my old planner lying around unused and untouched. I bought it with my hard earned money so I should be making the most of it.
7. Use it as a health and fitness notebook
Meal Planning. I plan my meals. Even though it’s repetitive, it won’t really matter. As long as I am certain that I am feeding myself healthy foods and I am keeping track of a healthy diet. Health is wealth as the famous cliche goes.
I write down healthy recipes as well. So, I repurposed my old planner for meal planning and as a recipe notebook. It gives me an overall review of what to eat, what I ate, and about to eat.
Having a record of healthy meals and recipes, I kept track of my whole being even though I’m very busy with life and with teaching as well.
Self-care Activities. I need to know exactly what to do during weekends. Although life is very unpredictable, having plans and goals can help you spend some precious time for yourself. I give time to myself no matter how hectic my schedule is.
Caring for ourselves should be part of our plan. Practicing self-care is for everyone. Although it’s a matter of choice and personal perspectives, we have to remember that life is precious yet fragile.
Personally, I list down the things that help me overcome stress whether it could mean taking a deep breath or getting enough sleep.
The plan need not be complex yet it still makes a difference if you have something to read as a reminder that you need to take care of yourself and become more productive.
Health Goals. What are your healthy lifestyle goals? As busy professionals, we tend to forget the health goals that we need to list down the things we do to enjoy life more! For this reason, I always keep a reminder notebook for my health routines so I won’t forget.
I use my old planner in goal setting. I manually write what physical activities I should accomplish on weekends. Converting my unused planner into a list notebook for my health goals helps me maximize my time and essentially reminds me of how to live a healthy lifestyle.
In particular, I set a day a week for physical activities like exercise, yoga, and meditation. With my busy days as a teacher, I know that without planning I’ll struggle with time. So, I make it a point to make a plan and set health goals.
Bank of Healthy Thoughts. I write quotable quotes to inspire me more. No need for me to cover up the dates in the old planner. I just write manually inspirational words or print them and paste them on my repurposed planner.
The inspirational quotes I have written on my planner motivate me to do great in life both as a parent and as a teacher. The uplifting words help me change my perspectives especially when life’s course becomes rough.
Hence, I really find writing motivational sayings a quick way to reset my way of thinking and the way I see life. The positive words in my planner help me to boost my energy and uplift my mood.
8. Use it for meal planning
Expired planners can be your great support for email planning. A happy lunch is more of listing down healthy recipes in your planner.
Your email plans can help you save time and make you more organized in preparing food for the family especially now that schools all over the country are now into in-person learning.
List the recipes for each day, it’s the best tip to start the year off right! So, there’s no reason to waste that reusable planner of yours!
Conclusion
Reusing expired planners is a great idea for saving money. Knowing that planners have the quality and finest papers, throwing out outdated ones is a great waste.
Hopefully, the creative ideas above inspire you on how to repurpose an old planner. Make it pretty and useful again. The expired yet cute notebook deserves to be used.
The coolest way of repurposing your outdated planner can get you more creative, organized, and productive.
Ready to repurpose your old planner? Extend your ways in the comment section below.
