I’m not a stranger to outgrowing a pen case. In my early days of pen collecting, I tried to stick to a Girologio 24-pen case. I think my collection grew out of that after a year or so. So I got their 48-pen case. And, when the collection grew out of that one, I picked up a second one.
For the past 4+ years, I’ve had 3 48-pen cases. I divide my collection into less expensive, more expensive, and indie-made pens for my pen rotation. It makes sense to me to store them that way, too.
The Situation
Well, after an unintentional burst of pen buying lately, the collection has outgrown my less expensive case. While not catastrophic in and of itself, I’m left not knowing how to approach this situation — first world problems, I know.
I don’t want to buy a second — or larger replacement — case for my less expensive pens. That will make it all the more tempting to buy new pens, as I have plenty of space for them. But, I also don’t have any pens in that section of my collection that I feel I could easily part with.
Possible Solutions
For the short term, I’ve hooked the overflow pens onto the elastic at the end of each row. That gives me 6 more “slots” for pens… which I’ve already filled. But it’s not practical. I can really only get away with it because I don’t take that case with me anywhere.
I suppose another option is to choose the rotation group by MSRP, rather than price paid. That moves 5 pens to the more expensive category — and pen case — that still has 24 open slots. If I lower the cut-off threshold by $50, I can move 11 pens.
But, both of those solutions feel like just slapping a Band-Aid on it.
Feelings
Somehow, outgrowing my less expensive case seems more momentous than previous case fills. I don’t know why. And I’m going to have the same problem with the indie-made case soon.
This instance is really making me question the size of my pen collection. For the first time, I feel like I need to sell some pens to make space for ones I may want to get in the future.
Wish me luck in figuring out out why this instance has hit me so much harder and exactly what I want/need to do about it.
Have you outgrown pen cases? Did doing so ever hit you hard, or did you take it in stride? Let me know in the comments! I’d love to hear from you.
Thanks for reading to the end, I hope you enjoyed my post. Make sure to subscribe to my blog or follow me on Instagram so you don’t miss any posts. I generally post at least once a week.
