5 Reasons You Should Try a Dutch Door in Your Bullet Journal

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Just a quick introduction

I was lucky enough to have Sarah of Stationary Magpie contribute this wonderful post to Planning with Maggie Rae this week. And I’m super excited about it. She loves a Dutch Door in her journal.

And I am guilty of never trying one.

But if you’ve thought about experimenting with a Dutch Door this post is for you so without further ado.

5 Reasons You Should Try a Dutch Door in Your Bullet Journal

In our daily lives we often find our preferred way of doing things and for ease and obviously because it works for us we stick to it. But sometimes it can be a good idea to mix things up a bit and try something a bit differently. This was my thinking when I decided to challenge myself to use a dutch door in each monthly spread throughout my whole new bullet journal. 

What is a Dutch Door?

A dutch door is basically a flap that you cut(!) into your journal. It can be a little scary to actually take something sharp to your precious journal. You need to cut some of the page off to create an extra mini page in your journal and this can open up a lot of new spread possibilities. 

So far I’m 4 months into my dutch door experiment and have used a different style of dutch door every month. You could say I’m a dutch door convert so in this post I’m going to try and convince you why you should also consider adding a dutch door into your journal.

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1. Try Something New & Be Brave

My first reason can be applied to anything but one of my biggest life mantras is to always be open to trying something new. At the end of the day if you decide it’s not for you then great but you will never know if you haven’t tried it! Plus you might think that just cutting a piece of paper isn’t brave but this is your journal! We treat these things like our babies. Imagine if you can convince yourself to cut into it!? Is that bravery? For me it is!

2. Refresh your Journal Style

I know how easy it is to get in a rut with a style. You just need to flick through my last bullet journal to see that every single weekly spread is exactly the same. There isn’t anything wrong with that but I noticed that even though I thought that was the style best suited to me I wasn’t always using all of the space.

A refresh can really help you fall in love with bullet journaling again and get you out of a rut. A dutch door is a very different technique that requires some thought when creating it so it’s a great way to force a refresh!

3. Create More Space

Using a dutch door can actually create space in your bullet journal spreads. If you find that you’re cramping your weekly or monthly spreads into two pages and you need a bit more to work with then add doors for your dailies that leave space for you to see your goals and tasks for the whole week.

4. Split up the Different Spheres of Your Life

The main reason that I’ve started using a dutch door and in most months the main function of my dutch door is to split up my personal life and all of my blog schedule. You might want to keep a whole separate journal dedicated to the different parts of your life but for me setting up two different journals is just too much work and I want to see everything in one place.

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5. Get Creative

There isn’t just one type of dutch door. You can get really creative with your style of door. My July monthly dutch door is literally half an avocado! I’ve seen so many beautiful styles of dutch door like cut out flowers just to add some beauty inside your journal. You can also tie it into your monthly theme to add an extra dimension to your doodles.

How to Get Started with Dutch Doors

Dutch doors are actually a lot simpler to create than you might anticipate. The hardest bit is plucking up the courage to cut into your journal knowing that it isn’t reversible! If you want a more in depth guide to creating dutch doors and a simple tutorial check out my blog post back on Stationery Magpie. 

About the Writer

Sarah runs the blog Stationery Magpie where she posts all about stationery, bullet journaling and productivity. Her day job is teaching English in sunny Mexcio although she’s from the UK. You can follow her on Instagram to get a peek inside her bullet journal or sign up to her newsletter to get information about new blog happenings and a monthly offers email with amazing deals and discounts on stationery!