I’m so glad Margana described her fountain pen cleaning routine at Inkophile last week, cause it’s something I’ve been wondering about ever since I ditched the plain blue cartridge that came with my Phileas and filled it up with Bleu nuit.

Now, I’m a creature of habit, and Bleu nuit suits most of my writing needs just fine—it’s pretty and unobtrusive, and it takes great to my Clairefontaine work notebooks and my personal Habana journal. But I find myself staring wistfully at the other bottles of ink that would serve those purposes, too: the exquisitely named Pousierre de lune and Cacao du Bresil, which both seem like they’d be right at home in the taupe Habana Karen sent me recently, or Terre de feu… All attractive, subtle shades that could lend a bit more flavor to my everyday activities.

Of course, at the moment, I only have a single fountain pen, and since I haven’t yet been foresightful enough to clean it at night (and thus give it enough time to dry before refilling) or patient enough to commit to going without it for a day (and accomplish the same thing), inertia runs high. I’m in awe of our ink reviewers, who take so much time and care as they test different shades with different pens and paper!

Personally, though, I think my low-maintenance (read: lazy) ideal would be to have 3 or 4 “everyday” pens that more or less have specific colors living in them—and I love Margana’s idea of using the change of seasons as an excuse to rotate the shades—and use my glass pen to experiment with crazier hues. I guess that’s why a lot of seasoned FP users refer to this as an addictive habit… I can totally see myself adding new colors to the “everyday” list as time goes on, and thereby justifying a new pen purchase.

What’s your pen routine? How many pens do you own/use regularly, and how many kinds of ink?