Re-purposing old or out of date Calendar and Address Filofax pages

Firstly those multiplying diary pages. I recently bought a Filofax mini Finsbury which came with 2011 diary pages. I was about to relegate these to the scrap paper folder when I had a thought. I wonder when this yearly diary will come round again with the same days and dates. I compared it with my 2016 diary pages and was excited to note that the days and dates were exactly the same so I altered 2011 to 2016 with a black pen and now have an up to date diary in my mini. This made me think which other years were identical in days and dates so I looked it up on the great net and found this site.

Now that was funny, why wasn't 2011 exactly the same as 2016? The answer was that in between there are leap years. I was comparing the calendars in March when the days and dates lined up. If I compared them in January or February they wouldn't line up so my 2011 to 2016 calendars only match from March onwards. Not to worry, if I'd started in January I would have only had to alter 2 months of dates.

My easy answer for matching calendars is to just add 5 on to your old calendar year. The answer will give you a year that is compatible from March onwards or, if you want to be exact, go to the calendar matching site but here you could wait quite a while before your old calendar comes around again.

My easy answer is a compromise but would work if you are not too fussy.

eg.

1999 - 2004 - 2009 - 2013 - 2018

simple and no more throwing away old calendar pages.

Next those calendar pages or other pages of which you have no need. My answer to this is Washi tape. I'm not into decorating but if it saves wasting paper then I'm in. 

Below is a weekly page with the lettering just covered over in tape.

I made a To Do page using this method.

Here's an address page (These pages multiply like nobody's business.) 

which I've taped and white stickered over to make a Notes page.

There is hope for your old pages so give them a new lease of life and help avoid waste. Eventually these pages, once used and written over will either be archived or recycled in the compost or council paper waste.

Happy Planning

Filofax Personal Piazza

The personal Piazza was another buy from Ebay and housed my daily planning and diary for a time. The colour - citrus green brightens up the day and I chose this one to house my January, February and March pages. 

When a different colour just happened my way I thought that it was just the colour for some spring months so ...

April, May, June lilac Piazza was set up.

The red one was a given for October, November and December.

All plans went awry when I purchased my ochre Malden as I thought that would be the colour for my Autumn pages. I liked it so much that I started using it straight away as my daily planner. System number 1 went out of the window and I'm using the Filofax diary pages that came with the Malden. So now the green Piazza houses months that have gone by.

And the red Piazza houses my Christmas Planning pages.

The lilac Piazza is just resting at the moment but who knows, I may change my mind yet again.

Should I keep a look out for an Autumn coloured Piazza?

Should I just use the Malden? The system (Number 2) I've got at the moment is working for me really well.

Oh the dilemma? I'm really enjoying this Filofax journey but I have to keep selling other items on Ebay to be able to fund this adventure!

Happy Planning

New month dividers - April

My personal April divider made from glittery card, a few stickers and a verse from a poem.

My A5 April divider made from last year's calendar pictures.

Here are the previous ones -

Happy Planning

Personal Burgundy Classic Cross

By November 2014 I had acquired a second Filofax - a personal Classic Cross in burgundy, a wonderful rich red colour.

Here's a blog post from that time about how I then started to use planner number one plus this Classic (number 2).

Here's a quick tour of Filofax 1.

My tabs in this organiser are:-

House

Action

Ideas

Information

Passwords

and

Addresses.

This organiser is simply a reference section for my daily diary.

The house section is divided into:-

Month

Week

Food

Rooms

Finance

The Monthly pages have sticky notes with my intentions for that particular month. These goals can be fed into my daily pages so I am motivated to 'get things done'.

In the Weekly pages is an overview of suggested tasks for the day which basically boils down to -

* necessary as and when tasks - vacuum, laundry, dishwasher stack and empty etc

* suggested daily tasks to clean one toilet, one sink and vacuum one room with a choice of either cleaning a shelf, cupboard, drawer, skirting board or picture rail (which I've called swing tasks). I also aim to focus on a very quick overview and tidy of one room each day. The theory is that I'll have sparkling loos and sinks all the time and over time all my cupboards and drawers will be sorted and kept in order. :}

The food pages are just a log of freezer and cupboards so I'll use everything I buy.

On the rooms pages I've listed parts of the room to clean and these can be ticked off when I've done them. Once they're all ticked I'll either add to the list or 'go round again'. These pages feed in to the weekly task routine.

The finance pages just keep a log of supermarket shops and cash expenditure.

On the action pages I've listed jobs that could be done under different headings e.g.. Garden, Christmas, Music, Miscellaneous. Again these tasks can be chosen to be done on different days as and when I have time and inclination. It's very satisfying to tick off a task. (Sad, sad)

Also in the Action pages is a list of birthdays and cards that need to be made along with ...

… further pages detailing the tasks for the run up to Christmas and pages for lists of presents and cards received and sent.

My Diary Filofax (number 2) contains a monthly page view where I mark in birthdays, anniversaries, important dates and notes plus '2 page' weekly spreads. On each day I have my Daily tasks listed plus one or more other tasks which will fit in with the day.

Here's an example of a week that I've made up. Daily tasks are done from Monday to Friday, appointments written in and any other relevant jottings added. I've also put a quote at the top and the rooms I should concentrate on to get tidy.

I've made a handy 'puller outer' on to which I am able to stick a shopping list which I'll then take on my next shop.

My bullet notebook has fed in well into my routine and so far all 3 organisers are working well with the house reasonably tidy and clean. I've been able to remember (or been reminded to remember) things and am able to capture thoughts and ideas as soon as they occur.

I hope it all lasts!

Since then the burgundy planner went on to become a Christmas Planner, housing the run-up to Christmas from November to December. Perhaps that set-up is for another post.

Happy Planning

My First Planner

My very first planner was not a Filofax but a black, zipped, Microfile. It is the same size as a personal and the rings are the same size too.

Let's start at the very beginning way back in December 2013 when one of my New Year's Resolutions was to:-

"write down, record and plan in the hopes that these jottings will enable me to be more organised.

Mind you, I don't particularly like being too organised as I enjoy 'going with the flow' which is much more spontaneous, inspiring and creative."

The black zipped planner was my first ever planner purchase, from the Charity Shop. This planner got me started on the whole planner experience and is really the one to blame for my Filofax Journey. I made it my personal planner and crafted dividers and inserts to fit it. Here's a blog post I did back in January 2014 about this planner.

"My goodness, there are a host of people out there who rave over these organisers and even put videos on Youtube to show you how they use theirs! (I have not done a video and this is only an overview of what I've got and how I've used it so far.)

Being a 'saver of the earth' my organiser is new to me and came from the CS. It's a microfile wallet with filofax inserts.

Hey, hey, handy zipped wallet.

Hey, hey again - handy calculator. I don't know what I'll keep in the little pockets. Advice welcome.

First off are pages of months so I have used these to note down birthdays.

Following these are diary pages. If you look closely the year starts with 19__,  and there are no dates so I've had to go through and write them in. I've shown you the pages I've labelled correctly!

There are some timetable pages and I've used these to put in dates for dancing, jollies and gym.

There's a section for notes ...

and some handy little post-it notes.

The next sections are different ruled papers - white lined,

squared,

pink lined

and blue lined. On these lined papers I have notes about freezer contents, the money I've spent, the Christmas card list and cards I have to make.

I don't think I'll put addresses in as I have these elsewhere.

I like this Action section and I can have the joy of crossing out tasks achieved (if I achieve any).

At the end of the organiser is another book of notes which I may use for shopping lists.

There's my tour. Hope I've not bored you to tears and if anybody out there has other uses for the pages please share. My NYR is to keep organised and I want this to help not hinder me.

xx

Edit : After watching a few Ytube videos I've now personalised my organiser and brightened it up a bit with colour coded felt tips - e.g. green dots for no spend days, purple for birthdays. I've made some month at a glance inserts and added some colourful address cards. I've also made better dividers so I can find each section easily and I've crocheted a dangly page marker in sparkly wool.

Oh dear!"

Since that post my black planner now has another use but that's another story.