A little bit of history

In February 2016, when I started this blog, I'd already collected quite a few planners.

From left to right there is:-

1. a Kindle cover (not a planner)

2. A cheap, yellow planner from China which was advertised as leather on Ebay but was actually PU leather which, when I looked it up, is man made.

PU (Poly) Synthetic Leather is a man made material that will represent the look and feel of Genuine Leather but in fact is NOT. This PU material is far less durable, considerably cheaper in cost, and may not last long if used often.

4. A brown, personal Hamilton, which I purchased from a Charity Shop. This planner has now been sold as I found it a totally different style and feel to the newer planners.

5. A personal Classic Cross Filofax, which was my second planner and first Filofax, bought at a discount price from WHS.

6. A lime, personal Piazza Filofax. I just liked the colour of this one and when it arrived from Ebay it was lovely to touch, had a wonderful colour and smelt divine.

7. A red personal Piazza Filofax - having already purchased a citrus green I decided another of this style would be in order. I felt a collection was coming on!

8. A fuchsia, A5 Original patent Filofax. The collection was definitely coming on as I fell in love with this A5, all in the name of research of course. Would the A5 offer different possibilities for planning? Could it be easier to use?

9. A black zipped planner which was the start of this planner adventure, purchased from the Charity Shop way back in 2013.

10. A black A4 Finsbury Filofax, which added another size and more possibilities for recording and planning.

Since then I have acquired more planners on my Filofax adventuring. It looks like an addiction to me.

Happy Planning

Personal Malden update

I've transferred my diary to the new Personal Malden in ochre just to use up the Filofax pages that came with it. I think I prefer my own design of page but I'm not going to waste these Cotton Cream ones.

I've added a dingle dangle just for decoration - it's an old ear-ring of DD's. The brown base matches the brown of the Malden.

No dividers are decorated as I thought I'd use this planner as/is.

Behind number 1 is the year at a glance. I can soon mark of March - how quickly the months go.

There are the monthly pages behind which are just 'use up' pages from another planner. I've found the list view quite adequate for my needs. I'll keep all these monthly pages and chuck the dailies so I make sure I mark in any important things that have happened at the end of the day.

Also in this Months section is a tracker of my spends in various shops. I've some space left so I may track other things as well. I know I'm drinking enough water so I don't need to track that. Any habits I want to get into I shall note down here and the first one is going to be - no chocolate tracking!

Behind tab 2 ...

is a To Do! Again this page is a re-use of an old diary page with the days crossed out with tape.

This master To Do List can be fed into any of the days on the following pages. I've enough space to write on these Week on Two Pages so I don't really need a daily page. I was finding that I was just writing for the sake of filling up the spaces on the other pages. This way I'm not wasting paper.

The other sections are not in use at the moment. Other information and planning is stored elsewhere.

I've sold one planner (the Hamilton) and am in the process of selling my Personal Classic Cross (which was my first Filofax and recently housed my Christmas planning) and Pocket Cross Filofaxes. They have to make room for (and pay for) an A5 that I just had to have.

A change is as good as a rest.

Happy Planning

A-Z in a Filofax

I've added to my A-Z sections in my personal Brown Hamilton.

Under B

Baby

Bedroom Cleaning

Birthday Cards - to make and to be made

Blood Pressure

D

Dining Room Cleaning

E

Emergency Numbers

H

Hairdresser Appointments

K

Kitchen Cleaning

M

Master Grocery List

Meter Readings

Music Jobs

W

Weight

Happy Valentine's Day and Happy Planning

Brown Personal Hamilton

This Filofax was a chance find in a Charity Shop. It was priced £2.50 and was hidden among other small zipped bath bags, phone covers and small handbags. It's a brown Personal Hamilton and is definitely the most masculine of my collection, being an official looking colour suited to an office worker and professional rather than a girly, eye-catching colour. (Am I being sexist here?) It appealed to me because:-

a. it was a Filofax

b. it was leather

c. it was a bargain

d. it looked unloved

I jazzed it up slightly on the inside with sticky notes (I've noticed that one has to mention sticky notes when enthusing over an organiser), page flags (I have to mention those as well) and Washi tape cards (cheapy little strips from Japan bought on Ebay).

I'm not using this for credit cards - 

- but for my Filofax A-Z lists. My dividers came from the CS, bought for 50p and I scoured the Internet as to what to do with them. They add more bright colour to lift the dull brown. Many Filofax addicts have a surfeit of A-Z dividers but few know what to do with them. By far the most popular way of using them (apart from addresses) was to have an A-Z file. The problem starts there, though, as few people know what to keep in each section.

I let the dividers sit for a while and then off loaded all the things I wanted to record, list and log into the different sections.

Here's what I've filed so far -

A- Authors. I generally read a book and don't care who the author is so I thought I'd make a list of authors of books that I really enjoyed reading so that I could look out for more of their books.

B- Books I've read and Books recommended by other people, Baby, Bedroom Cleaning, Birthday Cards, Blood Pressure

C- Car details, Christmas Ideas, Crochet, CPR

D- Contact numbers of Dancers (another hobby), Dining Room Cleaning

E- Emergency

F- Filofax details, Finance (money spent)

G- Garden log

H- Health, Hairdresser

I- Ideas

J- Jobs that need to be done around the house

K- Kitchen cupboards (what's in them), Kitchen Cleaning

L- Lent - what we've lent to other people and the date so we don't forget, Loose Ends - a list of small things that can be done with no urgency

M- Medical log, House Maintenance log, Map (Where else would you put the Filofax map?), Master Grocery List, Meter Readings, Music Jobs

N- Needle list for knitting and crochet

O- Oven timer - how to set (I always forget.)

P- Packing list for holidays, Passwords

Q-

R- Routines - daily, weekly, yearly

S- details of my Singer sewing machines, Sayings

T-

U-

V-

W- Words (unusual), Weight

Y-

Z-

There are only a few gaps and I'm sure I will be able to fill them sometime. As always Filofaxes are very fluid affairs where the set-ups can be changed regularly.

The back of the Hamilton has a zipped pocket, indicated by the card. I don't keep anything in there.

Here's the back with another little hiding place. I find that if I put anything in a hiding place I'll forget it's there.

Happy Planning!

* Added later