Did you miss me?

'cause i missed you!!

I haven't written in a long time (or what feels like a lot time) and there's lots i didn't tell you!

First of all, I am now all moved in my first Personal Filofax!! I bought it on Philofaxy AdSpot from SewSaffy at the end of 2012. Let me tell you guys, if you see something she sells that you might like, don't hesitate to buy from her. She was super nice about everything, quick to answer, sent me a bunch of very accurate pictures, sent the binder very quickly (with extra goodies!!!!), but was also just nice and took the time to explain me a lot about sewing and to recommend some books i might like, and to chat with me. So when her binder got here, i really wanted to like it, only because she had been so nice!
By the way, it's a Personal Finsbury, in GREEN! me so happy :)
You might remember how reserved i was about using a personal. I was afraid the "weird" page size would feel all wrong to me. Well, far from it! I got used to this new size very quickly, i love the fact that my bags are MUCH lighter now, and i just got into the habit of taking the page out of the binder when i need to write a lot. I love love love it, and feel perfectly comfortable in that size!
I just moved in with the same set-up i had in my A5, and starting from there, I'm still adapting and changing things. I can't say if the following set-up is gonna be my set-up for 2013, because I think the fun in a Filofax is that you can change it up whenever you need, right? But so far, here's what i have:

• first up, my wallet section : cards in the card slots, IDs in the bigger pocket, and, on the ring, a zip pocket for my money and behind it, more card slots
• first section is the diary: i started with cheap inserts from Hema (you can sort of see them here), and when i got used to the format, i designed my pages. I'll show them in a later post!
• next i have a Notes section : list of meal ideas, menu plans, a list of things i want to buy but want to think about before, list of things to knit, and so on...
• then i have my Projects : i took the current projects from the A5 and copied the interesting pages to Personal paper, right now it's mainly house stuff, summer vacation plans, and job searching (again, i know....)
• finally, my Information: log ins, health info, some important addresses and phone numbers, log ins for work and so on.

The binder is not too full, which is great, but i still feel there's info in there that i don't really need, so it's still a work in progress!
So now you know what i'm using this year :)

Storage of past diaries/pages

i know this topic has been discussed many times, among filofaxers on their blogs, in Philofaxy's Free for all's, on twitter, in real life... but since it's been on my mind a lot lately i'm touching on it again.
before i used a Filofax, i mainly used bound diaries (such as the Moleskines). i have always kept them, since i was ten! at the moment they're all in a cupboard, organized by date, at my parents' (wish i had a picture to share though!). i have now been using a Filofax consistently since last september, and i've changed binders once already, so i'm getting to the point where i need to archive some pages.

-my first idea: using other binders to sort the pages
considering how expensive the Filofax storage binders are, i bought a cheap pocket binder and a cheap A5 (a pink Finsbury off ebay for that one) and thought i would use them to store blank pages and past diaries. how very stupid of me. these binders are the same size as the ones i use, right? once i've filled them with 3-4 months worth of past diary, as much of blank calendar pages (for months to come), and a few blank inserts (lined paper, finance pages...), they're done. very pretty way to store, not so efficient though.

-my second idea: buying cute boxes
i've looked for boxes roughly the size of my inserts for months, no luck. my binders never came with the famous black box, so i couldn't use that. when i use bigger boxes, i lose too much storage space, and if i put other things in the box, the pages get all wrinkly. also, i want to keep easy access to past pages, and in this case it was hard to go through the pages in chronological order, they were not ordered...
which leads me to...

-my third idea: binding the pages together with ribbon or big clips
thanks to Crazy Suburban Mom for the clips idea, and a discussion with Sew Saffy for the ribbon one! she even adds a cardboard cover and back, which i think is a very good idea, must protect the pages very well. so i'll do that i think, and then just put the different 'packets' into a pretty box (whatever its size now!)

i feel rather stupid it took me so long to understand this would be the best idea, because, well it's pretty simple!
and what i love about it is that i'll be able to do a small stack if i want to have for instance only my job searching notes, and another stack for my distance learning notes, and a bigger stack for a year worth of inserts, and so on. really lovely idea! i'm sure i'll share some pictures when i'm done, especially if i do pretty covers like Sew Saffy suggested. right now i'm gathering supplies :)


how do you stock past pages? do you throw them away? i thought about scanning them and throwing them after, just storing them digitally; do you do that?

Organization : home

As you may remember, we have just move into a new country. That meant we had a perfect opportunity to go through all the paperwork we accumulated over the past few years, and to set up a new system.
I went for something super simple, so I'm not sure it's any interest for you guys, but since it's working so well for me I thought, even if it only helps one reader, it was still good to describe it :)
I first divided everything in different categories : home (which contains rent information, insurance, appliances instructions booklets,...), car, bank, work (contracts, pay slips...), electricity, phones, etc.
I created an 'archive' binder for each category, which contains past years of data that I still need to keep (check online, but in my country you're supposed to keep the past 5 years for almost everything).
All these binders, I'm lucky enough to be able to store them in our basement, which is perfect : easily reachable should I need them, but not in the middle distracting me from every day business. In the past, having to pick up a huge and heavy binder just to put in the last bank statement for instance, meant I would wait 3-4 months to do it...
For all the current business, the past 6 months of statements and such, I bought a file for each of my categories. I haven't talked about it yet, but you know me, everything is color-coded :) So my Home archive binder is yellow, and the smaller file I keep upstairs is yellow too. These files are easy to grab, to identify, they make it easy to check something or file away something you just received in the mail. It's also very easy to take whatever is old enough (usually the back of the file) and archive it in the binder.
For whatever I have that need action, I leave it out on the counter and do it ASAP. It's the only way it's ever going to get done anyway...