My First Mini..

Well after a long long wait... my Filofax Finchley Mini arrived from Yvotchka in the USA. We did a straight swap, a Pocket for a Mini. I must say I'm very pleased with the swap, thank you Yvotchka. The parcel got held up somewhere in the middle of the Christmas/Poor weather postal delays, but it made it here undamaged, including the dollar bill inside the wallet pocket!

Red is certainly a new colour for me, but I quite like it and I would certainly consider others in this colour in future.

So why a Mini... well in the same way that I bought the A4 Classic late last year, I felt I needed or should I say I would like to have at least one of every size of Filofax organiser, just so that I had at least one of each size. So when I write about them I am doing it from a position that I actually have one. A feeble excuse I realise, but a good enough one I think you will agree!

When I sat looking at it this morning over breakfast my first thought was... travelling salesman. Back in the day, furniture salesmen would travel the country with miniatures of the wooden furniture their companies sold. These models wouldn't look out of place in a dolls house. However, in the case of the Mini Filofax it's a fully fledged Filofax, just small in size. If you were a travelling salesman for Filofax, the Mini size would be great to show the design of all the different styles for the whole range! The Mini Finchley has the same detail and quality as its big brothers (or sisters) from Mini through the sizes to A5.

As with the Pocket size I use on a daily basis, you have to pick and choose the contents very carefully so you don't overload the organiser. Yvotchka kindly sent me a large variety of inserts all in cotton cream, which is delicious. During one of my recent UK visits I managed to pick up some (cheap) WHS inserts for the Mini including a one week per page diary refill, which to be honest doesn't do the Finchley justice, it deserves the extra extravagance of cotton cream or at least a Filofax plain white diary insert (added to my shopping list).

Here it is next to its big brother the Chameleon Pocket.

The Mini size will fit in your jeans back pocket easily, where as the Pocket size once 'fully' loaded is a bit of a squeeze. However, be careful to remove it before you sit down... I suspect the ring mechanism could very easily get bent.

One size issue that would stop me from using the Mini as my Wallet/Organiser, because of its small size it can't carry my UK passport. I have to carry my passport everywhere here in France for id purposes. The UK passport does fit in to my Pocket.

Apart from that, the Mini would make a very compact wallet/organiser with enough room for shopping lists, a reduced diary so if you bump in to a friend you can arrange coffee or lunch together. You could also have a few notes pages for the clothing size details of your children etc.

I might use the Mini as my car Filofax, I've got my new car on order and I think it deserves a smart organiser to keep fuel records and translated details of the owners manual in it to hand.

Here is the Mini pretending to be a postage stamp on my A4 Classic!

And finally here is is playing king of the castle from Mini down to A4 calling at all sizes in between.

Again my thanks to Yvotchka for agreeing to do the swap for the 'Pink Heart' Pocket.