Plastic wallet hack

Since I've upsized to the A5 size from personal, I've been thinking about how I can use my filo a bit differently now that I have the extra space. Whilst clearing out old paperwork, I wanted to find a way to quickly add A4 sheets of paper in without needing to hole punch them. I had a look at the Filofax top opening envelope online, but it didn't look like it would hold enough.

I came across a pack of plastic popper wallets whilst browsing the stationery aisle of the supermarket before my weekly shop (as you do), and they were too much of a bargain to resist at the reduced price of 49p!
So, one wet and windy Saturday, I set to work with the following:

I'm a great fan of popper wallets for my Getting Things Done system, but I hoped I could remove the popper itself as I didn't want the extra bulk or the lump in my Malden. Off I trundled into our bathroom with my pliers and the pink wallet, to see if I could break or prise them off. Please be warned if you attempt this; I did it over the bath as when I managed to break off the popper, there were little bits of the plastic pinging off here and there!

I was then left with the wallet without both parts of the popper and a bit of an ugly hole showing on the top one. Looking through my stationery stash, I realised that I used up the last of my stickers years ago, but the universe was listening as I was recently sent some by the lovely Tracy.

My KW Trio hole punch coped perfectly with punching through the plastic, and the wallet itself is large enough to hold A4 pieces of paper folded in half with space for the holes on the edge. It fits nicely in and can be easily turned on the rings. The flap can either be tucked in or left on top, and the weight of the other inserts and paper keeps it shut anyway.

Once I've finished working through the current papers held in the wallet, I might use it for storing project support materials. I'm finding that it doesn't add too much bulk with the 30mm rings of the Malden, and overall I'm very pleased with this cheap way to add extra capacity and storage.