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29 October 2014

The Collection

Once upon a time a man had a big collection of organisers... he had so many he didn't quite know how he had got so many and why he had so many....

That would be sort of funny if it was just a story.... but there is an element of truth in it... somewhere!

I am frequently asked 'So what does your collection actually look like Steve'...

Well in May 2009 it looked like this:


That's right just three... two Finsburys (A5 and Pocket) and my original Winchester from 1986...

By the end of April 2011 almost 2 years later it had grown to this:


Starting at the bottom working upwards, A4 Classic, two A5s, two personals, the Winchester of course, a slimline, two pockets and a mini.

Remember in May 2010 I had moved to France and I was now blogging full-time, that is where things got sort of out of hand... !

By May 2012 I had got a bit of a soft spot for the Malden model...


Moving forward to 2013, things had got so crazy that I had several attempts to take photos of the complete collection, but none of them were that good, but after a lot of mistakes and a lot of trial and error I managed to take a photo of all of them:


So having worked out how to take this picture, which is in fact 4-5 photos stitched together in software, I was content that I could repeat the exercise in future.

Get to 2014 and I needed a spreadsheet to remember what I had got or hadn't got! The photo taken above in 2013 was done when my dear (understanding) wife was in UK... and the opportunity arose this last weekend for me to attempt to photograph the collection again whilst she was in UK.

You will see what I mean that it takes quite a bit of organisation. Our normal dining table starts off like this:


But becomes a little chaotic once I've brought them all upstairs from the office in our sub-basement


I then start to put them in to a sort of size order on our garden bench outside, last year they fitted easily... err not so easily this year!

I started off by putting the pockets and other smaller sizes in front of the others.


That didn't look quite right, so I removed the non-Filofax brand ones, all 7 of them!


They are from left to right, DeVilliers, Launer, Van der Spek, Second Thousand (VdS) Gillio Mia Cara, Van der Spek Standard, Gillio Medium Amica

So then I had a little bit of a rearrangement and adjustment, getting them to stay up right isn't easy, because the white board you can see behind the organisers isn't the full length of the bench it gets moved around as the camera is panned through the 5 photos (letting out all my secrets here!) and I eventually managed to squeeze them all in...


And to save you counting... there's 45 there in total.. eek!

Why so many? Shouldn't you consider getting rid of some? Do you use them all?

Yes I have had all these questions. firstly the ones not in daily use do all fit in to my assigned cupboard in the office.


My intention is that they will never get more than can fit in to this cupboard. There's a little scope for a few extra ones! But there is also some scope for one or two to find some new homes.

But why so many? Well if I wasn't writing about them on a daily/weekly basis then certainly I wouldn't need anything like the number I have. I've found that having a range of models allows me to do more accurate comparisons to new models when I get them for review.

I don't keep all of the review samples or the ones sent to me... goodness if I had I would need two cupboards! I have my favourites of course, ones I love using, ones I'm very fond of because of their design or how they were obtained and I would find it difficult to sell/giveaway some of these extra special ones.

Dare I mention... there's another one about to join the collection... another Van der Spek! And of course you will get to see that one when it arrives. And the dining table is back to being tidy again... just in time for Alison to arrive home again today... you won't say anything will you....

20 comments:

  1. Wow, just wow! I don't think my collection would grow as big as yours (I'm trying to be disciplined) but I already have 3 Filofaxes in less than 2 months. It's a crazy, crazy addiction :-)

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  2. Dear Steve,

    When does Filofax start advertising their new models of the year? I have 3 planners, though none as fancy as a Filofax. The Filofaxes no longer in circulation (ie. Metropol, Finsbury, and Bloomsbury) are the ones that catch my eye. I think that the 2 pen loops are the feature that I am attracted to the most (aside of construction and material). A variety of writing instruments and colors is necessary in my planning!
    Thank you for bringing your knowledge to the rest of the planners out there. I am planning on a Filofax in the near future as soon as I find the perfect one for me. It seems the adult thing to do.
    Jennifer

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  3. Hehehe,just like me : They have to fit into my cupboard :-D

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  4. Wooowww! I wish i can also manage to collect even just a quarter of your collection! Wonderful!=)

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  5. Steve I do believe this is your best post to date.. of course we won't spill the beans as it were..... I wonder how much our silence is worth LOL with a sprinkle of ROFL ......

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  6. Well this morning I've taken delivery of a lovely brown, slimline Amazona courtesy of our friends at the Agendashop, which brings my total to 5, and after reading your article my guilt has suddenly disappeared. Thank you Steve, and good on ya...

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  7. Dear reader: are you a Filofax addict? Do you have more Filofax than you're willing to admit? Are you constantly running out of storage space? I'm here to help. Send them all to me and I'll take care of the rest.

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  8. So if I am able to do the same as you and remove my non Filofax planners then I only have 7 total. But the three shelves (soon to be four) that I house them all on clearly show that I have more like 40+ planners. In my defense though I hardly ever pay full retail as most of my collection has been bought off of eBay and thrift stores :)

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  9. This makes me feel quite.... lacking :)

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  10. While reading this, I felt SO much better about my little collection. Then I went and counted...I wouldn't admit this anywhere but here (no one else "gets" it)...I have 23 Filofaxes, 4 other brands, 7 non-ringed for a total of 34. All purchased since I got hooked on Philofaxy! And then there are the 4 Fauxdori ones that I recently made. At least YOU have a good excuse...

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  11. This is splendid! And sssssh, we haven't seen you! I don't know how many binders I have - maybe 20 or 25 - but I don't want to get rid of any. They make me happy, particularly the ones I have bought recently from Akiko. And I have ordered my first VDS ...

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  12. Oh Steve, I have to agree with the others that this has to be on of your greatest posts! I am grateful for your honesty about your collection; I don't feel so guilty about my own now :-) It is indeed an infectious hobby. Congratulations to you and I look forward to seeing an update of your collection this time next year :-)

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  13. Wow, thank you for sharing your amazing collection, Steve! I'm guessing you won't be bringing them all along to the London meet up...
    Do you have any favourites?

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  14. What a beautiful collection!

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  15. At least you have some reason for having so many... I just became obsessed :-D

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  16. Wow!! Just a cornucopia of colour. Ermm, *cough* if you ever want to sell your brandy coloured A5 VDS, let me know... she says half in jest!!! I must say, there is something about the Launer one that looks just divine. Not my size, but something about it makes me go ohhhh.... now that is divine. Yep, call me an odd bod!!!

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  17. What, no Franklin Covey? How are you gonna practice the Seven Habits?

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    1. I live in Europe so not common over here :)

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  18. Fantastic post! How on earth do you decide which one to use?

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    1. At the moment I'm mainly using my Van der Spek organisers as the two main ones. But I use others in the collection for things other than planning.

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