Choosing a size

I hate seeing the words on organiser adverts ‘This size isn’t working for me’ often coupled with ‘I only just got this in the mail last week’ or similar…. If you are in any of the planner sales groups, I’m sure you will have seen something similar any week of the year. 

You will have heard me make this suggestion many many times, so often you can most probably repeat it to yourself before you even read it… 

“Test out the different sizes with just plain cut paper before you invest in any planner/organiser. “

I will admit there is a little more to it than that. For example if we take Personal Size, because it is a very popular size. The range of organiser sizes is one of the broadest available if you include some of the older models. 

The ring sizes varies from as miniature as 11mm up to 30mm and may be some factionally bigger than that even. 

 

At the small ‘Slim’ end of things, you have a very slim organiser minus a pen loop and clasp that will easily slip in to an inside pocket of a gents suit jacket pocket virtually un-noticed.

Contrast that with the larger ring organisers, which you would struggle to ‘slip in to any pocket’ and you have quite a difference. They are more suited to going in to your briefcase more likely these days a backpack or messenger bag. 

The main difference between these extremes is of course how many pages the rings will hold. Part of your testing will have to include how many pages you will be carrying at any one time. However, you also need to take in to account what else you want to carry in your organiser? ‘Everything including the kitchen sink’ !!! Well not quite!

The slimmer organisers tend not to have many pockets, compared to say the Moterm Versa or Gillio Mia Cara that have an ‘outer jacket’ that has a lot of different pockets separate to the organiser section, which thankfully can be used on its own. 

Naturally in between these extremes we have the peak of the Gaussian distribution curve where most of the brands/models have the bulk of their range. These tend to be the happy medium between the slim and the fat ends of the spectrum. If you include the ‘Compact’ sizes they have some of the advantages of normal personal size and slimline size but with slightly bigger rings. 

All in all there will be an organiser for everyone in most page sizes, although some page sizes can be a little bit limited in choice.   

And in case you are interested the Personal Size organisers used in the photograph above are, in order from left to right:

• Filofax 3CL (11mm rings)
• DeVilliers Compact (15mm rings)
• Filofax Kensington (23mm rings)
• Filofax Malden (23mm rings)
• Launer (30mm rings)
• Moterm Versa (30mm rings)

What is your happy size?