Thanks very much again to Paul for this tenth instalment of his wonderful guest post series. You can find all of the 'Filofhax' posts here.
Flatability's Filofax pen hack
Neil from Flatability has done it again with his latest innovation - housing a collection of pens in the body of a Filofax by utilising the often redundant credit card pockets. His hack appealed to me, as I never really used the credit card slots in my Cavendish so gave it a try, slitting the pocket fabric with a craft knife to allow the pens to fill the depth of one pocket.
So far so good, I'm not longer restricted to the two pens, I can now accommodate six or even seven within the binder rather than having to fish about in bags etc. If you're not too squeamish about cutting your Filofax; why not give it a try?
Thanks to Neil for kindly sharing another of his innovations, check out his video here.
I’m not squeamish about cutting my Filofaxes at all! I cut the pen loop out of my Lockwood pocket slim and I superglued the yellow notepad in the back flap of my personal heritage. Our planners should accommodate us any way we see fit. Love the pen idea in the card slots.
ReplyDeletesacrilege!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this, Paul & looks great!
ReplyDeleteAnd a big thanks to Neil for this excellent idea 😊
The horror of cutting up my Filofax that I spent good money on just to fit some pens. It's NOT such a hassle to carry an pencil bag/case. Pen clipped to the card slots is another option without any slicing.
ReplyDeleteI'm not at all sure i approve of the ruining of a classic Filofax model in this way - but if it works for you.........! :)
ReplyDeleteBut you won't find me doing this 🙂
Interesting reactions to this one!
ReplyDeleteI'm very much into keeping things for the purpose they were intended to fulfil, and their form following that function, with any decoration designed to enhance and emphasise, rather than obscure. I don't tend to enjoy novelty objects which appear to be something other than they are, eg animal-shaped planters, lightbulb-themed vases, or for example using a teapot for storage, etc. That's a personal quirk usually kept under wraps, because it's rather petty, and needlessly judgmental when someone's happily enjoying their cat-shaped candy jar, or whatever.
In a Filofax, the unused card slots, which will never see their original purpose because I have no crossover between planner and wallet, have been a constant annoyance to me. I've tried storing Post It Notes in them, but the size is off, and they're too tight. Plus, it feels like an iteration of the teapot storage trick.
The planner shown is a Cavendish, which has very large rings, so using the front to store pens doesn't deprive it of potential refill space, and Filofaxes in general are designed to store their own pens as part of their core function, so this repurposing is extremely harmonious.
Adding bulk inside the cover could also prevent the pages from sagging fowards and bending around the rings, allowing it to do its main job even better.
Because of that, I find this an extremely pleasing improvement! One I will definitely be using at some point.