Guide to Changing Organiser Sizes

How many times have you seen an advert on Facebook or elsewhere with text that includes:

Just received this today, not really my size, staying with the size I'm currently using...

Sometimes it might be an expensive Gillio or Custom Van der Spek organiser. I'm sure these items sell for about the same price the person paid for it. There is a better way of finding out if a particular size is for you or not?

This year with peoples life patterns and work patterns being so radically changed, I'm sure there are a lot of people considering a size change for their organiser as we approach 2026. 

Only today I was contacted by a reader on Facebook, they told me they were going to be changing from a Day on Two pages in Personal Size to a Day on One page in A5 size. 

They had sensibly printed off some Philofaxy inserts of their choice ✅, a great start I thought. Their next question was what to hold them in. 

I offered to take some photos of a selection of different A5's. 

I grabbed a few of different sizes and popped upstairs with them and took a couple of photos to share. 

The ring sizes vary from 35mm to 25mm with the Malden in the middle at 30mm. The thickness varies and the width varies by a small amount accordingly. 

Overall though there isn't a vast difference between them. What will be different is the overall weight of the organiser and paper inserts. Adding an additional 10mm of A5 paper, if you are going from 25 to 35mm rings is quite a leap in the weight. 

This also needs to be taken in to account if you are going to be carrying your organiser a lot. Not just will it fit in to my bag/backpack, but how much heavier will it be compared to you are currently carrying. 

You can print off the pages you are likely to be using or just get a stack of blank paper equal to the pages you will have plus say 10% and then get the kitchen scales out and compare the weight compared to what you are using now. Too heavy?

Seeing the differences in sizes is certainly going to help with the choice of what organiser to get, but don't forget the weight difference. 

Also consider how the organiser is made, do the covers contain any stiffener or not? If you only intend to use the organiser at a desk or similar flat surface then it will not be an issue, but if you might occasionally need to write in it whilst holding it in one hand, then a very floppy leather will not be the best choice. 

Naturally the internal layout, colour, texture etc will all be part of your decisions when it comes to making that final choice, but there are other things to consider first. 

1. Print off some inserts and try the size on just that size of paper only. 
2. Copy a typical week of appointments and tasks in to your intended diary insert, is there enough space?
3. Work out how many pages you will need to be carrying in your organiser, add a small allowance. 
4. From the above work out the size of rings you will need. Using blank paper or similar take the thickness of the stack of pages and add 5-6 mm to find out the internal diameter of the rings you will need
5. What will the overall size/weight be? Will this be ok to carry? 
6. Choose the design/colour you like
7. Seek out photo examples of the above, ask users for their opinions of that make/model. 
8. Ask ask ask.... 
9. Then buy the organiser of your choice! Enjoy....

Are you considering changing sizes next year? I am.... shock!! 

I've been considering changing back to personal size for a number of years, I've just never got around to printing off some inserts. May be it will happen this time. You will be the first to know if I do swap from A5 to Personal!