Wall Calendars

January, the start of the year. The month we put away the Christmas decorations. We reorganise our Filofax organisers and take down last years wall calendar....

Do you just recycle it, or repurpose it? Or both...

If your wall calendar has images of a place you have fond memories of, then keep those pages and reuse the images on your section dividers or as your dashboard at the front of your organiser.

I salvaged a local map from our own wall calendar that is published by the Sapeurs-Pompiers de Thouars (Fire Service) 

The map was printed on one side of A3 size paper. With some careful folding and punching some holes in the edge it fits A5, see this earlier post on how to do this: Using A3 paper in A5 size Filofax. 

In simple terms with the A3 page in landscape, measure 87mm up from the bottom edge, and then fold the page up along that line, that gets the page to A5 height. Fold the page over at 148mm from the left hand edge, and then back again to the right hand edge. On the bottom section, fold the corner of the flap over at 45 degrees. Punch to fit A5 Filofax.

The map is printed on quite thick glossy paper, so it should last a few years. I also salvaged the 2023 calendar from the back cover! 

A-Z index dividers

A-Z index dividers have generally been used to divide your contact or address pages. With a lot of people using their smart phones for maintaining their contact lists these days, you might thing that the A-Z index no longer has a purpose in your organiser? 

They can of course be used to keep reference information filed in to alphabetical order. The information might not even be related to each other, random information that you need to keep to hand, but you are unsure which section it belongs in. An A-Z divided section might be just right for this type of application. 

Looking through my 'collection' of inserts I was surprised to see the variety of different A-Z index dividers there have been through the years. Here are six examples, there are plenty of others as well. 

Left to Right: Single letter A-Z (1990), Double letter A-Z (1985) Two/three letter Telephone number A-Z (2007)

Even in the same year Filofax offered different designs of A-Z index dividers. 

Left to Right: Coloured double letter A-Z (1985), Mottled effect double letter A-Z (1985), Different shades of blue double letter A-Z (2003)  

Do you have an A-Z index section in your organiser? What do you use it for? 

Dividers, dashboards and page markers - by Anita

For those of you that are familiar with my posts and set ups, you will know that I'm not one for decorating my organiser. Whilst I enjoy looking at other people's, I don't decorate as I know that it would be too busy for me to look at, plus I'd lose valuable scribbling space as well. However, I instead add some colour by using dividers, dashboards and page markers. Over the years, I've had a bit of a clear out and donated a few items, but thought that I'd share with you what I currently am using or have in my Filofax storage box.

 
I admit that I haven't yet used these dividers, but purchased them for something colourful that I could use in my black Kensington in the winter months. I love that they're a mixture of steampunk and the sea! Purchased from AtelierDays. 

I've had these ones since 2016 and they remind me of vintage newspapers and botanical drawings. I think that I've loved botanical drawings since looking at them in encyclopedias as a kid.
Purchased from CraftyAliCat.

These are a recent acquisition. I have laid them on some paper as they are transparent plastic, so this shows the colours more clearly. I love cats...
Purchased from BestyHandCraft. 

I have two sets of A to Z dividers and am currently using these vintage ones dated 1985. Whilst they're not colourful, I love their simplicity.

I also have these non-branded A to Z ones.

I haven't used them for quite a while, but these are my Franklin Covey multi colour page finders. They're great for when I want a bit of colour, but something plain as well.

 

I've been using these page markers for a while (also purchased from AtelierDays). 

I have a number of Filofax page markers, but always give away the black ones as I'm just not a fan of them. My favourite is the frosted one on the right. You can see from this photo that the transparent one on the left has yellowed with age, which is made of a harder plastic than the frosted. I have a suspicion that it's also become more brittle, so sadly I think it wouldn't take much for it to break now. 

I also have a Franklin Covery weekly compass pouch page finder, which I often use as an alternative to a dashboard or divider, as it's very handy for quick notes and sticking post it notes onto.  

After hearing about Oli Clips for years, I finally bought some and understand now as to why they're so popular. I will often use them instead of dividers, as bookmarks or for holding paperwork together. 

Here are my dashboards:

• Slip pocket dashboard from AtelierDays
• Valentine's card drawn by my talented hubby.
• The sole survivor from some dividers created from an old calendar.
• Merry Hogswatch Christmas card - I think that my hubby had these for years, no idea where they came from.
• Godzilla and aikido (Japanese martial art) postcards.

Hmm, I didn't realised that I owned so much, so maybe it's time for a clear out! 

Here's what I am currently using:

(Since taking this photo, I've swapped to my Merry Hogswatch dashboard)

Divider for my next action lists:

Divider for my projects section:

None of the links above are affiliate links and are included as I'm a satisfied customer. 

Cute Organizing (previously called Japan Corner) dividers

I'm not a very crafty or artistic person, and I don't really own much in the way of stationery or card for making something like dividers. Since last year, I've been using some that I made from an old calendar but just fancied a change and my handwritten top tabs were just irritating me. I realised that I could find it very easy to spend way much money making some other ones by buying a label maker, card stock, a laminator etc., etc. And I figured why not just buy some?? There are a growing number of places online where you can buy readymade Filofax dividers, so I took my time and decided to buy two sets from the lovely Sachiko.

I'm not really one for decorating pages, so I love that the dividers add a bit of colour and cuteness to my binders. It was also a useful process working out what tabs I wanted, as I hadn't long had my A5 Malden and it's helped me clarify on how to use it. 

These are the personal sized ones with my sections that haven't really changed much since I got my first binder back in 2009. 

Top tabs before

And after

And here are my A5 ones. 

I absolutely love them as they'll be hardwearing as they're laminated, the artwork is just fab and I'm not planning on changing any sections anytime soon. Plus I think they're so much nicer than I probably could have made! Sachiko is such a great person to buy from and my dividers were with me very quickly. You can find her shops on Etsy and eBay here and here. 

Simple and flexible dividers

<Puts hand up> OK, I admit that things in my Malden are a bit of a mess.
There is some sort of order, but I haven't been using any dividers as I haven't yet got round to making my own. When I put A4 sheets of paper into my filofax, I fold them over so that the punched holes aren't covered. This means they're slightly wider than A5 which means the standard size dividers get hidden. I'm aware I could add in another fold, but it just seems more fiddly to me. Initially my idea was just to make the dividers all wider, but realised they would probably get in the way of my pen instead. Then I came across these little magnetic page markers, which seemed to be just perfect and I set to work with the following, using the blue piece of card as a cutting template:

I'm really pleased with the results as I wasn't particularly inspired by cardstock at my local shops, and it's been a cheap and easy way to introduce more colour.

I chopped up the rest of the calendar for when I fancy a change.

Another added bonus is that I can use the plastic sleeve the bookmarks came in. I'm not sure if I'll use it for pens as they'll be a bit bulky, but I love finding new uses for items especially when it's just going to be thrown away.

I think the only possible downside to the page markers is the additional weight they'll add. However, as my filo stays at home it's not an issue for me personally. The reviews I've read say that the markers are good at staying put on a page, so hopefully they'll work well as dividers for me.

And this is what the front of my filo looks like currently with my new tabs showing clearly.

Dividers with a difference

We have seen some very creative and beautiful section dividers from different blogs and websites in the past. I have to be honest I'm not that sort of creative person really, crafty but not in a craft sense!

So I've been looking around for some alternative things to make dividers out of, that would be different to the plain cream ones, that would make use of items that are no longer used.

One idea I saw on someone else's site was to use old road atlas pages cut to size then laminated to give them a bit more 'stiffness' I might try this with my French road atlas when I replace it soon.  I would most probably pick the pages from our surrounding area which will mean the divider serves two purposes, and I like things like that.

So that was one idea. But at Christmas sitting around with the family I started to think there has to be other ideas that we can try... and there it was stirring at me....

A big stack of chocolate, 7 bars in fact, all neatly packed in their own individual boxes. So what do you do after you have eaten all that chocolate? Well you recycle the boxes.... but I had other ideas... Pull the box apart... trim it to size and punch it and you get this:

A perfect, functioning divider. and the folding bit on the right acts as a tab that can fold out of the way, it can be labelled, trimmed to a tab shape or left as it is.  Oh and the chocolate was very nice apart from the milk chocolate with lime... I swapped it for some plain instead!

This week I also received in the post a lovely Vogue desk calendar from our friends at City Organiser. Each week is a different picture taken from the magazine. The picture and the calendar part are perforated, so as each week passes you tear off the picture and the calendar bit to reveal a new week.

Here are the first two weeks pictures, which you can send as postcards.

But instead of using them as postcards. I've punched them and they make great personal size dividers.

These are just some of my simple ideas, but once you start looking around your own home it is surprising what there is that you can reuse like this.

Making Your Filofax Your Own - Dividers

You might have bought a Malden or a Finsbury or a Domino, and externally they look just the same to someone else’s similar Filofax organiser. However, open your Filofax and that is where the differences start to tell.

You can change the contents of your Filofax to suit your needs and demands in organising your life.

Whilst you can buy dividers or your Filofax might have come with a set of dividers or tabs. A lot of people make their own. They can really make the inside of your Filofax colourful and very different.

So today I'm going to give you links to some of the posts we have highlighted in the past:

• How to make your own divider tabs - Kathiza
• Tabbed and Decorated Dividers - TommesS
• Making Filofax Dividiers - Imysworld
• Between the covers - Filofax Fixation
• Filofax Dividers - Time2Craft

These are just a few examples to give you some ideas. But you could also use post cards or old greetings cards or birthday cards trimmed to size and punched to use as dividers. 

Free for All Friday No. 18

My Filofax helped me remember to buy Halloween candy in advance this year, as usual.

It's also time to buy our 2009 refills.

Is your Filofax part of your Halloween costume?

—Inky