Filofax Malden A5 in Grey! My New Friend

I have been trying to do things electronically for years and not loving it. My iPhone deletes my old appointments after a few months so I cannot remember when I went to the dentist last etc. Of course, if the battery dies you are out of luck anyway. I used to have a planner back in college and it worked wonders for keeping all my dates and agendas, to dos and such together in one place and I just threw it in my backpack and went off.

I have been wanting to get back to those days for some time now and ran into a lovely group on Facebook that does paper planning. When I found the Filofax website (they are like me, British... my dad is from the Cayman Islands and I was born their too, and my mom is from MD) I was thrilled with the site. I, however, in my crazy internet search fell in love with the grey color which is discontinued. So like any good planner, I stalked every website known to man until I found it. Finally, the elusive planner was mine on Ebay for just slightly more than you would pay for a new A5 from the Filofax site so I deemed it a success. I tracked that package like a mad woman! It was coming from Austria mind you so it had a few places to stop before it came to me. The expected date came and no Filo. :( Then, it arrived, two days late. I was SO SO SO excited I may have petted it.

Now, I am the owner of 1 A5 Malden, waiting on the delivery of a pocket Malden and a personal Malden. I also have a few Daytimer Malibus in various colors. This planner thing is truly addicting!

Here he is in all of his grey glory. Yes the pictures look more black but he is a dark shade of grey to begin with.

 The Malden is a super floppy planner with pockets galore. It has a large pocket (which you can see a white paper folded in half peeking out), 4 credit card sized slots, a second 1/2 size large pocket (where you can see my post its peeking out) and a zippered pocket. All of these pockets are on the left with a pen loop. I have a nice mechanical pencil in that loop right now.

 In the very front is what we call the dashboard. I used scrapbook paper and traced the plastic dashboard that came with the Filofax. I then punched it using a Rapesco punch (from Amazon) but you could use a single punch as well.
Rapesco Adjustable Diary Punch 66-P

 I used month tabs from Girl at Work (from the container store, also found on Amazon). These are stickers that can be removed and used a second time. I originally used the diary that came from Filofax but decided to create my own pages so I took the dividers tabs off and put them on these pages.

Girl Of All Work LLC Peel and Stick Tabs (GWO713a)

I used the original Filofax dividers to trace and create my own dividers. Here I used Bazill cardstock I purchased from Michaels. I then laminated them and used a label maker with black ink on clear tape to make my dividers. I chose a rainbow effect for these dividers.

 I like to decorate my weekly pages. I have found that the week on two pages works well for me. This past week was fruit week. I found these adorable fruit stickers at Michaels the other week and only ended up using a little bit. My washi tape (the paper tape at the top and bottom) is from an etsy seller.
https://www.etsy.com/transaction/157620967?ref=fb2_tnx_title (the shop is called Mind the Wrap)

I really haven't stuffed him too full yet as I haven't printed out my monthly diaries past March and I have not yet put in a cleaning schedule or other cute printables I am saving to my computer.

I did get a cute charm at Hobby Lobby when they had their 50% off sale two weeks ago and added it to my planner using a cell phone lanyard (also purchased at Hobby Lobby).

I will say that using a paper planner has been great but lugging around an A5 (which is 5.5. x 8.5) has been rough. When my personal and pocket come in the mail I will try and see if those will work as portable planners and then this A5 will become my go to planner at home. I have heard you can really stuff these babies full but I don't like clutter so we'll see how full he gets.