I feel like all I post about are events lately and that's not the type of blog I want this to be, so let's talk about my Filofax. Journaling is one of my special interests, and it's taken me a really long time to land on a Filofax as my main book. I've journaled online in some form or another (hello LiveJournal and Tumblr!) for most of my life at this point, but it was during covid when I wanted to cling to my most special Before memories that I started to retrospectively turn those moments into a physical bound book I could hold in my hands and flip through. There's always been something almost magical about that feeling to me, like it makes those memories more tangible and real, and late 2018 up until early 2020 (ie covid) was unarguably the best period of my life so far and something I wasn't ready to let go of in the scary new world I found myself in.
I was living in Japan during this time and discovered Hobonichi, a journaling brand that's since really blown up on social media, and I've struggled to force myself to use Hobonichi for years but I've accepted this year that it just doesn't work for me. They have beautifully aesthetic books filled with beautifully soft paper, but I am just not a journal everyday kind of girl and I end up feeling like my journal takes over my life. It's so much effort, and really how often am I even going to look back on that? The good memories get surrounded by so much daily filler that they become hard to find, and it all starts to feel very demotivating. I've tried other journals: Moleskine, Travelers Notebook, Stalogy, maybe just about everything at this point, but after so much trial and error it's been Filofax where I realised the magic lies for me. I don't use a Filofax in a traditional sense, and the inserts it arrives with are the first thing to go in the bin. I'm not interested a bit in organisation or productivity! And it was for this reason that it took me a really long time to get on board with Filofax, but as soon as I realised it was literally just a binder and you could put anything you like in it my journaling life transformed.
I've always used Personal size, but while I was in Copenhagen I realised that all of the precious ephemera I was collecting was going to have to be cut up to fit and I did not like that (I haven't properly traveled since I started journaling so this hasn't been a concern for me before!). So I ordered an A5 Filofax from Amazon literally while I was in Copenhagen so it would be waiting for me when I arrived back home and I could jump straight into it, and I can't begin to describe to you how much I love this thing already. I always figured A5 would be too big and unwieldy, but it's actually perfect for me. Big enough to not feel constrained, small enough to not feel lost on a page, and as usual with Filofax my greatest joy is in decorating it - filling the pockets, adding charms, and hole punching anything. Because you never have to worry about a Filofax getting too fat and chunky for the binding and breaking the spine, that's the magic of it. And I love so much that this journal now begins with what felt like a truly transformative trip for me. A fresh start in the truest sense.
The Filofax I'm using is a Malden in Burgundy, and to be honest it's not the original binder I ordered while in Copenhagen. That was a Norfolk, which I quickly abandoned despite loving how supple it was as it was too fat. The rings are huge on that, I photographed a comparison of the spines to give you an idea, and because the rings are so huge it made it feel awkward to flip through. I just thought I'd mention that incase I've swayed you towards maybe getting your own Filofax you know what to be aware of. There's a sweet spot between big but manageable and holy shit, and the Norfolk fell into the latter category for me. It's definitely more of a businessman's binder to spend it's life laying open on a desk where it doesn't matter, rather than being thrown in a rucksack and taken to a cafe. I love my Malden though, 10/10 recommend!!
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