A5 Osterley - A Bit Of A Dispointment

I have for a while been eyeing up the lovely looking A5 Osterley and finally ordered one from Filofax.

It arrived today and with much excitement I opened the box and unwrapped this lovely looking thing!  I have to say it's a beautiful binder. It oozes quality and begs to be touched.

A little background - my Filofax is my workbook and I keep lots of notes in it about the various projects I look after.  I don't want an organiser that's already full with no room for expansion. I need space to add more notes.  I use a day per page diary from WH Smith as I need a sort of free-form planner. The Filofax diaries are no good for me as I have more tasks each day than I do appointments.

The first test - does it really lie flat on my desk - YES!! This is important as my Filofax is always open on my desk and I must have it laying flat!!

Now for the acid tests. I held off buying it for a while as I was concerned whether 25mm diameter rings would be enough.  I kept convincing myself that I would cut down my diary sheets and would easily fit everything within it... or so I thought. 

The first issue I have (because of my personal preference) is the 25mm ring diameter.  It seems it will not be enough now that I've seen it.  I will have to stick to binders with 30mm rings. However, I would be happy to keep it but for my second issue.

The pen loops - for some unknown reason the designer has put them on the top and bottom inside the right hand cover.  Why? Why? Why?!?! The loops (even when empty) catch the paper or worse make the paper rise up.  This in itself makes the binder look full!

The loops are in the way! Put them back to where they belong - on the left & right vertical sides out of harms way! 

I can see no reason to keep it as the pen loops would get on my nerves and I would end up cutting them off! Sacrilege I can hear you cry! Exactly!! I don't want to pay all that money for a binder only to vandalise it!!

So it's going back :( Shame but reluctantly I have no choice.

One thing that does concern me is the majority of the Filofax A5 binders now have 25mm diameter rings. The 30mm rings are fast disappearing.  Although I might now sell my Maldon A5 (with 30mm rings) and buy a Finsbury - I much prefer the stiffer covers.  Anyone want to buy it? lol

Franklin Covey Binder

Over the years I've used many different planner systems and binders. I did use the Franklin Covey system for a while but I always end up returning to Filofax!

However, I've kept this binder as it was too good to part with. Maybe I thought I would eventually return to it. Alas I doubt I ever will. I bought it because the Filofax Personal size binder has rings of 23mm and I was pushed to get everything in it. So this one has 25mm rings and that little extra space.....:)

Its a deep red full grain calf's leather. The pictures make it look brown I'm afraid! 

The front inside cover has 6 credit card slots as well as a vertical opening to take slips of paper etc. 

The rear inside cover has another vertical opening and also an expanding zipped pocket. As you can see there are two pen loops.

So maybe it's now time to part with it and let it go to a new home....perhaps...:)