Change of Planner Archive System

After only a few months since discussing my “new” archiving system, I’ve gone and changed it.  There is a reason for that—one day I was looking for an old planner insert, specifically something I had written on an insert.  I knew it was from either 2012 or 2011, and I hadn’t a clue as to the time of year it happened.  So I dug out my archive boxes and started to look through.  What I realized is that while it’s easy enough to pull out the stacks of inserts from any given year, un-rubber band them and search, it was a pain in the neck.  Inserts were falling off my lap, the stack is so big that I couldn’t (easily) get the rubber band off or on, and I couldn’t flip through the inserts without having to take the stack apart.  True, it’s not often that I rifle through past inserts, but when I do, I want it to be easy.

Enter my new system.  After reading posts from both Homemakers Daily and The Crazy Life of J, I went with Franklin Covey’s Storage Case.  I wanted something that could hold the two-pages-per-day inserts, therefore eliminating the need to split up a year’s worth of inserts—I always use the monthly pages with whatever weekly or daily inserts I use in any given year.  The stack of 2PPD inserts is enough sheets of paper to store together; add a small pile of monthly sheets (and/or weekly sheets, as has been the case in past years when I couldn’t make my up mind about what to use for the year), and I have a need for something BIG.

We’ve all read about how FC inserts don’t neatly fit into Filofax binders.  I was a little concerned that the FC storage case’s ring mechanism would not line up with Filofax insert holes.  Plus, I was also concerned that the cases wouldn’t hold as many sheets as I was hoping they would.  So I emailed J for more information.  (She uses a Filofax Malden with FC inserts—or, she did before she created these little beauties—so I knew she’d definitely know my dilemma and answer my questions.)  She put my mind at ease—she told me that the cases would definitely hold a year’s worth of 2PPD inserts and then some.

I have to say, I am not disappointed in my purchase.

I ordered four binders.  I wanted to be able to store the inserts I already have (beginning with 2009—I didn’t keep my inserts from before then, sadly) and add to that any future inserts, at least for the next couple of years.

The binders come with the two-pronged mechanism, so you might be able to fit an array of insert types in the binder, though the sheets might stick out a bit at either the top or bottom depending on the brand and fit.

They also come with year stickers to put on the outside of the binder.  You can see they don’t include anything prior to 2011.

They hold a ton of paper.

Here I have 2009 and 2010 in one binder.  I used monthly and weekly inserts in 2009, so there’s not a lot of inserts for that year.  In 2010 I used monthly, weekly, and daily planner pages, which in terms of volume, is very similar to the 2PPD.  I was able to fit it all on one binder together, and there’s still room for a little more if I need it.

Here’s a shot of the inserts in a vertical view:

Since they don’t send stickers for years prior to 2011, I used my label maker to create my own labels for this binder.

Here is my full collection of storage binders:

Since I recently switched back to the day per page layout, I might be able to put 2013 in the 2012 binder.  And if that happens, I’ll remove both the 2012 and 2013 stickers and again use my label maker to label the binder.  If that happens, I’ll have to do the same for the 2011 binder—we can’t have an outsider label!

When I order my 2014 inserts, I’ll probably order another storage binder from FC.  That may mean that I have one or two storage binders waiting in the wings.  That’s okay though—if Franklin Covey even stops making them, that will give me plenty of time to find something new or switch to an all-digital system.  Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.