Repairing Filofax Slimline Executive

I often receive emails asking for advice on repairing Filofax Organisers, I've repaired a few myself, so I'm just passing on some knowledge and experience. This was one such series of emails from Sue. I think she did an excellent job and the Filofax is ready for many more years service. 

"I’m trying to repair my husband’s Slimline Executive Filofax but have literally come unstuck! I searched the Internet and came across your blog and am hoping you may be able to help 

Not sure when my husband first got the Filofax - could be late 90’s early 00’s - but after many years of daily use the lining was torn, the spine had started to come away from the leather cover, the top and bottom edges were badly worn and it was handed to me to salvage!

The lining covered the backplate and the ring mechanism snapped into place over the lining. Unfinished repair shown to illustrate. " 

"I removed the rings and cut away the damaged lining revealing the backplate, which had come away, almost half way, from the leather. The backplate was stuck directly to the leather.  

There was nothing holding the backplate in place other than the adhesive, which was invisible. It was quite easy to remove the backplate completely without any damage to the leather."

"I reinforced the top and bottom edges with some leather from an old bag.

I made a new lining which I attached to the original lining under the left pocket with double sided carpet tape, see first photo. This worked a treat and I was confident that the carpet tape would secure the back plate to the leather.

I cleaned the backplate and surface wiped the leather with IPA and left for a couple of hours. I stuck the carpet tape to the backplate. It seemed very secure and would not pull away so proceeded to stick it in place to the leather. So far so good, the bond seemed secure. 

Two days later I returned to the repair to discover the tape adhesive attaching the backplate to the leather had gone gooey and the two sides could be pulled apart. I am so disappointed!"

"I now need to remove the residual adhesive from the leather and give it a good clean before I proceed. 

Then, hopefully, try again to fix the backplate in place. I need the backplate to be 100% secure before I secure the lining under the right pocket and stitch in place at the top and bottom edges, as there is no going back after this. "

At this point Sue contacted me at Philofaxy. Her questions in brief where: 

• What should I use to remove the adhesive from the leather?
• How should I then prepare the leather and backplate?
• Which glue/method do I need to use to stick the backplate in place?
• Or, do I just admit defeat and try to get a new ring mechanism to fix through the leather? (Not my favourite choice as it would spoil the aesthetics, but may be the only solution)

I have no idea which adhesive would have been used in the first place but it lasted a very long time!"

Having seen organisers made at Van der Spek I had some knowledge of how the ring mechanisms were held in place etc. 

I suggested replacing the fabric that covered the back plate with some thin leather and using Bostik (or similar), flexible epoxy type of adhesive to hold everything in place. 

Sue followed my advice and as you will see it turned out really well. 

"I’ve finally finished the repair and very pleased with the result. Ring mechanism seems very secure so fingers crossed. I did a ‘Repair Shop’ reveal and my husband was delighted and very impressed with my handiwork.  

I used the Bostik glue you recommended to attach the backplate to the cover. 

It took me quite a while to get a decent finish on the leather. Leather balm, even after buffing, felt sticky so had to clean it off. The same thing with black shoe polish. 

Eventually used pure soap and water and a baby tooth brush and cloth to clean off approx 30 years of grime then sparingly applied a leather conditioner and buffed. 

This gave a smooth finish but no shine so used a small amount of silicone furniture polish on a cloth which gave a nice sheen. 

Unconventional cleaning method I’m sure, but it seemed to work!!

 

I have told him to stop using it like a filing cabinet!!"

All ready for 2026 and another year of service.

I really like the reinforcements on the spine that Sue added, that is often where wear first starts to show up. 

Thank you Sue for contacting us and for sharing your work with us. 

Have any of you attempted to repair an old Filofax? 

Vintage Filofax Inserts Filing Box

Earlier this week I was contacted by Billie, who sent me the photos you see in this post. What a find!

Given the details on some of the inserts in the box we believe that this filing box dates back to the 1930's. The filing box appears in my 1937 catalogue and the 1979 one as well. 

Sadly we don't have any catalogues between those two dates, if any were produced. However, as you can see from comparing the two catalogues, not a lot changed in terms of organisers, the range of inserts did change. 

From the 1937 catalogue:

 This is in the 1979 catalogue:

The one that Billie bought at an auction is an enamel metal one which is mentioned in the 1937 catalogue but not in the 1979 one. 

And here are some photos of the inserts found inside the filing box. 

Note on this first one the year is indicated as 193n = 1930-1939

Sadly sections 2 and 3 are missing in the maps included, may be they got over used by the original owner. 

Note the retailers sticker on this page, Chisholms Limited in Kingsway London is a shop I used to visit in the 1980's for their massive range of Filofax organisers and inserts that they had on display in the shop. 

The price on the index sheet is the same as that shown in the 1937 catalogue. And in pre-decimalisation prices. UK went from Pounds Shillings and Pence (£sd) to Pounds and Pence (£p) in UK in February 1971

Thank you Billie for sharing this with us. Billie has mentioned to me that they are interested in selling the item. 

If you are interested in buying it along with the inserts please email me philofaxy at gmail dot com and I will forward your email on to Billie, so you can negotiate the price and get more details of the box and inserts etc. 

Personally I think Filofax UK should purchase it for some sort of museum display! 

Discovering Filofax - Szabolcs

Hello Philofaxy!

My name is Szabolcs, and I’m from Hungary. I’ve been learning English for quite a long time with varying success, but for translating this document I decided to rely on a language model instead.

I have been following your blog for quite some time, and I’d like to share my own story with you.

Back in the early 1990s, a remarkable man from “the great America” visited us. His name doesn’t matter here, but his presence certainly did.

He radiated an incredible elegance, and imagine this: he carried a black leather zippered organizer under his arm. He only stayed in Hungary for a few days, yet he honored our small community in Szekszárd by sharing his business experience with us.

When he put his organizer on the table and opened it, I was mesmerized by the colorful dividers he used to organize his tasks, projects, and contacts. At the time, I had no idea what it was, but I knew deep down that I wanted one for myself. Our little town has always had a rather limited selection in the shops. Back then I had to wait quite a long time until I finally found a ring binder in a stationery store—with a puffy plastic cover. Today I know it was “personal size,” but it was made especially for children, complete with class schedules, classmates’ lists, and teachers’ names. I still have those inserts untouched to this day—how I wish I had used them back then!

Since then, I’ve bought several ring organizers, but all of them ended up gathering dust on the shelves or in the attic, untouched. Then one day, something happened…

As an adult, I started my university studies. By that time, I already had five professions, but only a high school diploma. At the age of 41, I managed to get accepted into a technical university—it was time to take things a bit more seriously. On eBay (by then I was already working in the printing industry as a printer and graphic layout designer), I came across a fantastic organizer. Even second-hand, its price was half of my monthly salary. But I got it! And that was when the magic began.This is the organizer I still use today: a brown Filofax Personal Hampstead. Its genuine leather interior offers plenty of useful options, which I happily make use of.

Because I was studying engineering (and as you may notice from the first photo, I like to stick to old but reliable tools), I used to keep a small slide rule in the mesh pocket at the back. Older readers will remember this as the ancestor of modern calculators.

Since I worked in the graphics industry, I wanted to customize my organizer to make it as colorful and unique as possible—partly out of my love for printing. My knowledge of editing software allowed me to design completely accurate, custom-made inserts for myself. Please allow me to share some photos of what I used back then.

The colorful dividers were grouped into three sets.

The top row contained everyday essentials: my Agenda, the original TODAY ruler, and my Timetable, which was crucial for university lectures.

The side tabs were dedicated to my university studies: Bus Schedules (I commuted from another town), Books (mandatory and recommended readings in technical sciences), Tasks (homework and assignments), Students (contacts of my university groupmates), and Supplies (a checklist I ticked off before each trip—umbrella, sweater, etc.).

At the same time, I was also working as a temporary system administrator at a local vocational school (with the serious responsibility of configuring teachers’ computers, the network, and printers). For this role, I had dividers for: the Website server configuration (file and database access), Printer settings, Router configurations, all teachers’ PC setups (technical details, addresses, fixed IPs, MAC addresses…), and finally, Notes.

Over the years I created countless custom inserts depending on what I needed them for.

Fast-forward to today (2025): I’ve successfully completed three technical universities and earned three engineering degrees. However, during this time, my marriage and family life fell into crisis. Now my first step is to rebuild my relationship with my beloved wife and reconnect with my child. For this, we are receiving outside help, which requires an extremely strict time schedule. I joined the Husbands’ Club, where many men share their experiences of strengthening their marriages, while my wife joined the Wives’ Club. It’s a fantastic community with tasks, challenges, and study materials—all designed to help us improve our relationship.

My wife is a culinary instructor (cook, chef) at a school for students with disabilities. Since I (at the age of 51) still can’t cook, I also enrolled in a professional cooking course (after all, four hungry mouths wait for my wife to come home in the evenings). Meanwhile, my main job is in the field of cybersecurity.

Imagine this: I completely restructured my Filofax for these important aspects of life: Tasks, Challenges, Ideas, Study Materials, and Notes. At the same time, I’ve been struggling with health issues for quite a while, so I had to include daily health-tracking inserts as well: Blood Pressure, Blood Sugar, Doctors’ contacts, and Medical Appointments.Bit by bit, I am shaping my own structure so that my Filofax becomes a true companion in my daily life.

In our small town, I also managed to find an original A5 Zip Metropol, which I truly love. However, it’s far too big to take with me to work every day or to carry everywhere. Unfortunately, it had been sitting in the shop for too long, and its transparent ruler got damaged, so I’ll need to replace it with a black six-hole TODAY ruler. For some reason, these have disappeared from shops in Hungary. They are available on eBay, but the TODAY print has vanished from them… Sadly, I can no longer find the Hampstead organizer anywhere (not on eBay, not on Amazon). If it were available in A5 size, I would certainly invest in one. Unfortunately, the Metropol zip design makes it even bulkier than the traditional A5, which affects its portability.

My wife’s favorite color is purple (violet). When she became a teacher, I gave her a ring binder with Professor inserts. Since Filofax is not available in the shops of our small town, I surprised her at Christmas with a Saturnus binder. It came with inserts designed specifically for teachers, making it useful in her daily work. Unfortunately, I could only buy it in red—the one color she doesn’t particularly like. Recently, I found a Hungarian retailer that offered it in purple, with the option of adding her name. I ordered it for her, and she was absolutely radiant with joy. That meant I could “move into” the red binder myself, and now I use it to collect recipes—either ones my wife shows me, or those I’ll be learning at school in my late years.

I am very grateful for the Philofaxy blog and community, because I draw endless inspiration for organizing my life and designing my Filofax setup.

Please allow me to offer my help: if anyone needs custom inserts (or dividers), I would be happy to design them in professional print software during my free time. I can export them to PDF format, making them easy to print at home—I’d just need a simple sketch to get the dimensions of the tables right from the start.

Thank you for letting me share this noisy but precious companion of my life. I’ll be happy if my story could bring even a moment of joy to someone.

I remain your follower, and I sincerely respect the work you do:

Szabolcs Szabó
Szekszárd, Hungary

IG: https://www.instagram.com/20_80_kiber/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/szab%C3%B3-szabolcs-34a926b3/?originalSubdomain=hu

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/szabo.szabolcs.7374

Thank you Szabolcs for your detailed post about how you discovered and how you are using your Filofax.

Filofax Westminster - Personal Size

It is a few years ago (2019) that I discovered the existence of the Filofax Westminster organisers. It only appears as far as I know in the 2001-2002 catalogue 

It came as two combinations of A5+Slimline and Personal+Slimline. 

Having discovered this unusual organiser I went on to try creating a modern day equivalent. I discovered that an A5 Holborn Zip would work with a Holborn Slimline.

It does give you a lot of possibilities and flexibility and as the catalogue suggests the main organiser can be used in the office, with the Slimline being perfect for carrying in your jacket pocket. The Personal + Slimline has the advantage of using the same paper size so you can easily swap pages between the two. 

As I mentioned back in 2019, the only Westminsters I had seen sold on Ebay and similar sites were the main zip organiser, no mention was made of the Slimline in the adverts. Others reported seeing just the Slimline. 

That was until last November when a Philofaxy reader advertised a Westminster Personal+Slimline, it was the first I had seen. As I was dedicated to using A5 this year I didn't immediately jump to buying it. But over six months passed and no one made an offer. After printing off my Personal size inserts for 2026 I thought hmm, I wonder!! 

No it hadn't sold, we agreed a price and it was mine! 

It is slightly taller than a normal Personal Zip, it needs to be to house the Slimline as well. 

Unzipping it reveals a fairly simple interior

There are two full height vertical pockets, therefore you can slide in the Slimline on either side. Two pen loops and a set of 30mm rings. 

By contrast the Slimline has small 11 mm rings, but it has a number of pockets to make up for the lack of pockets on the main organiser. 

With my inserts put into both organisers there is a similar result to a Filofax Duplex, but with unequal size rings. 

As I have been trying out different A5 organisers in my collection and then sharing a review/revisit post on the blog. I will no doubt be doing the same with Personal Size organisers, so no doubt the Westminster will see some action in future. 

I might use the Holborn A5 and Holborn Slimline combination as we get close to the end of 2025 to allow for forthcoming appointments/tasks in 2025. 

Filofax A5 Chameleon - Review

The Filofax Chameleon came out in 2010 but only appears to have been in the range for a couple of years. By the 2012/13 catalogue it was no longer shown. 

It was available in A5, Personal, Pocket and Mini. I bought a black Filofax Chameleon Pocket at one of the first meet ups in late 2010, I still have that pocket. It was used for many years as my log book in the car for recording fuel fill ups etc. 

I really like that pocket the leather is very supple and it has worn well. One oddity with the pocket is that the pen loop is attached to the front cover not the usual back cover placement. 

I did a review soon after getting the pocket which you will find here: Filofax Pocket Chameleon

A few years later I had a hankering to get the A5 Chameleon but of course it was few years out of production and I thought it would be very difficult to find one in good condition. My black pocket was holding up well. Some of the lighter coloured Chameleons show wear quite badly. 

A reader contacted me after seeing my Wanted advert on the Adspot page about an A5 Chameleon in Black on Ebay. At first there were some issues about shipping it outside of UK, but after exchanging a few emails with the seller they agreed to ship it to me. I won the auction for just under £40 and with the postage add it was still a bargain. 

It arrived in the original box and with all the original inserts and it was obvious it had never been used. That was in the middle of 2019! 

I realised the other week that I've never reviewed the A5, or used it that much.... time to change both of those things. 

The Chameleon has a 'scale' like pattern pressed in to the leather. Some people like this, some people hate  this, I quite like it as it gives the organiser character I guess. 

It uses a design of tapered clasp that was common to other organiser models in the Filofax range at the time.

The front inside cover includes 8 horizontal card slots, a business card slot, a vertical slip pocket and a vertical zip pocket and finally an elasticated pen loop. 

The Filofax Chameleon A5 is fitted with 25mm rings, which are big enough for my needs. They also make the overall size (width and thickness) of the organiser quite compact too. 

The scale pattered leather is also used on the interior as well. 

In the rear inside cover is a notepad slot and another elasticated pen loop. 

Unlike the pocket Chameleon the A5 version does appear to have some form of stiffener between the inner and outer layers of leather. It however does lay flat straight out of the box. 

Overall I'm very pleased to have used this organiser for a few weeks and I will be coming back to it in the future. 

Have you ever owned a Chameleon?

Filofax Global Catalogue 2025

Filofax have published their Global Catalogue for 2025. I've only extracted the Organiser and Organiser refills pages. There are other sections for their notebooks and planners and accessories. There is a link to the full catalogue at the end of this post, please be aware it's quite a large file, so you will need to be on a fast internet connection to download the file quickly. 

Finding a lost Filofax?

No I've not lost one, sorry for the 'click-bait' title!!

I recently came across an advert for a 'gadget' that would help with finding a lost organiser or wallet. 

A credit card size tag that works with Apple Find My. Once linked to your Apple account, the tag appears in the app along with your other Apple AirTags which I have on my keys, bags etc.

 The advantage of this credit card size one  is that it is much thinner (2.5mm) than an Apple AirTag (8mm) and this one is rechargeable, compared to other similar credit card tags are not rechargeable. 

I saw the card advertised on Instagram and available via Action, a budget chain of shops here in France. A quick visit to my local store and I was able to pick up a couple of them for €11.95 each (About £10) 

Once charged and linked to my account I've tucked it in to one of the pockets on my current in use organiser. 

Yes this one has changed colour, my wife liked the off-white one for her wallet, so I did a swap! 

Have you ever lost a Filofax? And hopefully found it again?