Carrying Pens in a Midori

Hi everyone!

When I first started setting up the Midori, I used binder clips and a magnetic pen holder hack to hold 2 multi-pens and a fountain pen in it.

It worked ok.  The binder clips were quite secure and I had 3 pens easily accessible to me.  The magnetic hack though was not a great success.  Although the magnets were quite strong, it just felt flimsy and moved around quite a bit.

And of course, like all my other projects, I had to find a better way to do it.

Here are a few attempts at ‘building a better (mouse trap) pen holder”:

The obvious Midori pen holder that’s fat enough for a Lamy Safari.  Too small for the Muji multi pens though.

I also tried securing the pens in the elastic.

Here's a DIY leather thing-a-ma-jig.  Like all my projects, super-simple construction. Just a long piece of leather with strong magnets.  It can even double as a magnetic bookmark, which is how it started its life..

My two personal favorites --

Keeping pens in the zipper pocket, even if it makes the MTN fat and chunky.

And lastly, a two-sided, DIY refill-sized pen holder made of plastic folder material.  The pen holders themselves are kept secure with flat brads.  And the pens are always out and ready-to-use.

I switch between the last two, depending on where I am.  When going out, I’ll keep the pens in the zipper pocket so they don’t snag on anything in my handbag.  When at home, I take out the pens and put them in the DIY pen “insert”.

Hope this inspires you to find the best way for you to store your pens in your Filofax or MTN.

Thanks for visiting!

Anatomy of my Filofax: Multi-Pens

Hi everyone!

Today's post is about Pens.  Multi-pens to be exact, because I love them.

Top 2:  5-barrel Pilot Coletos
3rd from top:  6-barrel Muji
Bottom:  3-barrel Uni Style Fit

I have already written elsewhere about the pens I use -- Pilot Coleto 5-barrels with Uni Style Fit waterproof inks.  You can read about that in more detail here.  It's towards the end if you want to skip to it directly.

You may ask why I bother to refill them with different inks . . . it's because I prefer the writing experience of the Uni inks, and they're pretty much more waterproof than the Coletos.  Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with the Coletos.  They're some of the nicest pens around.  But I just needed to try the Uni, and when I did, I fell in love.

My Coleto refills didn't go to waste because I gave them to my daughter, and she's now hooked on color-coding as well.  (Victim!)


I like to write with color which is not at all necessary, but so much more fun!  I mostly write with blue or black-brown ink (I don't like black, it seems a little bit too harsh to me), but most other things get color-coded, particularly the Diary portion.

How I color-code

I keep two pens in my stay-at-home and, until recently, in my Chameleon Compact wallet/purse.  Why recently?  (Explanation at the end of this post.)


I keep one of the pens slotted into the note pad slot on the Baroque.  The other one is just clipped onto the pen loop because it's too fat for it.  (I'll need another Leuchtturm pen loop soon!)

Two Pilot Coletos live in the Baroque

On the Chameleon, I currently only have a Uni 3-barrel pen until I repurchase the Muji.  The pen placement on this is weird, on the left, but I've gotten used to it.

The pen on the left-hand side of the Chameleon

Another multi-pen I'm loving is the Muji 6-barrel (2nd from bottom) which has 5 ballpoint colors, a pencil, and an eraser on the top!  Once again, I had to hack the inks because the pastel colors were too light.  I replaced them with Muji's own gel refills.  (I've recently given this to my sister so I don't have a better photo, and I haven't gotten around to replacing it yet.)

They're available for purchase online on the US and UK sites.

Muji pen 2nd from botom

And those are some of the multi-pens I use daily, and love.

This concludes my "Anatomy" series.  I think I covered most, if not everything.  Should there be anything specific you'd like to see, do let me know and I'd be happy detail it.

Once again, thanks for visiting!