Here’s something I love: beautifully organized papers, contained conveniently in a binder.

Here’s what inextricably depresses the pants off of me: standard, office supply store, plastic-covered binders. No matter if they’re billed as “premium.” No matter if front and back cover have inner pockets (slits).

You can take a binder out of Office Max, but you can’t take the mass-produced, reminds-me-of-every-BS-homework-assignment-I-ever-completed-in-high-school-or-college out of the binder, as the old saying goes. (It goes that way, right?)

And lest you go thinking I have some aversion to office supplies in general I will readily inform you I’ve been getting high off of school supplies, pencil cases, and those dorky trapper keepers or whatever they’re called since the dawning of my schooling career. I was once gifted a play set of office supplies from my cousins and aunt and uncle one year for my birthday and it was the best present I got that year, I kid you not and no, you don’t have to worry about my having a happy childhood.

It doesn’t matter how noble my clients’ attempts to organize their papers in one of those bummer binders–I just can’t get excited about the affair unless we make those 3-rings more appealing.

But take away the plastic, and those hard, oddly-scratchy edges, and opt instead for a fiberboard, a linen or canvas something or other, add an attractive color or pattern into the mix and I, for one, am on board.

How ’bout you, hmmm?

1. Russell+Hazel Signature Binder-Lt. Blue, 12 Inch x 10 3/4 Inch

2. Russell & Hazel Mini Three Ring Binder, Selby

3. Bigso Bright Binder

4. Bigso Prism Stockholm Binder

5. Semikolon White Classics Collection 3-Ring Binder with Front Cover Lock, 2-Inch Spine

6. Wilson Jones Work Style 3-Ring Binder, Faux Croc 1 Inch, Customizable

7. Signature Binder: Marble, S/2

8. Russell & Hazel Mini Three Ring Binder, Calhoun

9. Russell+Hazel Mini Lime 9 x 7 Inch Binder (10755)

10. Bigso Ringo 3-Ring Binder

11. Mini Binder: Marble, S/2

12. Mini Binder: Charcoal, S/2