I’ve recently swapped this little cutie into my daily carry bundle: a sort of basic plastic looseleaf made by Brunnen. I saw it on someone’s Instagram and was intrigued: I have a couple of other Brunnen notebooks in my collection from past trips to Europe, but it’s not a brand you ever see for sale in stores in the US. But though I’m calling this Brunnen looseleaf notebook”sort of basic,” it actually has some interesting qualities that distinguish it from the competition.

The exterior is very plain black plastic, with almost squared corners. The plastic has a slight texture meant to resemble leather but it’s very obviously plastic! At the edge of the spine there is a striated texture, I guess to help it bend more easily. The Brunnen name and product number 65010 are very subtly stamped there.

One thing that’s nice about the exterior is something it lacks: rivets on the spine, which are common on this type of inexpensive looseleaf notebook. It’s not that big a deal, but I think the plain spine is more attractive somehow.

When you open the notebook, it is equally plain inside– no markings anywhere, and just one little clear plastic pocket on the back where you could tuck a couple of business cards or receipts.

You’ll notice that the Brunnen looseleaf notebook has very small rings– another factor that differentiates it from the average pocket looseleaf, which tends to have 1/2″ rings. The small 11mm rings always seem to attach vs. small tabs at the end of a backplate– at least they do in all the Filofax, Plotter, and Raymay DaVinci notebooks I’ve seen. 1/2″ rings attach either by a hidden set of clips, or in cheaper notebooks, by those rivets on the spine.

The small rings make this a pleasantly slim and pocketable notebook. It’s about the thickness of a pocket size Moleskine hardcover notebook. The width is also about the same, though it’s slightly shorter: it’s about 94mm x 137mm. It’s definitely smaller than any other generic plastic looseleaf notebook I’ve seen.

As you can see, I have Plotter inserts filling this notebook, and they work very nicely, especially if you add some dividers that are tabbed on the top. I also added some stickynotes to make tabs on the top of a couple of the Plotter project folders.

I previously had the same contents in my Filofax Guildford Pocket Extra Slim, which is a great size, but thicker, and almost impossible to buy these days. Plotter’s Mini size notebooks are wider and bulkier due to the metal spine plate and the thickness of the leather. They’re also a lot more expensive. If you want a really basic, really slim pocket size looseleaf, this Brunnen notebook is a great choice. I paid about $21 for it on Amazon— that’s more than a truly basic generic pocket looseleaf, but a lot less than you’ll pay for a leather organizer from Filofax or Plotter. Sometimes it’s comforting to use a cheap, easy to replace notebook, especially one that is so light and small and portable! I’ve left the Guildford behind when I was traveling a few times because I was afraid I’d lose it. I’d still be horrified if this Brunnen looseleaf notebook was lost or stolen, but at least I wouldn’t feel like I could never buy another one.