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43Folders.com is Merlin Mann’s website about finding the time and attention to do your best creative work.

Open Thread: What's your favorite minimalist wallet?

Like most 43F articles on economical carriage and stowage, the Jimi post attracted a lot of interest. Makes me think it's time for an open thread: What's your favorite minimalist wallet? Jimi? Slimmy? Moneyclip? Coin purse? Goin' commando? Spill in comments (and feel free to link to canonical product pages or price compar-i-nators like Froogle).

My own winner for minimalism? Starting before a trip to New York in the late 80s, I started wrapping my driver's license, ATM card, and a bill or two in a couple of my Goody pony tail holders (shut up). I think that was my wallet for at least the next two years -- until I got my first real job and decided to go cowhide again. Still, it remains one of my favorites.

Phil's picture

I currently use the Dopp...

I currently use the Dopp Front Getaway Pocket previously mentioned, and similar to other front pocket wallets from Fossil, etc. It's maybe a layer or two thicker than I'd ideally like, but has served me well for years and I'm in no hurry to replace it just yet.

Part of the trick to a slim wallet is how it's loaded. Under normal circumstances I'll have four credit/debit cards in there, but I keep them stacked face-to-face in pairs in such a way that the raised letters do not overlap (i.e. one card upside-down with respect to the other - and remember, face-to-face). This cumulatively saves the equivalent thickness of about one extra card.

Then I took the four store "loyalty cards" that I regularly carried and slapped them down on the flatbed scanner, getting a clean scan of the bar codes. I trimmed and rearranged these, printing two bar codes on either side of a business card-sized piece of paper. When I get to the checkout stand, I simply hand them this "multi-pass" while pointing to the specific bar code, and the cashier usually instinctively knows to block one bar code with their fingers while scanning the other on that side. No problems, usually they think it's pretty neat.

 
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