If you are thinking of starting a journal you may find these posts interesting.
- Why should you keep a personal journal?
- 15 different types of journals to keep
- 7 different books to use for a journal or diary
- 23 ideas for the first page of your journal or notebook
- How to start a personal journal
- 11 ways to start your journal if you missed 1st January
- Extracts from my diary 25 years ago
Although most diaries are a personal record they can provide an interesting social record of a different time, such as comparing my school days when we used blackboards and the occasional overhead projector to my children’s with technology throughout the lessons. Particularly in this era of computers I sometimes wonder about the ability of future generations to review the records we leave, and even with the large number of blogs, are they really the same as a diary.
Later this year I will have written my diary for 25 years (on and off), starting when I was in high school. This is a real milestone, particularly when I consider my original aim was to write one for longer than my older sister (I wonder if she is still writing hers). I’ve never looked back through my diaries so I’ve researched what to do with my large number of notebooks, and here are my suggestions on what to do with old diaries and journals.
- Publish them – it is not just politicians who publish their diaries, for example Rochelle’s Diary and Diary of a Cornish Fisherman: Newquay 1962-1967
- Publish them real-time online, posting entries on the equivalent day several years later, similar to D-Day as it happens and Titanic Voyage on Twitter
- Review and index them so you can find posts and topics in the future
- Share passages with friends to remember the fun you had together
- Use the text in scrap pages, such as this page about my 2nd pregnancy scan with daughter
- Use entries to help date and explain old photographs
- Review the journals to discover more about yourself
- Use them to help write your memoirs
- Store them until you die and donate them to a museum or archive
- Edit the entries to keep just the key moments, such as key historical or personal events
- Write a list of your favourite quotes and use them to decorate notebooks, frames or cards
- Use the pages in crafts, cut them up or paint over them
- Tear pages out and give them as gifts, such as using one as background paper for a photograph of their birthday ten years ago
- Burn or destroy them
- Put the notebooks away and decide what to do with them in the future
Of course what you decide to do with your journals is a very personal choice and you probably want to take into account why you started writing and your views on sharing. Here are some other people’s thoughts
Reading old journals: Boy crazy and weight obsessed
Old Journals: Keep Them or Toss Them?
An Exclusive Look at Oprah’s Journals
Ask Unclutterer: What should I do with old journals?
My diaries are currently all over the places. The oldest (in the picture) are still in boxes from when they were put in our loft to make room for baby, and the more recent ones are somewhere in our study. I love the idea of having them all in one place somewhere accessible, but I don’t know why because I don’t read them. At the moment, I really don’t like the idea of destroying them but not sure about sharing them; I have shared small excerpts in the past and wonder how interesting they are to other people, and they are not that old so is it intrusive to other people?
Do you write a diary? What do you with your completed notebooks? Do you want to share them with people or make sure they can never read them?
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I used to write diaries at secondary school. I did sometimes read them back, but when I moved out after uni, I chucked them all. It’s a bit sad as I’d like to read them back again (although they were really dull as I recall!).
I did find recently my leavers books from 5th year and 6th form recently when clearing out my mum’s house. I loved reading them all, and also shared some bits including what she’d written with a school friend I caught up with. So funny seeing what everyone had written.
What varied and wonderful ideas! I intend to make mine (all 33 years of them) into a book of essays and humorous advice. Big project – yikes!
Wow that is a lot of diaries, I think my diaries from my school days got thrown out when I moved out of my mums home, wish I had kept them now. Fab ideas of what to do with yours though
I never wrote a diary, but if I did, I think I would love to keep them… they might be fun to read years later
lots of good ideas here, and they could apply to many things, not just diaries. i’m all for being creative 🙂
I love writing a diary and although I haven’t written one for a few years, I think I’d like to start again. I looked back through one recently and it was very emotive. X
i’ve never written a diary however since blogging i now wish i had!
Wow that’s pretty impressive writing a diary for 25 years. I wrote them on and off in angst ridden teenage/early 20’s years but most of it was pretty uninteresting. There may still be some at my parent’s house but I’m pretty sure I chucked them out. You should keep them though – I’m sure your kids will enjoy looking back at them one day!
I’m going to buy three or four books from my fave journalists/authors and read them for my research of what is most publisher friendly. Then decide what feels natural for me also.
I too used to write about all my teenage angst – I read them when I was in my twenties and burned the lot!
I love the idea of having your diaries published for your own personal use. Your children will probably find them fascinating. It is quite an achievement to have written something for 25 years. They must be very treasured and I hope you find a way of preserving them that feels right for you
I used to write a diary when I was at secondary school, but I would die of embarrassment if anyone read them as they’re all “I really fancy Steve, why is he going out with Sarah and not me?”, very teenage angst!
I think it will have to be a collection of thoughts and opinions on topics (that people might be able to relate to) using my experiences to base each one on. Rather than a litteral translation. I’ll also have to portray people in a fair way! The book is a good tool to have.
Ave to admit to chucking my old diary in the bin, but then it was from my teenage years and was SUPER cringey 😉
I quite like the idea of boxing them up and giving them to my daughter and then maybe she could add hers to the collection and donate them to her daughter. The problem is I binned mine long ago!
Some good ideas. I tend to just throw my diaries in the bin at the end of the year but rthey are really only kept for appointments etc as I never got into the habit of writing personal stuff down.
I loved your suggestions about what to do with old diaries! I’ve been writing in mine for 11 years now and have toyed with the idea of publishing them on a blogging site like WordPress.com. I like how you said to publish them in real-time. I haven’t read through all of them yet, but I have started typing them up in Word documents on my laptop. I sometimes read old entries to my friends when we have nothing to do, and a lot of the time we all get a good laugh from the older entries.when I was young, naive… Read more »
Thanks for sharing my post! 🙂
I purchased a cedar chest to sit in my bedroom in which to store my journals and family photos. I think that even if nothing is ever done with your journals during your lifetime, that they may be a comfort to those you leave behind upon your death. I see them as a soothing activity during mourning in which your loved ones may get to know you better and focus on positive happy memories while grieving your loss in their lives.
I also have been keeping a diary on and off since I was 14 or so. I am now 58! I came to this site trying to decide what to do with the old ones. I am not sure I would want my children or even grandchildren to read them. First of all my handwriting is awful so it is difficult at times to even decipher. And secondly, I seem to write when things are difficult, or even downright disastrous. (For example, the books I wrote during my divorce.) To read them one would thing my life was unbearable, when… Read more »
I kept I Diary/journal this past year for my new granddaughter of her first year of life. I plan to put it in my safety deposit box for her to get when I’m gone. I’m just wondering if I can leave it like it is or if I should wrap it in plastic or what actually would preserve it the best. Any ideas?
Don’t enter any details about your whereabouts or who you are. Go on a trip and leave it on a public transport. Whoever finds it will read it but will never know who you are or where to find you. You’ll forever be a puzzle that can’t be solved.
I keep a diary, however, I use a viisualization diary. That means I don’t just write, I color, draw, stickers, cut from magazines then paste, whatever is on my mind that day or memory. For example on one of the first pages for 2018 I have 2 Owls I drew a tree, since they were a sticker I put them on a branch. It represent my daughter and I since we love owls. She helped me work on it. She has her own diary I encourage her to write a paragraph every night or draw. She is on the spectrum… Read more »
I’m 14 and I’ve been keeping a journal since I was 11. I was thinking of stopping on 21 November 2023, (2023 is the year I graduate high school and 21 November is the day I started my first journal) But, now that I have seen this, I’m considering continuing journaling even after I graduated high school. I don’t know though, honestly..
Here it is 7/24/19. Old post to be sure but at 83 I’m wondering what to do with 50 years of journaling. I kept a diary before I was married but for some reason burned them. Now I have 15 filled notebooks and a bunch of soft cover ones. The shredder truck is coming to the park in the middle of August. I was all gung ho about having my journals shredded but now that the time has come I feel like it’s my life and who would I be without them. It feels like cutting off one arm. I… Read more »