Where Do You Store Your Filled Journals?

[kuroba]

Some of mine are in a drawe and some in a small vintage-looking suitcase (:

[fountainpagan]

I use this kind of boxes

 

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/1024x768q90/842/8hv0i.jpg

 

and then customize them

 

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/1024x768q90/822/m2di.jpg

Edited July 14, 2014 by fountainpagan

[LuckyKate]

I use this kind of boxes

 

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/1024x768q90/842/8hv0i.jpg

 

and then customise them

 

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/1024x768q90/822/m2di.jpg

 

These are so pretty! what a good idea!

[WaskiSquirrel]

I figure that if I don't want people to read it, I shouldn't write it down. If I do write it down, I shred it and use it as the carbon in my compost. That can be a release too.

[Green Ink]

Great topic. I am so grateful my Dad kept a journal from about 1940 to 1950. He fought in WWII and it's all there. Courtship and marriage and first job too. It's on a stack of those yellow legal pads. My husband transcribed them into word documents on the computer. It's backed up in multiple locations.

 

We lived in Denmark for 3 years. I wrote almost daily. Reading those accounts takes us right back to those happy years. When we read them it's amazing how often we can't remember something even happening. So glad I have those. It's like nailing time to the wall.

 

I keep a handwritten journal in a notebook now. I keep the notebooks on bookshelves. I write precisely and thoughtfully with an EF nib.

 

I also write to vent frustrations and process messy thoughts on loose sheets of paper. I use a wide nib and really get after it. Just as I don't burden anyone with speaking about those things, I shred the paper after a few days. I like Waski_the_Squirrel's idea: compost!

[fountainpagan]

 

These are so pretty! what a good idea!

 

Thank you LuckyKate

[inkypete]

http://www.notemaker.com.au/nkuku-glass-and-metal-rectangular-box-large?default=10463

 

Just bought this and it sits on a shelf in my den. Love the old world simplicity and it fits A5 Clairefontaine notebooks perfectly.

[LuckyKate]

http://www.notemaker.com.au/nkuku-glass-and-metal-rectangular-box-large?default=10463

Just bought this and it sits on a shelf in my den. Love the old world simplicity and it fits A5 Clairefontaine notebooks perfectly.

 

That is gorgeous!

[inkstainedruth]

This has been a really interesting thread to read.

Right now, back volumes are in a nice box I got from IKEA (similar to but larger than the ones I store ink in), and it's in my upstairs hallway. Don't have a better solution yet as to where to store the BOX.... Or, for that matter, what happens when the box is filled up (other than go back to IKEA and get another one, and maybe by then we'll have finally gotten the leaks in the roof fixed and the boxes can be stored in the attic).

I just got the box recently, as the journals were starting to overrun the little foldout bookcase I use as a combination night stand and pen habit corral (the number of the smaller IKEA boxes has recently risen to 4, although there's nothing in it as yet; I suspect it will be the repository for duplicate bottles for the most part).

As for the discussion of positive/negative journal entries, my journals are what I've referred to in other threads as "the daily core dump". So, whatever ends up in my brain on any given day flows right down my arm and hand and out the nib. If it's negative, it doesn't matter. It's kind of a form of meditation, and catharsis, because I write it and it's done. I don't dwell on it, I don't go back and reread it. Someday somebody might, but I'll be dead and won't really care one way or the other, and if whoever reads it doesn't like what I might have written about them, it's on them to reflect as to why. Or not.

@ sombreuil -- I LOVE that quote! Mind horribly if I steal it (and possibly modify it to fit my personal circumstances)? I've been looking for a good motto.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Michigan]

I seal them into buff envelopes and keep them away from prying eyes.

 

It is quite possible they will be worth reading to my children or grandchildren. I certainly wish I had the thoughts of my grandparents during the Depression or my great grandfather in the French army. The further back in time, the more valuable an ancestor's thoughts would be to me.

[Mezzie]

I've been journaling since I was young, and I'm considering getting rid of my old journals. They're currently in a box in my closet. I was thinking I could read one per week, jot down things that I might want to remember in my current journal, and then shred. I know for a fact there's some really awful poetry that I would rather not have see the light of day.

 

As far as privacy goes... my little sister used to read them, but otherwise I doubt anyone has. I taped them shut several years ago when I had to store them at a friend's house while I was student teaching and renting a small room (all I could afford on zero pay). I haven't even opened the box since then; I assume everything is still taped shut.

 

The journals I have as an adult I may hang onto for a while yet. I just reread some entries from my first year teaching, actually (I came across that journal while I was cleaning out the garage). It was interesting, and I chose not to throw it away at this time, but I kind of doubt I'd feel any loss had I not run into it.

 

I'm starting to think my journals are less a record and more a ritual, and rituals don't need to be saved. Maybe I'll hang onto them for a year and let them go? Maybe I'll only keep the ones written during important life changes? I don't know. I'm not going to do anything until I feel sure, though; shredding can't be reversed.

[GatzBcn]

I don't have that many full journals - like 4 or 5 - but I completely understand your concern. I have a bookshelf and I store them in the last shelf, between that kind of stuff that seems worthless but I can't decide on throwing out. They go unnoticed, specially since my family doesn't know what they are.

I will probably do something similar once I live on my own. I am not concerned about my boyfriend. He has his own journals he doesn't want me to check, so we respect each other. And about kids... I will store them somewhere they go unnoticed, and hope for the best!

[lourdesgirl101]

In an overflowing crate. I really started journal writing in the fifth grade. I have a ton of journals - all from wide ruled composition/spiral notebooks, to Dollar General journals, to Exacompta and :Picadilly journals (my most recent since I've started using fountain pens). I've only just now started using a Black N Red casebound.

[Yaakova]

Why do you only write down the negative thoughts? Why no happy thoughts?

 

 

It's probably for the same reason that most country songs are about heartbreak and lost love. When the love affair is going well. You've got better things to do than write songs about it.

[TeaHive]

This thread has been a nice read. Lots of nifty ideas here, especially sealing your journals with wax. I may have to do that, more for the fun of opening my journals at a later date, like a gift of memory, than for privacy.

 

My own journals are just on my desk/bookshelf, as I have the good fortune to have a partner who respects my privacy, and a toddler who can't read yet. Not that I write anything particularly private or embarrassing to begin with. If I do feel the urge to write something ranty, negative, or something I simply don't want read and can't keep it committed to memory, I'll write in an alphabet I created. Otherwise, my journals are all lined up on a shelf to be plucked out as needed. Though I tend to collect journals and notebooks almost as much as I collect pens, so I may have to tuck a few of my full ones away just to free up some space. I was thinking of putting them in our safety deposit box, but I hate the idea of not having immediate access to them. Maybe a fire-proof lock-box would be a good investment.

 

Journalling is kind of both therapeutic and compulsive for me. Sometimes it's just the act of writing that's important, not the words, and sometimes I record observations along with sketches. Sometimes I want to write and have nothing to say, so I make long, rambling lists of nonsense. Plus, it gives me opportunity to use all the fountain pens I have inked.