Old journals
What to Do With Old Journals: Keep, Reread, Archive or Let Go
The short answer
What to do with old journals comes down to one question: would you want to read them again? If yes, keep them somewhere dry or scan the pages you’d miss. If you aren’t sure, seal them in a dated box and decide in a year. If no, shred them. Start with one notebook.
In 30 seconds
- Sort one notebook at a time, starting with the nearest.
- Keep, scan, seal for later or let go. All four are fine.
- Each choice comes with one privacy step.
- Write down what should happen to them, so nobody has to guess.
The poet Philip Larkin kept about thirty volumes of diaries. Before he died in December 1985, he asked for them to be destroyed (opens in a new tab), and they were.
They were shredded, though a few covers survived, and an archive in Hull (opens in a new tab) keeps them. He was famous. Your notebooks have a smaller audience.
But the question is the same.
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What to do with old journals, in four choices
You have four honest options, and none of them is wrong.
Say there’s a shoebox of notebooks on top of the wardrobe. It has moved house with you three times. The tape on the lid says KITCHEN, which it has never been.
| Choice | What you do | Privacy step | Good when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Keep | Store them indoors, dry, in a box | A lid, in a room only you use | You’d like to reread them one day |
| Scan | Photograph the pages you’d miss | A private folder, never a shared album | Space is short, or you move a lot |
| Seal for later | Tape a box shut, with a date on it | “Private” and your name on the tape | You can’t decide yet |
| Let go | Shred the pages and loose notes | Check every pocket and cover first | You never want them read |
You can mix rows.
Plenty of shelves would look better with two kept notebooks and a slim folder of scans than with a box nobody has opened since it was taped shut in a hurry on moving day.
And the daily journaling habit that filled the box can carry on in a fresh notebook, whichever row you pick.
Decide one notebook at a time, never the whole box.
Should you keep old journals?
Yes, if a small part of you wants to read them again. Curiosity is reason enough here.
The tricky part is where they live. The Library of Congress says valuable things shouldn’t be stored (opens in a new tab) in basements or attics. Heat and damp swing about there, and leaks happen.
So the box goes inside the home.
A cupboard works, as long as it’s away from the bathroom wall and from the window that gets the afternoon sun, which fades a cover faster than you’d think.
- A box with a lid keeps out dust and curious hands.
- Notebooks can stand upright like books, or lie flat.
- Dried flowers and old receipts are better out of the pages.
- The year goes on each spine, in pencil.
How to reread old journal entries without losing an evening
Rereading is how you decide, so do it in ten-minute visits. A whole decade in one sitting is a lot of past you (and the tea goes cold somewhere around 2017).
Pick one notebook and open it at a random page.
When ten minutes are up, close it, even mid-sentence.
If old lines make you wince, you’re in good company, and rereading without the cringe has a gentler way in.
| A page might say | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| “Missed the bus. Ate a whole packet of biscuits at the stop.” | Keep. You’ll want this one later. |
| “Bought a plant. It leans toward the window like it wants out.” | Scan. One photo holds the plant forever. |
| “Same argument again. Not writing it down.” | Seal. Decide next year. |
| “Three pages about someone you never think about now” | Let go, if that feels right. |
| “Started a journal. This is it.” | Keep the first page, at least. |
Most of the time, the answer turns up on the first page you open. Your first feeling on reopening is useful.
A phone can serve rereading in much smaller doses. In Yumemira, the small-steps goal journal for iPhone, the Journal tab can show a Two weeks ago today card.
One old line. Then you’re back in your evening.
How to digitise old journals with your iPhone
Scanning keeps the words without keeping the paper. Start with the pages you’d miss, since a whole notebook takes a while.
Open Notes.
Make a new note for one notebook.
Scan the pages.
Tap the Attachment button, then Scan Documents, as Apple’s scanning guide (opens in a new tab) shows.
Name the note.
The notebook’s years are enough, like “2016 to 2018”.
Check one page.
Zoom in and read a line before the notebook goes back in the box.
A scan is a copy, and copies get lost too. Our guide to backing up a journal covers a second copy and how to check it.
We make an iPhone journal, so we’re biased toward phones. Still, paper keeps perfectly well in a dry box, and nobody has to scan a single page.
If your next journal lives in Yumemira, the backup is built in. Settings › Backup saves your journal and notes to a file you keep, and Settings › Export data makes a plain text copy. Both are free.
The full steps are on our journal help page. A file you can still open in ten years is a nice thing to own.
Seal them for later, with a date on the box
Can’t decide? Then don’t decide yet.
The notebooks go in a box with a date a year from now on top.
It takes the box off tonight’s list without throwing anything away. And next year’s you gets a vote.
Seal a box of old journals
Ticks stay in this browser. Nothing is sent.
One more line matters.
Somewhere your family would look, write what should happen to them if you never get round to deciding.
Larkin’s wish was only spoken. Write your wish down, in one plain line.
Should you throw away or burn your old journals?
You can, if you never want them read and keeping them feels heavy. Letting go is allowed.
The safest way is to shred, not bin.
A whole notebook in the recycling can still be opened by anyone who lifts the lid.
- Shred page by page, or use a shredding service you trust.
- Loose sheets and photos come out of the covers first.
- Spiral wire and hard covers come off before the paper goes through.
- One page you’d like to remember can be photographed first.
Burning sounds final. But it also means smoke and sparks, plus a pile of ash that still has half a word on it, so the shredder is the calmer tool.
If privacy is the real worry, more than space, keeping a journal private may let you hold on to them after all. Our privacy page lists what stays on your iPhone.
Tonight, sort one notebook and write one line
Take one notebook, the nearest one. Read one page, and put it in one of the four piles.
That’s a small, finished thing.
And small finished things are easy to write about, so tonight’s line can be about what you chose.
If you’d like that line to sit beside a small daily goal, 
try it in Yumemira. On paper, the same trick works fine without the star.
The shoebox can stay on the wardrobe a while longer. One notebook is plenty.
Questions people ask
Should I throw away my old journals?
Only if you never want them read and keeping them feels heavy. If you aren’t sure, seal them in a dated box for a year instead. If you do let them go, shred the pages first, since a whole notebook in the bin can still be read.
Should I burn my old journals?
A shredder is the calmer choice. It works indoors and makes no smoke. Before the pages go through, take off any spiral wire and check every cover for notes tucked inside.
Is reading old journal entries a good idea?
It’s the plainest way to decide what to keep, and the pages were written for you anyway. Try ten minutes at a time from a random page, and stop when it stops being useful.
How do I store old journals?
Keep them in a lidded box in a cool, dry cupboard inside your home. The Library of Congress advises against basements and attics, where heat and damp swing about. Take out receipts and dried flowers.
What should I do with old bullet journals?
The same four choices apply. Bullet journals often mix plans with private lines, so you might scan the trackers and pages they’re proud of, then keep or shred the rest. Check for loose stickers and tucked-in notes first.
Sources
TopicKeep journaling
You earned the Small Step badge
You read to the end. Tonight, open one old notebook and sort it.
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Yumemira is an iPhone app (iOS 18 or later).
Journal help: backups and privacyYumemira is free to start. iPhone, iOS 18 or later.