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For Hope: What to do with old diaries / journals
Lurkers were included in the request, right? : )
With the New Year I am trying to clean up/organize. I have about 5 journals that I've kept throughout the years (most from about 15-20 years ago). I don't know if I should shred or keep. I doubt I will take the time to read through all of them, nor would I ever want anyone else to read them. But for pure nostalgia, I can't seem to destroy.
What have you all done? Hopefully someone can relate... or I'll feel really silly being the only one with a diary!
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Re: For Hope: What to do with old diaries / journals
I found this on unclutter.com:
It's a cute article, but the issue is that most people probably have a mixture of the above reasons. I keep mine.
I have a pretty lock box that I keep on the top shelf of my closet that has my old journals in it. Next to it I have my old toy box that I have all my childhood memory things in (girl scout uniform, porcelain unicorns, stuffed animal, notes and letters from old friends (some are IM chats that I printed!), coloring pages, art projects, old pictures, camp shirts, school spirit memorabilia etc) I love to look through it and remember. DD#1 is increasingly interested in it and I love to share my past with her. When my DD's are older I *might* share some of my old journals with them just to relate to their teenage angst... we'll see!
I actually used to have two additional boxes of stuff but I weeded everything out and organized it all into the toy box or the lock box and everything else got chucked. I shredded a few things, like some of these ridiculously embrassing stories I used to write that I dont even want to see anymore! And some notes with people I wasn't that great of friends with or didn't mean a lot to me.
***former hoarder/pack rat, almost fully recovered***
I used to have every diary and journal that I'd ever made, starting with my first grade journal (Mostly illegible). I have a huge box that I carried from house to house every time I moved, along with loads of other art-related memorabilia. One day, I realized that I would rather eat glass than ever share any of that stuff with any living soul on this planet. I realized I was just carrying around this giant box of shame with me everywhere I went in life. I was forced to downsize everything at the end of 2009 when J and I bought an RV and moved all our stuff into storage.
I broke them up into smaller, inconspicuous looking packages and threw them in dumpsters in rest stops along the interstate going south from when I lived at the time. I didn't really have a place to burn them safely, and it seemed like the easiest way to get rid of them myself one afternoon.
Mine are all boxed up in the top of my closet but I love going back periodically and reading them. If I die, I think DH will be the only one to read them, and I don't think he will be too surprised by the contents. I'm a big time journal person and I can't imagine burning them.