Old Journals

[PoetryLover]

I record journal entries on loose leaf paper and then place them in 3 ring binders. I have several of these binders, as well as some journal books. I'm wondering if others save their old journals or if they throw them away after a period of time. Should I pack them up in a box, start a scanning project and transfer them to the computer (this could take a long time), perhaps only transferring the more meaningful entries? Should I toss them all? Should I select the most meaningful entries out of all the binders and keep just one binder? Any other ideas? I write and consider some of the entries to be seeds for poems/stories/etc. And I'm also wondering what others do with this type of clutter. 

Privacy is important to me and it's hard to keep them up in a way that others won't come across them and read them.

Thanks!

[mylilmonkeys]

I don't have specific suggestions, but I recently discovered that my Grandmother keeps all her journals and has someone from her church come to the house (she lives with my mother) and read them to her.  She has macular degeneration so she can't read them herself, but I was fascinated to hear about it!  I'm hoping some day I can get a peek at one or more of them.  She had twins (my mom and her sister), and was the same age as I am when hers were born.  It would be so neat to read her experiences with them.  So, I would vote for keeping them in some format.  Maybe you can start scanning your entries from today forward and eventually get around to scanning older ones?

[*bejeweled*]

I need help with this also. Right now I keep them all in a bedside basket. But I have some old ones in a box somewhere in the garage and I need to find them and get rid of them (I think).

[MamaFern]

i journaled a lot when i was a teen and kept them for a long time. i recently had a big bonfire and burned them. it felt great! i would however perhaps keep a journal from motherhood, if i had time!

[philomom]

I journaled a lot as a teen and my journals were a dumping ground for all the thoughts it was not safe to say around my fundie parents. As you might suspect, some dark and very odd stuff fills their pages. They are now boxed up and away from my own kids all these years. I have been tempted to burn them but never could. I suspect I'll look through them after my kids are no longer at home and make a decision then. The box they take up is not so large that it doesn't fit under my long dresses in the closet.