What do you do with all of your old journals?

I lose them.

I would keep them for your children. They would love to learn a little bit about you and who you were and how they relate to what you wrote. They help others see your history and how you grew to be what you are today. I would keep them and keep adding to them for your personal history to pass on to posterity.

I’m pretty sure that a few of mine have been stolen and turned into best-sellers and blockbuster movies. The starlets are always prettier than most of my girlfriends, too.

Seems a shame to dispose of them. If you are hell bent on doing it, you can shred the pages if you are concerned someone might read them. There are companies who do bulk shredding, it is not very expensive, and they might be able to shred the whole book.

I never kept a journal when I was young. In sixth grade I wanted to buy a diary, and my mom said, “if you don’t want anyone to know, don’t right it down.” So, I didn’t buy the diary that day or ever. Now, sometimes I write my thoughts, but without consistency.

I reread them sometimes and look back on how I’ve changed

Put yourself in your childrens shoes. I would want to know what my mother or father went through at any point in their lives. I kept an extensive journal while in college and getting spun around in a relationship that everyone around me said would crash. It did and it was bad. Someday if any of my children end up in the same situation I am going to give them those journals. Our children identifying with us is far more important than some polished image they can or cant live up to. Till your ready to let them have them, even if thats after your passing some day, put them deep in a memory trunk somewhere and forget about them.

The notebooks are in the closet, somewhere. Livejournal is online and I’ve also archived it.

It depends on whether or not you would ever read them again yourself, since you say you don’t want anyone to read them EVER. But are you sure about that? Could you maybe ever meet someone you trust so completely that you would want to share it with them? I have some old journals and poetry and I am definately a saver, but every now and then I think how embarrassing it would be if anyone ever read them. Why do I keep them then? I have found that time has a funny way of revising events in my head. I have a memory of something that happened and I think it’s accurate and then I read in my journal about that same event and I find that it wasn’t that way at all. It has taught me something about myself to remember what I was like and what was going on in my head, say, when I was in high school. It’s first person and written only for you, so it’s honest, right?

Anyway, getting back to your question, I recently decided to buy a locking rolling file box from an office supply store. I paid about $60 for it. It has a double combination lock. So now I keep anything of a personal nature in my filebox.

I got rid of my old ones. Alot of the stuff in there was from my childhood/adolescence and it would be very embarassing for anyone to find. I put them in a black garbage bag, went to the local gas station and threw them in the dumpster there. Also, I took my full name off of any of the pages. I don’t miss them at all, I remember most of my childhood/adolescence (even though I don’t want to lol), it was a very awkward time that I would not want to relive again unless I knew everything that I know now. To me it was good riddance.

Ahhh, the good ole’ journal. I for one was a major “dear diary” fan. I kept my diary until a few years ago, after reading what mostly were lifes most embarrassing moments spewed to my so called diary BFF… I decided I like having more control over what people do and don’t know about me. I took a day and shredded each page by hand into multiple pieces almost like simulating the stereotypical “bra-burning feminist” lol!

They are in a plastic box (or boxes) in the storage bin in my basement.

Hubby locked them up in a storage chest (big wooden one, which has a large TV sitting on top). His perspective is that it’s my “ancient history” dating different guys and as such, should not be kept. I disagreed—I know I journaled a lot more than just who I was dating with for over 15+ years…
So, if I ever wanted to…with some great effort I could get ‘em out.
But, they won’t (easily) be accessible to our kids or anyone else who I’d rather not see/read them.

I’ve kept all mine. Such as they were. I’ve also kept all my snail mail and email since I was 18. Whether anyone could figure out how to get their hands on it, I don’t know. My journals are in a file cabinet. I don’t believe I have touched them since I put them there. I wonder if my kids will every search through the cabinets out of curiosity. I think I’d rather that they read them secretly because that way they can’t say anything about them to me. But I do want them to read them. I was a miserable teenager and I hope they don’t go through that.

[recycle old joke]I wish I was a dairy farmer so I could keep a daily dairy diary.[/recycle]

They’re spread out over various disembodied harddrives.

The few old notebooks are hidden beneath some junk in my desk drawer.

Hopefully no one will ever see them.

I’ve kept a written diary for 45 years but have lost most of them unfortunately. The last 11 years are on my PC.

I was wondering about this lately as I’ve been doing a clear-out. I’ve got a few journals which I don’t necessarily want to keep, but I think I’ll hold onto them all the same. My future kids might want to read them someday.

They sit on a bookshelf waiting for me to get my arse into gear and write something. I looked at one I started in 2008…the next entry was 2010 and I wrote something in 2011… does once a year count as journaling? My husband has now banned me from buying books to use as journals. I have quite a few.

I agree with some of the others – it’s funny to look back and see how your perspectives have changed. It may be a good way to connect with your children in the future because they always tend to think “you don’t understand” “this is completely different”. However as 7th heaven as it may seem letting them go through your journals/going through the journals with them may allow you to share experiences and grow closer (as long as you proofread them first!). Every generation encounters the same problems and everyday situations, although the technology changes social patterns do not and your children can see how their own parents reacted to similar situations instead of you lecturing them on the right/wrong thing to do.