What the Heck Am I Supposed to Do With a Junk Journal, Anyway?

So you bought (or made) a junk journal. It’s weird. It’s beautiful. It smells like old paper and chaos. And now it’s just… sitting there. Judging you.

Welcome to the club, bud 😁 I've been there too!

If you’ve found yourself staring at your junk journal thinking, “Okay, but what do I actually DO with this?”—you’re not alone.

There is a certain enigmatic charm to a junk journal. They’re a little bit scrapbook, a little bit art journal, a little bit mystical trash goblin hoard. The possibilities are endless, which is thrilling… and also a tiny bit paralyzing.

So let’s break it down! Here are some ideas and options when you're feeling stuck.

 

✂️ 1. Use It as a Low-Pressure Journal

 

Forget clean lines and bullet points. This is not your 2020 planner. This is where you write sideways, in fragments, in glitter pen, on top of a receipt from your last thrift store haul. It’s a diary for people who hate diaries. There are no rules. Just feelings. And glue.

 

🕯️ 2. Make It a Time Capsule

Glue in ticket stubs, fortune cookie slips, weird flyers, leaves you found on a walk, cryptic notes you wrote to yourself at 2am. You’re preserving the weird little moments that don’t make it into your camera roll. Years from now, Future You will be delighted and mildly confused.

🖤 3. Turn It Into a Grimoire, Dream Journal, or Ritual Book

If you’re even a little witchy (or just love the aesthetic), your junk journal can become a home for spells, intentions, moon phase doodles, weird dreams, tarot pulls, and spiritual scraps. It’s like your own personal Book of Shadows, only with more washi tape.

 

📚 4. Collect Quotes, Lyrics, and Inspo

You know those phrases that hit you right in the soul? Stick them in your junk journal. Write them in ornate script or scrawl them messily on masking tape. Layer them with images and textures. Let it become your personal little gospel of words that matter.

 

🎨 5. Play. Collage. Doodle. Make a Beautiful Mess.

You don’t have to have a plan. Just start. Rip paper. Glue random things together. Stamp a moth on a page and call it a metaphor. You’re not making art for a museum—you’re making a layered artifact of your curiosity.

💌 6. Use It to Send Secret Messages to Yourself

Tuck tiny notes between pages. Write letters you’ll never send. Make a “things I’m afraid to say out loud” page. Nobody ever has to see it but you. Your junk journal is a safe place for the unfiltered parts of you.

📖 7. Do Nothing With It. Let It Be an Object of Beauty and Chaos.

Maybe your journal isn’t for anything. Maybe it’s just a gorgeous, tactile little creature you made or adopted. That’s enough. It’s a shrine to your aesthetic, a collage of your inner world. Let it exist. Let it rest. Pet it lovingly from time to time.

 

TL;DR: Junk journals don’t come with instruction manuals. That’s the point.

They're weird. They're wonderful. They're whatever you need them to be. So whether you fill it, flip through it, or just hoard it like a dragon with paper scraps—if it makes you happy, know that you’re doing it right!

 

Still unsure what to do with yours? Try this: grab the weirdest piece of ephemera in your stash, glue it to a random page, and write the first word that comes to mind. There. You’ve begun.

Craft boldly. Curate chaotically. And stay curious!

🖤 Krysta 

Bibliophagy & Esoterica, est. 2021

Woman-owned Missouri-based small business specializing in junk journals, craft supplies, crafting-themed apparel & thoughtfully repurposed mischief.