Sometimes junk journaling can feel like you’re just putting the “junk” you’ve collected into your journal. (Hence the name, I get it, I get it.)

And I do love the idea of creating art from paper memories you’ve saved. But I also want my journal to feel like a journal. Something more personal than just paper layered on top of paper.

Over time, I’ve collected a few ways of doing that. They’re not really techniques exactly but more like a few ways that help me get started. 

Because I think when people start junk journaling, the hardest part isn’t having ideas. It’s figuring out how to make it feel like your journal instead of a collection of things you’ve pasted in.

These are the three ways I come back to that help my journal it feel more like mine.

3 Junk Journaling Ideas to Make Your Pages More Personal

Monthly roundups

Monthly roundups are the most consistent way I journal.

Every month, I create a quick summary of highlights. Not so much in a detailed, diary way, but more like collecting the small moments that stood out.

I’ve been doing some version of this for over a decade, so I can’t really remember where the original list came from. It started off much longer, something like:

• Reading
• Watching
• Listening
• Cooking
• Eating
• Drinking
• Buying
• Wearing
• Crafting
• Laughing
• Going
• Planning
• Dreaming
• Loving
• Feeling
• Celebrating

Over time, I’ve simplified it and made it more flexible. I don’t feel the need to fill out every category anymore. I mostly focus on the ones that actually feel relevant that month. If nothing really stood out in a category, I leave it out.

Now it usually looks more like:

• Reading: what I read, and a quick thought on it
• Watching: movies or shows
• Listening: music I discovered or came back to
• Eating: meals, snacks, restaurants (this usually covers drinking too)
• Buying: anything I picked up that stuck with me
• Going: places I went (restaurants, parks, museums, time with friends)
• Loving: a general feeling, or something I felt especially grateful for

I write it all in paragraph form to save space. For example: “This month I read Circe by Madeline Miller and really liked it. I watched I Love LA on HBO Max and gave it five stars. I discovered girlsweetvoiced on Spotify and kept spearmint on repeat. I went to Grazie Nonna and their vodka pasta was amazing. I bought the Aloha Tb.490s in yellow and they’re comfy and I’m obsessed with the laces. I spent a lot of time at the park reading. I’ve been loving the spring weather and going on walks with friends.”

It’s simple, but it captures the feeling of the month in a way that feels complete enough for me.

P.S. If you want to take a peek at the journal cards I use to round up my month, click here.

Monthly R.E.P.O.R.T.s

I’ve also thought about shifting this into more of a “monthly R.E.P.O.R.T.” format at some point, something like:

• Reading: books, articles, podcasts
• Eating: meals, snacks, restaurants
• Playing: music, shows, hobbies
• Obsessing: things I couldn’t stop thinking about
• Recommending: anything worth sharing with others
• Treating: small things I got for myself

It’s slightly different categories, but it does the same thing. It gives you a snapshot of your life at that time.

That’s really the part I come back to. Being able to look back and see paterns in my life. What I was into, what I kept returning to, what felt good, what didn’t. I can pinpoint times in my life where I felt more balanced, like when I was consistently going on walks or spending more time outside, and that’s something I wouldn’t notice as clearly without writing it down.

Making my own stickers

I use stickers a lot in my journal, mostly for titles, headers, or small illustrations that add to the page without needing to draw everything by hand.

I’m not an artist by nature, so this is a way I can still bring in visual elements without overthinking it or spending too much time trying to get something “right.”

Most of the time, I’ll find fonts or free illustrations online, arrange them on my iPad or computer, and print them out as sticker sheets. Sometimes it’s just words for titles, or it’s small icons or shapes that fit whatever I’m working on.

It saves time and I’m not stopping every few minutes to figure out how to draw something or comparing my art skills to other journalers. I can find something that works and keep building.

It still feels personal, even if I didn’t draw or design every single element myself. 

Building the page

A lot of my journaling starts with paper.

In my blog post about elevating your junk journal, I mentioned that I almost always start with some kind of background. Usually scrapbooking paper or wrapping paper I’ve collected over time. I find it easier to begin that way rather than starting with a blank page.

From there, I build everything up by tearing and layering.

Sometimes I’ll use a ruler to get a cleaner edge, but most of the time I’m just tearing it by hand. I love seeing how I can arrange the pieces as collage. Almost like a puzzle. You’re moving things around, adjusting, using what you have, and seeing what fits where.

This first step in the process is the reason I journal this way at all. Working with your hands is a tactile and therapeutic practice. It slows your focus down to actually create. And what you’re creating happens to be a little scrapbook of your life.

And that’s usually what it’s about for me.