Starting a Junk Journal Together Isn't as Hard as You Think
A junk journal is just a book filled with scraps - tickets, receipts, old newspaper clippings, pressed flowers, random bits of fabric. When two people make one together, it becomes a shared memory archive. Not something fancy or perfectly aligned, just a real document of your life that you can flip through. I've made maybe six of these over the years, and the ones I made with a partner ended up being the most useful. Not because they looked better. They looked exactly the same - messy, uneven, with pages sticking out at weird angles. But they captured more actual stuff. Two people bring twice the paper clippings, photos, and little artifacts. The journal fills up faster and covers more of your shared history.
Junk Journal For Couples: What Actually Happens
Here's the practical side of things. You need a base book. Doesn't matter what kind. I use recycled notebooks you can find at dollar stores - the thick spiral-bound ones with the fake leather cover. You can also bind your own pages with thread if you want it to last longer. A spiral notebook works fine for the first one. Get used to the process before spending money on materials. Gather materials from both of you separately. Go through your pockets, your junk drawer, your car console. One person might have movie tickets and coffee receipts. The other might have postcards and handwritten notes. Combine everything into a pile. Sort by type and color if that helps you decide where things go, but honestly it doesn't matter much. Start gluing. Use a glue stick - white glue warps the pages and takes forever to dry. Mod Podge works too if you want something that seals and adheres at the same time. Paste down items randomly or in some loose order. Some pages get dense with overlapping layers. Other pages stay mostly empty with one big thing in the center. Both approaches are valid.
The real challenge comes when you're deciding what to include. Every couple I know argues about this part. One person wants to preserve everything. The other thinks it's pointless clutter. I found a middle ground that works: keep a separate folder or envelope where you toss stuff you're not sure about. Come back to it a month later. Half of it feels meaningless by then. The rest gets added to the journal.
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Tools and Supplies That Actually Work
You don't need a fancy supply haul. Here's what I actually use: Glue stick (Elmer's or any brand, doesn't matter) Paper scissors - not metal ones, the plastic craft kind
Pocket envelopes you can make from scrap paper Washi tape for securing loose items without glue A bone folder or butter knife for creasing folds
That's it. If you want to get more elaborate you can add embellishments like stamps, stickers, or hand-drawn borders. I usually skip those. The whole point is that it looks like junk. Making it look decorative defeats the purpose slightly.
The Problem With Photo Adhesive
Here's something nobody tells you about including photos. Regular glue ruins them over time. The acids in standard adhesives yellow and degrade photos within a few years. I learned this the hard way with a journal from 2014. Several pictures from 2011 were already brown around the edges. The workaround is to use photo corners - small triangular pieces of acid-free paper that hold the photo in place without touching the image itself. You can buy them pre-made or cut your own from scrap cardstock. It adds maybe two minutes per photo but saves the actual image. Another thing to watch out for: magazine pages have glossy coatings that repel glue. Nothing sticks to them unless you score the surface first. Take a needle or pin and lightly scratch the glossy area in a crosshatch pattern. The glue will actually grab onto it after that. Works for glossy receipts and candy wrappers too.
Building It Together as a Couple
The collaborative aspect changes how the journal develops. Rather than one person dictating the aesthetic, you get competing layers. One person pastes something sentimental like a concert ticket stub. The other covers part of it with a recipe clipping because the space looked empty. This is supposed to happen. That's the whole point. Sit down together on a weekend and work through the pile. Pick a song, pour some drink, spread everything out on a table. The process takes about ninety minutes for the first journal. Subsequent ones go faster because you stop second-guessing every placement decision. I usually finish one in under an hour now. Set some loose rules so it doesn't become a source of tension. Rule one: no removing something the other person already glued down. Rule two: each person gets equal page allocation roughly. If one person is heavier on photo content and the other is more text or ticket heavy, it evens out naturally over time.
When This Approach Falls Apart
I should be straight about where junk journals don't work. If one person in the relationship has severe OCD about organization, this hobby will frustrate them. The whole premise is embracing disorder. There's no way around that. Maybe try a scrapbook instead, which has a more structured format with predictable page layouts and photo sleeves. Another limitation: junk journals are not archival quality unless you go out of your way to use acid-free materials. Everything I described above uses regular supplies from a craft store or office supply place. The journal will yellow and deteriorate over five to ten years. If preserving something for decades matters to you, buy acid-free paper and archival glue. It triples the cost and the shopping trip length but the result lasts significantly longer. Some couples also discover they have completely different thresholds for what counts as worth keeping. One person's precious memento is the other person's trivial trash. This isn't a dealbreaker. It just means the journal will reflect one person's priorities in certain sections. That's fine. No journal captures everything anyway.
Next Steps
Start with whatever you have lying around. Old notebooks, random papers, whatever's in your recycling bin. Don't wait until you have the right supplies. The first junk journal is always slightly disappointing because you're learning as you go. The second one is always better. By the third, you have a system that works for both of you and you're making something you'll actually look back on. If you want to download a free template to organize your first session, there are several options online. Search for "junk journal template PDF" and pick one that matches how much structure you want. Some are blank pages meant to be decorated. Others have pre-printed pockets and slots. The pre-printed ones save time but limit customization. I prefer making my own pockets from scrap paper anyway. Just start. The worst journal you make together is still better than nothing.
