What Junk Journaling Actually Is and Why Everyone’s Suddenly Obsessed

I saw this reel where this person was collecting all the tiny things that usually don’t get any attention in our everyday life like the bottle label, coffee bill, burger wrapper, and so many more things that we often don’t pay attention to!

And that reel was titled as “collecting for junk journaling”. Or something like that. I don’t remember the exact words but that was it meant. She was collecting all the tiny proofs of how the day went.

That was my introduction to junk journaling. And I haven’t stopped thinking about it since.

What even is junk journaling?

Junk journaling is basically taking all the little scraps of your everyday life — receipts, tickets, packaging labels, magazine clippings, old envelopes, fruit stickers (yes, fruit stickers) — and sticking them into a notebook.

That’s it.

It’s part journaling, part scrapbooking, part collage. But looser than all three. There’s no theme you have to follow. No perfectly pressed flowers or colour-coordinated washi tape (unless you want that, and then sure, go for it).

The “junk” is the whole point. It’s the ordinary bits of your week that usually end up in the bin — and instead, they become pages.

Why is everyone suddenly excited about it

I think we’re all just a little tired.

Tired of the screen. Tired of content. Tired of everything being digital and fast and optimised and perfect.

Junk journaling is the opposite of all of that. It’s slow. It’s tactile. You’re holding actual paper, cutting actual things, using actual glue. Your hands are busy and your brain gets to just… breathe.

And right now there’s this whole wave of people wanting to go analog again — do something that doesn’t involve a screen, pick up a hobby that actually uses their hands.

It’s also riding the anti-perfectionism wave really well. Because there is genuinely no wrong way to do it. You can’t mess it up. A wrinkled receipt glued slightly crooked is not a mistake. IT’S THE VIBE!

How it is different from an old school scrapbook?

Scrapbooking has this energy of I need the right photos, the right paper, the right occasion. It feels like a project. You kind of have to be in the mood and have the stuff ready. And I never felt like having one. 🙉

Junk journaling doesn’t need an occasion or fancy stuff.

It’s about the random meal you had when out with family or friends, the label you peeled off from something you ordered, the receipt from that lunch that was nothing special but was somehow really nice. Scrapbooking wants the highlight reel. Junk journaling wants everything else.

And I think that’s why it feels different when you sit down with it. A page that’s just three things stuck slightly crooked is a perfectly good page. Junk journal allows all that fun messy creativity.

Scrapbooking taught us to save the big moments. Junk journaling is quietly making a case for all the small ones.

What goes in the junk journal?

Pretty much anything paper. Or anything you can cut stick on paper.

If it means something even a little, it belongs in your junk journal.

• Café receipts and food bills
• Packaging stickers
• Cinema tickets, metro tickets, boarding passes
• Magazine clippings — a colour, a word, a face you liked
• Old birthday cards or greeting cards
• Tea bag tags, fruit stickers, price tags
• Handwritten notes to yourself
• Wrappers from your favourite chocolate
• Stamps, postal labels, tissue paper
• Polaroids or printed photos

Some people add washi tape and stamps and tiny drawings too. But the found scraps alone make beautiful pages.

How to start one

This is the part where I tell you that you don’t need to buy anything.

You will though if you are anything like me because my love of new stationary is… I don’t have words. 😌

So all you need is,

• An old notebook you’re not using (or a fresh new one with a fresh paper scent 😌)
• A glue stick (or even tape)
• Scissors
• Whatever’s sitting in your bag, your desk, your kitchen counter

Open the notebook. Pick three things to stick in. Done. That’s your first junk journal page.

If you want to get slightly more into it over time, add a few stickers, some washi tape, a stamp or two — that’s a whole lovely rabbit hole waiting for you.

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This is what Junk Journaling does to my brain

I honestly thought this would be a fun activity for me when I am bored or to take my mind of but it actually does something. It definitely calms the mind.

The whole process, cutting, arranging, and sticking — it soothes me.

You’re just making a little page out of your week. And somehow that ends up feeling like more self-care than a lot of things that get marketed as self-care.

Your mind gets a rare moment where it doesn’t have to produce anything meaningful or useful or deep.

I also started noticing that it becomes a soft archive of your ordinary days without you even trying. That café receipt becomes a memory. That sandwich paper becomes a story. Looking back at even just a few pages felt unexpectedly moving. Like proof that your regular days were worth something all along.

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What I love most about it

What I love most about junk journaling is what it says about the small stuff.

We’re always waiting for the big moments to document. Major trips and milestones or celebrations.

But junk journaling says, the Tuesday evening matcha, the random walk, the magazine you read on a slow Sunday — those count too.

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Those are worth keeping.

And I think we all kind of needed that reminder.

If you’re curious to try it, start this week. Save one receipt. One wrapper when you eat out. One little thing. See how it feels. ♥️