Shelf Full of Partially full Notebooks
@allyoftherain (7208)
United States
April 4, 2012 3:54pm CST
I have this strange antic, or maybe more accurately a mild obsession, with filling up notebooks. I used to hate it when a teacher in high school would demand I buy a brand new notebook for their class, and then we wouldn't even fill it an 1/8th of the way through before the year was up. It left me with dozens of partially filled notebooks from kindergarden to college. Around high school time, I started picking up an old notebook and writing in them. As a journal, dream journal, idea notebook, school notes, I would write about absolutely anything and everything carrying the notebook with me everywhere until finally the notebook was full. I've been storing my full notebooks, notepads, and journals (the awesome bound kind) on a shelf in my vanity. I've got more than 30 filled notebooks, but I've still got a whole other shelf full of partially full notebooks. I even count them. There are 19 left.
I just hate to see pages left blank. I couldn't stand to recycle them or throw them away. Does anyone else ever feel like this? Do you write in notebooks or journals? Do you also try to fill up every page before you put the notebook away?
3 people like this
6 responses
@penrockerchic (1903)
• Philippines
5 Apr 12
It's kind of strange that we sort of feel the same with unfilled notebooks. I don't throw mine away at once. I stock them up on a shelf and back then, I used to write poetry and put them anywhere in those pages of those notebooks with unfilled pages. If I don't write on them, I doodle or sketch and even practice my personal signature. I did a lot of things with those notebooks. I used to recycle some of those for the next school year especially with subjects that I know won't take up too much space on my notebooks. That's just the way I was. Although, I really like new notebooks as well, but let's say I was more practical with subjects that I don't have that much interest on and so when there's a notebook that I haven't really used that much, I use the remaining pages of the notebook and even write from the last page towards the half of it.
3 people like this
@allyoftherain (7208)
• United States
5 Apr 12
It's nice to know that I'm not alone, and I'm not the only one who doesn't like to throw them away! I'm kind of guilty of going out and buying nice bound journals for my diary and my dream journal. I don't like writing personal stuff in nasty old spirals, but I also can't stand to see the nasty old spirals go in the trash with so much good paper still in them! I tend to use a nicer journal for my diary. Right now I'm using a old spiral for my dream journal, and another old notebook for to-do lists, poetry, story ideas, random thoughts and the like.
2 people like this
@penrockerchic (1903)
• Philippines
5 Apr 12
Yeah, I buy nice notebooks for personal diaries, when I used to write them. But now, I only do poetry when I have the time. I do have a few notebooks I keep to write something about. I remember than when I was still in school, I changed my preferences from 50-100 page notebooks to filler notebooks so that I won't have to be so guilty not being able to fill out those pages with school notes and the like. Filler notebooks were a lot better when I hit my later part of high school, but when I went to college, I started using notebooks again, the thick ones. I love to use those big notebooks back then for clearer notes, but when some pages weren't filled out, I liked drawing some sketches on them, since they were bigger and better.
3 people like this
@allyoftherain (7208)
• United States
5 Apr 12
I wish I'd done filler notebooks when I was in high school. I also have a tendency to try and fill up all the empty space. My favorite doodle is to draw mermaids. I've filled whole pages with them. One time a teacher actually caught me doodling mermaids. He had the strangest reaction but he didn't tell me to stop. lol
@maezee (41985)
• United States
5 Apr 12
Holy cow! That's a lot of half-used notebooks. I probably have about 5, but I do the same things. Sometimes I will start a journal and the novelty will wear off on me like 2 days later. Then sometimes I just write to do lists, budgets, and other random notes in notebooks and forget about them. Maybe I even started writing a story or two in one of them, I can't recall. 
. I think I have about 4 or 5 that have been sort-of used. But like you, I can't throw them out. For some reason.
. I think I have about 4 or 5 that have been sort-of used. But like you, I can't throw them out. For some reason.3 people like this
@allyoftherain (7208)
• United States
5 Apr 12
It is a bunch. They were all hiding in secluded corners of the house and my room, but I've slowly gathered them up over the course of 2-3 years and now they're all in a shelf under my nightstand. I think if I knew where they all were then I wouldn't have so many, but then again I'm not so sure because most of them came from school. I also write random things like to-do lists and budgets in them. I've also got some "pretty journals" for lack of a better term, which I would prefer to write in and I COULD NOT throw away such pretty notebooks! Even when it's a ugly spiral and I could probably justify throwing it out, I just can't do it!
2 people like this
@ladym33 (10978)
• United States
4 Apr 12
My mom actually used to make us fill ours up. We couldn't have new ones until we finished one. We had to take the half filled ones from the previous year and tear out the old stuff and either throw it out or put it in a folder and then we used what was left, once it was filled we got another one. I try to use them all up. At the moment I have three that are only partially written on but I like to think I will eventually use the whole thing up.
3 people like this
@allyoftherain (7208)
• United States
4 Apr 12
Sounds like a great mom! I got away with that a few times, but I had some teacher who would actually forbid it. Imagine that! What a waste it was. It's great to see someone else who wants to fill up all their old notebooks. It must be nice to only have 3 to worry about. I've made progress, but like I said... only down to 19 or so left! lol
2 people like this
@natnickeep (2336)
• United States
4 Apr 12
That is so interesting. I bet you will have much fun looking back on these one days. You can also get new ideas from old ones. I am the same way my kids every year come home with note books with only a few pages full. We end up reusing them some how or another.
3 people like this
@allyoftherain (7208)
• United States
4 Apr 12
I agree, I've already seen plenty of evidence of it! I've gone through my old notebooks and found ideas I haven't thought about in ages. It's great that I wrote them down when I did, or I would have forgotten them ages ago!
It's good that you reuse those notebooks. I'm glad that my teachers supplied me with so many notebooks, but I'm also a little miffed that they would do that. I'm all for getting a notebook to use in school, but that notebook really should get used and it hardly ever does!
2 people like this
@dream_ozn (1752)
• Singapore
4 Apr 12
Hi,
I have exactly the same problem as you do. During my younger school days, we had to buy a new notebook every year and the irritating thing is that teachers never get them filled up. Worst of all, we had to buy notebooks with the school logos in it which were not the prettiest thing in the world :) and they ended up in bits of paper cause since they were not so pretty, and i didn't want to waste the remaining paper inside them, i decided to tear those paper out and use them as scrap paper.
Like you, i have a mile obsession with notebook and similarly, i would alway start a journal, a diary, but i never get to finish writing them. and because these i can say slightly prettier notebooks, i would never want to throw them. i love notebook and everything i want to reward myself, i would purchase a notebook, telling myself that it's something that i 'll use as i'm a college student currently and would be needing it for class..
However, sometimes my notesbooks are too pretty that i can't bear to write on them for fear of spoiling them :)
I guess these notebooks would be staying on my shelves for the next couple of years!
@allyoftherain (7208)
• United States
5 Apr 12
I'll also wind up buying pretty bound journals when there are plenty of unfilled not-so-pretty notebooks at home! I am sometimes a little afraid to write in them because I feel like writing in them would ruin them. Even though I think I like the sight of a completely filled notebook just as much! Right now I've got a few pretty bound notebooks, but I've forbid myself from writing in them until I finish all the unfinished notebooks.
2 people like this
@bagarad (14283)
• Paso Robles, California
5 Apr 12
I'm looking at a few of those above my head right now. I start them for different purposes and then stop doing that. I have one I was filling with inventory notes for my business -- for making the actual count of inventory. I had another one where I wrote titles by publisher that were out of stock. I should really pull them all out and clean up that corner and use the rest up. I may actually have some writing notes in some of these. I'm almost 70, but I've never thrown out my high school and college notebooks. I wonder why I keep some of them. I probably will never reread most of them. Glad you brought this up.
2 people like this
@allyoftherain (7208)
• United States
5 Apr 12
That's actually kind of sad to me. Poor notebooks that lay unfilled and unread for years. Glad I was able to remind you that they're still there. I hope you do get to finish some of them off and re-read over what you wrote in them.
