Uses for moleskine?

June 25, 2009 10:44 AM

What are some other uses for my moleskine besides the normal sketching/writing stories?

I used it a lot during the school year for notes and other things like that, but now that it's summer, it has just been sitting there gathering dust. So what are some things I could use it for? I'm not really into sketching or writing stories, so what are some other ideas? (semi-covered here)

posted by Deflagro to grab bag (26 comments total)

When I went to SE Asia for two weeks, I took a Moleskine as a travel journal. Besides writing in it, I had a glue stick and glued into it various slips of paper that I picked up: Cambodian money, my ticket to Angkor Wat, one of the passport photos I had taken for my visa to Laos. A journal doesn't have to be written/drawn to be interesting.
posted by fatbird at 10:47 AM on June 25 [2 favorites has favorites]

Well, not to besmirch the moleskine (I'm a fan and have a ton of them myself), but the thing is just a notebook. Use it for whatever you'd use a notebook for. Don't treat it as something holy that has to contain Deep Thoughts. I carry mine around and use it to jot daily notes: grocery lists, the names of songs I like, possibly blog posts, excerpts from books, names and phone numbers, etc. But if you wouldn't use a notebook to do these things, then don't use a moleskine for them.

"A notebook by any other name..."
posted by jdroth at 10:58 AM on June 25 [8 favorites has favorites]

You can get creative with that. If you have a spare lying around that you want to deface, that is.
posted by prufrock at 11:01 AM on June 25

Among other things, I use mine to record my bank / debit card stuff -- I hardly ever use my checkbook and never remember to use the transaction register that comes with my checks. I also jot down the names of books that I want to read, things to buy, reminders to pay my bills, etc. And my stamps live in the little pocket in the back for when I need to mail a card, otherwise I'll lose them.
posted by alynnk at 11:04 AM on June 25

Use it as:

a coaster
a prop to prop up a lamp
a wallet
a cushion to keep you off wet grass
a place to deseed your weed
a cutting board
something to throw back and forth
something for your dog to fetch
toilet paper
posted by OmieWise at 11:07 AM on June 25 [2 favorites has favorites]

Start a health diary. Log the food you eat every day, what exercise you've done, weight.
posted by jabberjaw at 11:07 AM on June 25

•try out every pen on your desk to see which one flatters your hand writing the best

•list of everyone you've had sex with

•ideas for new candy bars (DARK CHOCOLATE, MACADAMIAS, AND....PRETZELS)

•list of every topping you think would be good on a pizza

•when I meet people at a party I'll photograph them, write their name in my little tiny moleskine, then post the labeled photo on Flickr; this is pretty much the only way I can remember people's names because I can remember things I've indexed on the internet better than actual memories (so sad)

•invent new sexual positions with stick figures

•sit in a busy place and write down something nice about everyone you see

•analog twitter: write down catty comments about random strangers you're people watching

•doodle during phone calls

•go all charles crumb on that ish with some hella hypergraphia
posted by Juliet Banana at 11:08 AM on June 25 [7 favorites has favorites]

analog twitter: write down catty comments about random strangers you're people watching

OMG! I thought I was the only one who did that :D
posted by prufrock at 11:09 AM on June 25 [1 favorite has favorites]

I do a lot of lists, and more generally use it as a repository for things I want to remember. Things to do, things I've seen, things I want to see, etc.
posted by craven_morhead at 11:19 AM on June 25

I usually carry around a moleskine and a small knitting project in my bag, and the moleskine contains pattern/progress notes for the knitting. I also print out stitch patterns and attach them to the front of the book with the little band thingy - it's a super convenient reference. It'd work for other crafts/hobbies too.

I also love taking my notebook (moleskine or otherwise) to a coffeeshop or diner and just doodling silly stuff while I eat lunch.
posted by Metroid Baby at 11:22 AM on June 25

I use one to keep track of Pro Tools shortcuts and information regarding my various Pro Tools recording sessions.
posted by The World Famous at 11:25 AM on June 25

Write an essay about how the things you want to do should determine the objects you carry, not the other way around.
posted by 0xFCAF at 11:35 AM on June 25 [7 favorites has favorites]

Well, it's not a particularly novel use of a Moleskine (or any blank book) but I started keeping a regular old analog journal with a pocket-sized Moleskine about two years ago. Nothing epic or literary, just a page or two every day or so summing up recent events, weather, frames of mind, et cetera.

I'm really glad I did, and wish I had established the habit sooner! A year or two doesn't seem like that long of a time, but it's amazing how quickly details, names, and dates can fade from memory. I find it fascinating to page through earlier books (I'm on number 5 or 6 now) and see what I was up to 12, 18, 24 months ago; how much I've forgotten, and how well I can remember it from just a couple of sentences.

Plus you can put souvenirs in the pocket; a movie or concert ticket stub, a leaf from a tree, a Metro Card from a trip to NYC, or whatever.
posted by usonian at 11:47 AM on June 25

I worked for a company that represented the US importer of Moleskines, so I have a literal shit-ton of them around the house.

I use one as a garden journal--I track what we plant and when, make notes throughout the season about how things are faring, what we do to care for it. I stick in plant tags and sometimes pictures of whatever's going on.

We also use one as a house journal, tracking the various repairs, restoration, and tinkering our old house requires. There's a lot of fun little Mr. padraigin sketches and diagrams in there, lists of places we've gone hunting for just the right doorknob, a few pages torn out of This Old House Magazine tucked in.
posted by padraigin at 11:49 AM on June 25

Opened to exactly the middle page, it's a nice placemat for your plate of beans.
posted by sageleaf at 12:12 PM on June 25 [2 favorites has favorites]

Mobile chess board! Draw a grid across the two back pages. Rip strips off the flyfleaf page, tear into little squares with initials for the pieces - draw a line around one set for black, leave the other as is for white. Play (finickety but fun) game then store the pieces in the notebook pocket for next time. Always a winner on a rainy afternoon.

Also - pop-up art!
posted by freya_lamb at 12:14 PM on June 25

Best travel diary ever: toast with every drink you have, and then write down every toast: city, country, date, time, who you are with, what you are drinking, what you toasted to. These are vague, more interesting if they are more specific, but we were somewhat vague on this particular trip.

Example 1: Bocas del Toro, Panama, 7 March 2009, 6:00pm, Z___ and N___, 3 Panamas (cervezas), El Alma, 2nd floor bar overlooking the beach: "To the ocean."

Example 2: Panama City, Panama, 12 March 2009, 7:30pm, Z___ and N___, 2 caipirinhas, 1 mojito, Casablanca (afuera): "To the singularly interesting character of this city."
posted by teragram at 1:46 PM on June 25 [5 favorites has favorites]

I use mine to keep track of the books I read and my thoughts on them.
posted by PhatLobley at 2:37 PM on June 25

I have a graph-paper one that I use to chart things: a bar-graph of travel time to work, a stacked line graph of my coffee consumption (colour coded by type), minutes of exercise, number of push-ups, the number of people sitting on the couches at starbucks at various times, etc.

While there are lots of online tools and things for charting random personal bits, I find it easier to just fill in the moleskine in my back pocket.
posted by selenized at 3:06 PM on June 25

Press small flowers and leaves you find as you walk around town, and incorporate them in hand-made paper.

Start wearing a pedometer, and religiously keep a "food and exercise diary."
posted by aquafortis at 4:01 PM on June 25

prufrock: "analog twitter: write down catty comments about random strangers you're people watching

OMG! I thought I was the only one who did that :D"

It's not uncommon, Harriet.
posted by The corpse in the library at 4:42 PM on June 25

My tiny notebooks are ratty and abused with plastic covers instead of fancy like moleskine. That said, I carry a notebook nearly everywhere I go because my thoughts need to exist somewhere besides inside my head. Without notebook I think and rethink and overthink until I find myself late at night on the train, tearful and barefoot, sharing those thoughts with kind concerned strangers instead. (Thank you, nice ladies on your way home from the baseball game.)

It also prevents me from having to scrub my grocery list off my arm.
posted by little e at 5:41 PM on June 25

summon the spirit of ernest hemingway and vomit whiskey all over it.

that's how i've used mine anyway.
posted by imalaowai at 7:35 PM on June 25

I banned yellow stickys with mine. Everything I would write on a yellow sticky, I write in my Moleskine instead. One thing per page. Tearing out not allowed.

I doesn't look as trashy and disorganized as yellow stickys everywhere, works at least as good, and makes an interesting personal history exhibit when it's full - like a journal, but a bit more cryptic.

I especially like to find completely unlabeled drawings that I must have used to explain something to someone, and try to guess WTF it was.
posted by ctmf at 7:43 PM on June 25

I use mine for recipes, some I write in and some I cut and tape/paste.
posted by buzzkillington at 9:22 PM on June 25

i make elaborate cut-and-paste colleges in mine
i also type journal entries on the typewriter (every night, almost, just silly little things i did or saw or thought) and paste them in

i also keep a notebook (or any writing surface) near my bed because i like to record dreams in that weird lucid state right before waking up.

the moleskine really only serves as a collection place for the myriad of scraps i find or write or keep. rubber cement works pretty well because you can (gently!) peel stuff off the page and re-arrange, if you so desire
posted by chickadee at 10:11 PM on June 25