Update: My entire March spread got ruined by a leaky water bottle in my bag on the train to Boston.

Oliver Reed · 2026-03-22T10:10:05.699363+00:00

I had to carefully blot the pages with a paper towel for like ten minutes and now my habit tracker looks like a sad, blurry ghost, so has anyone successfully rescued a waterlogged journal or should I just scrap the month and start over?

the_xena6mo ago

That blurry ghost look is kind of a vibe though.

7

taylor_mitchell806mo ago

Actually starting over is the better move here. That blurry ghost look will just annoy you every single time you open the journal for the rest of the month. Trying to save it means dealing with wrinkled pages that might not even lay flat anymore. A fresh spread lets you actually use your habit tracker properly instead of guessing at smudged ink. Sometimes a clean slate is the only fix that feels right.

6

haydenbutler6mo ago

taylor_mitchell80 is right about the clean slate. That ghost tracker would bug me forever. But honestly, try letting it dry fully before you decide. Sometimes the wrinkles add character and the blur becomes a weird memory of the trip. If it's totally unreadable then yeah, restart.

1