A 2026 Bucket List for Making Memories (and Holding on to Them!)

When the world moves quickly, choosing to slow down can feel like a quiet rebellion.

We see it every season: people lingering a little longer, breathing a little deeper, and leaving with more than just photographs. They leave with moments.

As we look ahead to 2026, we’re inviting you to build a bucket list that isn’t about doing more, but about remembering better. Experiences that stay with you. Memories you can touch, revisit, and relive.

Here are a few gentle ideas to inspire a year of calm, creativity, and meaningful moments.

1. Take the Photograph… Then Print It

We all take photos. Thousands of them. Sunlit walks, laughter over picnics, quiet moments in nature. But how many stay hidden on our phones, slowly forgotten? In 2026, make space to bring your photographs into the real world.

Choose your favourites and have them printed. Create a small album, frame a moment that made you smile, or build a seasonal photo wall that changes through the year. There’s something grounding about holding a memory in your hands. A reminder that this moment mattered.

Slow tip: Set aside one evening every few months to look back through your camera roll and choose just five images to print.

2. Start a Scrapbook (or a Beautifully Messy Junk Journal)

Memories aren’t only visual. They’re layered with texture, colour, and story.

Scrapbooking and junk journalling are gentle, creative ways to honour the everyday. A pressed flower. A ticket stub from a summer outing. A postcard you never sent. Even the paper sleeve from a takeaway coffee shared on a long walk.

Let your journal be imperfect. Let pages crinkle and overlap. This isn’t about perfection, it’s about pausing long enough to say, this mattered to me.

Keep hold of the little things: leaflets, napkins, ribbons, labels. Over time, they become a personal archive of a life well lived.

3. Make the Experience Last with Crafting

Some experiences don’t have to end when you leave.

Crafting with dried lavender, whether it’s a simple scented sachet, a small wreath, or a bundle tied with ribbon, allows you to extend a moment far beyond the day itself. Each time you catch the scent at home, you’re transported back: sunshine, stillness, time slowing down.

Crafting is also an invitation to be present. Hands busy. Mind calm. No rush.

Try making something not to gift or sell, but simply to keep. An object infused with memory and meaning.

4. Plan a Picnic Like It’s an Occasion

Not a last-minute blanket-and-snacks situation but a proper picnic!

Send an invitation. Choose a date. Pack food you love (or let us do the hard work!) Dress up a little, even if you’re sitting on the grass. Make it feel intentional.

Picnics ask us to slow down and savour. They turn an ordinary afternoon into a memory worth keeping (and maybe even documenting in your scrapbook later.)

5. Learn Something New (and Take a Piece of the Day Home)

There’s something deeply grounding about learning with your hands.

Workshops (whether it’s watercolour painting, soap making, flower arranging, or pottery painting) invite you to slow down and focus on just one thing. The brush stroke. The scent. The shape taking form. Time softens when you’re fully absorbed.

These kinds of experiences stay with you in more ways than one. You leave with a new skill, a sense of quiet achievement, and something tangible to take home.

Placed on a shelf or used in everyday life, it becomes a gentle reminder of calm, creativity, and choosing to try something new. Proof that memories don’t always need to be grand to be meaningful.

A Gentle Reminder for the Year Ahead

Making memories isn’t about doing more. It’s about not rushing past what’s already there.

Whether it’s wandering through nature, creating something with your hands, or simply choosing to mark a moment instead of scrolling past it, these are the things that linger.

As 2026 unfolds, we hope you get the opportunity to slow down, notice more, and keep the memories that matter close.