Earlier this week, my Pinterest account had over 3600 pins and almost 100 boards. Call me crazy, but that seems a little excessive. What’s the point of holding onto so much stuff, anyways? If this is supposed to be a place to save ideas and find things you want to use later, it might be time to pare down.
So I did. As of this post, I have about half the boards and only a third of the pins left. I condensed my recipes into just a few broader categories. I got rid of individual holiday boards, because I don’t even celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, and my kids don’t hand out Valentines at our homeschool, so I don’t think I need 63 ideas for them to NOT give out.
But why did I do this? Too much clutter. Even digital links can be clutter.
When I wanted to find a specific activity for a holiday, it was intimidating to look at a list of over two hundred possibilities. (Christmas is popular). When I was looking for dinner ideas, or ideas for a special treat, the recipes I saved four years ago when I first joined Pinterest no longer fit our family’s dietary needs.
But doesn’t it suck clicking on every single board and pin? I didn’t.
Here’s how I cleaned out my Pinterest account in just a few hours:
Delete entire boards. There were a couple of boards I knew I could delete right off the bat. Quiet books are adorable, but I’m not going to make one for my kids at this point, so why keep the ideas around?
Condense some of the remaining boards. I had my recipes broken down very specifically: Breakfast was broken down into Oatmeal, Eggs, Pancakes, and a few more. Some of the recipes we had tried and didn’t really love. Some were common sense ideas that didn’t really need to be here. And some were saved simply because I link to them on my blog a lot. Which brings me to…
Save things how you use them. I use Pinterest largely as a way to save links and recipes I want to actually use later on. So it should be helpful for me. I moved all the recipes I link to my blog on Menu Plans to one board – Tried and True Recipes. The rest of the recipes on my “Ideas” boards will be a place to look for inspiration for new meals.
Once you’ve done those three things, it’s time to sort out what’s left, board by board. Get rid of anything that no longer appeals to you or that you won’t realistically do. If you click on the “Move” button at the top of the page, you can check off up to 50 pins at once, and either move them to a different board, or delete them. Mass deleting was my friend. At this point I also reorganized a few things, especially with my Homeschool boards. It helps that I just picked curriculum for next year, so I kind of knew what I wanted to save and what I didn’t need.
Final step! Go through pins you weren’t sure about in the previous step, actually clicking on them and checking out ingredients (for recipes) or directions and materials (for craft projects). Decide if it’s something you’ll actually make and save it accordingly.
Is this something I can maintain? Not completely. I would guess I’ll still want to clean this out every 6 months to a year, just to get rid of things that are no longer relevant. I’m also going to be more mindful of what I save, and if it’s realistic for me to think that I’ll use it.
I’m curious: How many pinterest boards and pins do you have? Or are you not on Pinterest?
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