How to Use Pinterest Without Going Insane

I am a huge fan of Pinterest, if you couldn’t tell by the 3,350 pins I’ve drooled over in the past year or even the blog posts I’ve written on Pinterest strategy for business. For years I catalogued things I loved or admired in journals & on Tumblr & magazines clippings pinned to my corkboard & recipes stuck on my fridge. Then Pinterest came along & offered me a single place to keep all that glorious inspiration.

I’ve noticed over the past year that some of my dearest friends have walked away from Pinterest – it’s too competitive, too keeping-up-with-the-Jones, too materialistic. I understand those feelings because I’ve seen how blogs & birthday parties & Christmas decorating have changed since the birth of Pinterest. It’s easy to lose perspective in a sea of Martha Stewart perfection. It’s easy to forget that the perfectly coordinated outfit is edited & the decorated living room is freshly dusted. So when I log into Pinterest, I keep in mind that I am there for eye candy – pretty things to make me forget about my piles of laundry rather than pressure to create the perfectly organized laundry room. For me, Pinterest is about escape & inspiration, rather than a hand-book for how to be a woman.

I like to use it to learn how to style my new, shorter hair. I’ve had long hair for so long that I admit to being a little lost with hair that brushes my shoulders. There have been so many times that I’ve jumped onto Kate’s board to find a quick upgrade for my weekend ponytail. I’m not very good at “being a girl,” so Pinterest is the perfect way for me to discreetly try to learn how to do my hair & more importantly, pull up easy reference when I’m attempting it for the first time (or second or third, let’s be honest).

I use it almost daily to gather ideas for how to organize my small guest bedroom & office combo. My ideas for the office have run the gamut from being shoved into a walk-in closet to building a corner desk to just buying a Pottery Barn knock-off. So while we’re in planning mode, trying to figure out how a double bed & big desk can live together, I catalogue color schemes & art work that would both inspire me & please the overnight guests.

I use it to pull inspiration for work. I constantly create content for my clients, which means I need a constant source of inspiration. Pinterest is pulled up to my desktop throughout the day to help spark ideas & plays on words & make me laugh when I’m so frustrated that I want to cry. I use it to be a more fun & creative mom because on my own, I’m dull as brown rice. I love to follow boards like Disney’s The Pirate Fairy (based on the all-new Tinkerbell movie, The Pirate Fairy now available on Blu-ray and Digital HD) because crafts! food! games! all in one place. On my own, I would never think to make pirate sandwiches & pirate pops or help Harry create pirate ships from egg crates, but by pulling ideas from moms who are far more craft-inclined than me, I can provide easy fun for my kiddo.

I use it to dream about the future & the past. I pin beautiful nurseries on days when I think of another little one in our arms & on the days when I wish I could get married all over again, I pin cotton boutonnieres & fluffy white dresses.

I know Pinterest can seem intimidating & trivial but I think if you remind yourself that life isn’t lived inside a DSLR & Lightroom, it can be the most powerful tool for creating a beautiful life.

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