Blogging, Social Media

Six Ways Pinterest Gives Me the Best Ideas and the Worst Anxiety

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First, let me start by saying that Pinterest is awesome. Pinterest can answer any question ranging from what to get my coworkers for the holidays to how to salvage a onesie after my little guy has a particularly memorable blowout.

I’ve heard Facebook described as a “highlight reel”. It can be demoralizing to compare your typical day to your neighbor’s glowing family vacation photos. If Facebook is the guy down the street’s highlight reel, Pinterest is the perfect people’s highlight reel. On Pinterest, perfect props meet up with perfect photography to breed perfect pinspiration.

As I launch a new blog, I am developing a love/hate relationship with Pinterest. Below are six of the ways Pinterest simultaneously provides me with a bottomless well of inspiration and makes me feel like I can’t keep up.

1. Seasonal Overload

Just like allergies, I have always found seasonal overload to be most potent in the fall and the spring. Visiting Pinterest every fall makes me feel like I’m drinking pumpkin spiced lattes out of a fire hose. My fall Pinterest feed overwhelms me with super-cute sweater-based outfits, seasonal home decor and fall holiday ideas. Pinterest also holds an unimaginable inventory of crafts and meals you can make with pumpkins.

In my life, fall is a time to bust out the crockpot here and there and buy one pumpkin to put on our front doorstep (which we usually don’t bother to carve). It’s a time for apple picking and eating as many apple cider donuts as I can get my hands on. It’s also my cue to lug my coats to the dry cleaner and my boots to the boot repair place. Fall does not mean buying a whole new wardrobe and rearranging all the food and decorations in my house to better represent the season.

2. The Realization that Every Brilliant Idea Has Been Done Before (and Usually Done Better)

My son started crawling right around Halloween this year. As he made his way through the house, he served as a Swiffer collecting dirt and dog hair. This led me to the realization that we could actually put a Swiffer dry mop on him. That thought was followed almost immediately by the idea that he’d also make a great Zamboni. Then came the “aha!” moment that Halloween was coming up and a Zamboni costume for a baby would be hysterical.

Right away I got on Pinterest to see if someone beat me to it and was immediately flooded with pages of kids Zamboni costumes. Womp womp. 

3. The “Maybe Some Day” Pins

More often than I care to admit, I find myself pinning things that are not the least bit relevant to my life today – just in case they become relevant at some point in the future. The perfect example of this is the single girl’s wedding board. Pinterest even offers a “secret board” option so there’s no chance it gets back to the guy you’ve been on three mediocre dates with that you’re pinning guestbook alternatives and table centerpieces.

Lately, craft room organization ideas always seem to dominate my Pinterest feed. I find myself excitedly scrolling through cost-effective and innovative ideas to store and organize craft supplies before it dawns on me that I’m missing a craft room, a varied collection of crafting tools and basic organizational skills.

Very messy dining room/craft table

Instead, I have a dining room table which currently looks like I put all my craft supplies in a blender with the lid off. Who are these people who have spacious well-organized craft rooms? Oh right, the perfect Pinterest people.

4. The “Drive Traffic to My Blog” Frenzy

As I dip my toe into the world of blogging I’m learning a lot about what it takes to gain traction on Pinterest. I can see which of my pins are being repinned and what demographic is repinning them. If you search “blogging” on Pinterest you will find pins linking to about a thousand interchangeable sponsored posts with titles like “five must-know Pinterest strategies I used to make $12,000 in my third month of blogging”.

The gist of it is that in order to get a pin to go viral you have to pin it many times with a variety of photos and captions to many different boards including some massive group boards (which you first need to be personally invited to). You also need clickbait titles and well-curated photos. Most bloggers that use Pinterest purchase tools like Tailwind to schedule their pins ahead of time and give the illusion that they are on Pinterest 24/7.

Against my better judgment, I find myself falling into this trap. For example, I would have named this post “Why Pinterest Gives Me the Best Ideas and the Worst Anxiety” but my Pinterest Analytics page has already taught me that “listicles” (articles in the form of a numbered list) get more traction.

5. The incredibly cool but totally impractical designs

I’ve found that a baby and a 90-pound dog drive a lot of my home décor. Light colored rugs and couches are out. Low shelves are out. Beautiful hardwood floors are out. Floor plants are out. Keeping the house clean and organized is out.

If Pinterest has taught me anything, it’s that the rest of the world doesn’t subscribe to the same rules I do when it comes to designing and decorating a home that people can actually live in. The most absurd pin I’ve come across lately is what appears to be a shower with glass walls up a staircase in the middle of a bedroom. I have so many questions for whoever designed that striking but ridiculous layout. Not the least of which is what kind of person would want to shower on a stage? Surely even the perfect Pinterest people who have succeeded in pinning a precise combination of workouts, motivational quotes and healthy recipes might still feel uncomfortable as a bathing human centerpiece.

Similarly, I recently pinned this climbing wall over the bed in a kids bedroom. This might be the coolest idea I’ve ever seen. In spite of that, it is highly unlikely that I will be replicating it in my own home.

6. The Pinterest fail

I can think of dozens of instances when I’ve seen something on Pinterest and thought “I could do that” only to find out that the project I’m trying to replicate was executed by a trained artist with unlimited free time and expensive equipment that I don’t have. More often than not, the end result is a swing and a miss. Pinterest Fails are so common they actually have their own website. My goal is to combat the Pinterest fail by selecting crafts that anyone can replicate and sharing some of my own lessons learned and spectacular failures as I go.

Is Pinterest adding stress to your life? I would love to hear from others about their experience using Pinterest to collect ideas or grow their blog.

My Shameless Plug

Click here to visit me on Pinterest and follow my page! As a new blogger, I have to beg, borrow and steal for every Pinterest follower. My only follower for my first couple of weeks blogging was my personal account. Arguably more embarrassing, my second follower was my mom (whose account I logged into so I could add myself for her).

You’re also invited to join my Baby Group Board and share baby-related ideas. To join feel free to message me on Pinterest or email me at MomsGotitMade@gmail.com to request an invite.

My experience navigating Pinterest to drive traffic to my brand-new blog centered around parenting, crafting & blogging. http://MomsGotitMade.com #blogging #social

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3 thoughts on “Six Ways Pinterest Gives Me the Best Ideas and the Worst Anxiety

  1. This is awesome!! You are so funny.. And I really did click the link to go check out the shower on the stairway pic!! lol.. so funny.. Great post!!! I am so glad that I found you!! Awesome blog! I love Pinterest!! It is a great place to just about find anything!! lol..

    1. Thank you so much Amy! It’s so nice to meet another blogger who shares my Pinterest love! That shower situation is just bizarre.

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