Declutter Pinterest Boards
I am all about organizing every area of life. Whether physical, mental, or even media-wise. I was a little skeptical of Pinterest when it first came out. I wasn’t sure I wanted to add “one more thing” to look at. One more website to go to. I kept hearing of people becoming addicted to it and that was the LAST thing I wanted! Well, I decided to start a few years ago and I am honestly glad I did. Though, I am finding that many are so into Pinterest, that they now have to DECLUTTER their Pinterest boards! Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? Maybe not so much…
I decided to share with you some ideas on how to organize and declutter your Pinterest boards!
1. Start with broad categories. When you first start pinning, it is hard to know what to categorize everything in. You find a cake recipe, so you pin it under “food.” Then you find a main dish recipe and realize that the only category you have so far, is “food,” so you dump it into that category. Currently, I have a board (below) titled “Crochets and Knits.” Once I get more individual crochet pins and knit pins, I can eventually separate them into 2 boards. For the time being, they will stay in the same board. When you are starting out, it is important to not have too many categories, where you only have 1 or 2 pins in them. Start broad!
2. After you have established your broad boards, consider creating sub-categories. The more you pin, the more you can start to develop your Pinterest boards and become more specific. For example, when I first started pinning, I pinned a LOT of recipes and organizing ideas. Whenever I needed to find a specific recipe, I spent more time looking for it than actually making it, (maybe a little exaggeration…). One day I took the time to create new boards with sub-categories, like for recipes (below). So, now I have “Recipes: {specific category}” for all of my recipes. I did the same for my Organizing boards. “Organizing: {specific room}”.
By creating sub-categories, it has made pinning MUCH easier because I know I have a specific board for each pin in organizing and recipes. I am still tweaking my other boards…which leads me to the next step…
3. Take time to delete the pins you have no use keeping. More importantly, do not pin anything that is not YOU. That does not reflect your goals, values, and who you want to be.
4. Delete pins that are in the wrong category. Go through each of your boards and decide whether the pins are in the right category or not. When I did this, I was shocked at how many times I put a pin in the wrong board (kind of embarrassing). I had a jacket in my DIY Love – really? Not like I was ever going to MAKE it!
5. Keep reworking your boards if you have to. Just because you created a board, doesn’t mean you have to keep all the pins you ever put in there, there, or that you have to keep the same name. Rename a few boards. Delete the unnecessary boards that you never use (or that have 1 pin in them). Make it fun and make it about what YOU love!
Pinterest is running rampant. Pinterest is not only a noun, but a verb. Pinning is becoming a daily task for some. I do enjoy pinning items from my blog onto Pinterest and at the same time, I do occasionally sit down and run through the latest and greatest pins.
Be careful though, don’t become addicted!
How do you organize your Pinterest boards? What are some of the best names you have seen for some boards?
Great ideas – BUT I haven't figured out how to delete anything yet!
Great question! If you hover at the top of the pin (once you are on a specific board), there will be a pencil in the top right corner. Click that and you can edit the pin or board from there. I hope this helps and let me know if you have any other questions!
This is great! I started semi-decluttering my pinterest last fall – but got overwealmed! Ill especially follow the one with deleting pins. Also one should check all the pins to make sure they lead to the correct source 🙂
Thank you! I had a major problem with some of the pins I pinned from my organizing blog onto Pinterest – they did not lead to the right source. That took a lot of work to fix them, but it was worth it in the end! Thanks for sharing!
Nice post! Sometimes I like the process of organizing my boards more than pinning! Every season (if not more often) I find myself changing the covers on each board too. It's like redecorating the house.
That's a good idea to change the cover of your boards – keeps them fresh!
What I would like to be able to do is locate my boards in such a way as to have my most referred-to ones at the top and less so ones at the bottom… How?
I know you can reorder your boards by just clicking on the board and dragging it towards the top. As for figuring out what is most referred, that I am unsure about yet. If I find out, I will let you know 🙂
I thought when reading Pamelalala's comment that 'my most referred-to ones' meant the boards that she looked at or pinned to the most.
That's a good question 🙂
These are great tips! I just started deleting some pins once I had read them and realized that I wouldn't have a future need for the info. No reason to keep stuff that you won't be needing to refer back to later!
Hi Morgan! You are so right – figuring out which ones you will actually use, helps in the decluttering process! I realized that some pins aren't even "me," so why would I pin them? Thanks for your comment Morgan!
Great ideas. I always try to go back on pins I've used and add comments so I can remember if I need to tweak if any, and what I would change for next time. And delete any that were a complete fail.
Good tips. I love Pinterest! I have organized my boards before but have found they get cluttered and discombobulated as I add pins. As with any organization project, the set up is the fun and easy part. Maintaining is a whole other story. I love pinning so much that I've spent what seems like minutes on Pinterest only to look up at the clock and find it's been hours. Needless to say my productivity and priorities are a mess. So I came up with a couple new rules for myself. 1. Only fifteen minutes a day on Pinterest. Usually while I have my morning coffee. 2. Pin only things I'm really going to use. Such as a recipe for dinner this week. Rather than "oh, that tiny crocheted moused is so cute! I must pin it!" I don't need a tiny crocheted mouse, furthermore I don't. Crochet. 3. Most importantly: use Pinterest as a tool, not entertainment. This keeps my boards cleaner and puts my pins and time to better use.
Thanks for sharing these tips Ann! You shared some very practical ideas and I like how you said you use Pinterest as a tool versus as entertainment. Great rule of thumb! Thanks for sharing!
I HAVE TROUBLE FINDING A BOARD THAT I WANT TO OPEN UP.