Three Easy Peasy Steps to Declutter and Hoard Simultaneously

Oh my God, the light finally switched on. After decades of tearing articles out of magazines about food, diet, exercise, beading, gardening, how to be happier and how to do everything else under the sun, I just realized I can dump almost all of them. (heirloom recipes gotta stay) How did I come to this epiphany? If you remember, I alluded to the Vortex of Pinterest in a previous blog, and long story short, I’ve not only been sucked in, I am addicted. I’ve been saving–or is it pinning–like a mad woman. One evening, I realized I was saving or pinning or quite possibly both, the same type of stuff I tear out of magazines.

 

A smattering of articles I’ve recently torn out of magazines

 

I also realized, if I’m interested and want to read more about a particular subject, I just click the READ button and voila! It brings me to an article or blog.

The other day at the gym, instead of fishing through several scraps of paper for a workout I thought would suit me, I just clicked on Pinterest, found a group of exercises that target back fat and got to it. No need to set up a binder of page after page of workouts after all.

I was so excited I texted my daughter and told her all about it in what became a lengthy exchange. That’s when I discovered I could declutter and hoard at the same time. Holy crap!

Step 1: Toss the scads of recipes and workout clippings that are cluttering your desk, kitchen countertop, and spare chairs. (This is the declutter stage.)

Step 2: Scour Pinterest for Pins that interest you.

Step 3: Pin (read Hoard) the ones you like.

Easy Peasy.

“And it’s free? Shut the front door!”

I also have a variety of magazines that come to me every month. Why bother to reorder if I can find anything I want on Pinterest. I do love the idea of having a hard copy in my hand, but I no longer feel the need to hoard articles, that I’ll probably never read again, and I could cut the number of magazines I receive by two-thirds. Big savings.

Another revelation? Pinterest has somehow found my blog followers and is making suggestions to check out what they’ve found in, say, Food and Drink or Travel. That’s a little scary, not quite Twilight Zone scary, but it is a bit Big Brother is watching you-ish.

All this brings to light how Pinterest can increase your blog traffic. Another upcoming retirement project is to develop my craftingmyretirement.com blog on Pinterest. I’ve got a few kinks to work out, but when I’m ready to “go live” you’ll be the first to know. In the meantime, you can find me at Laura Smith on Pinterest. There’s probably a horde of Laura Smith’s on Pinterest, so I wish you luck finding me. Please don’t forget to click the “follow” button.