As some of you may remember, I created a Pinterest account a few months back (and wrote about it here). If I were to be completely honest, when I joined back then, I wasn’t sure if I would stick with it or not. Sure, it was fun, and all, but how often would I really use it or find it useful? Well, my friends, I am here to tell you that I am still on Pinterest, and I’m totally loving it. Not only is it useful as a web resource, but it’s also really fun to use as well once you get into the social aspect of it with other friends who are on it.
In my opinion, Pinterest is the place to go if you need visual inspiration for something. For example:
- Fashion ideas–Sometimes I might be thinking about buying a certain clothing item or accessory, but I’m not sure if it really would go with my style, or how I would wear it. So what I do is type it in on Pinterest, and immediately a bunch of pictures show up of different people wearing it different ways. For example, let’s say there’s a pair of boots that I’ve been seeing around and thinking are really cute. I could type the name of them into Pinterest, and boom, there would be a bunch of people wearing them in different ways. Now I know what you might be thinking: “You could just do that in a Google search just as easily.” Normally I would agree with you, trust me, I LOVE Google searches. I probably do them a little bit too much, if not unnecessarily–that’s how much I love them. But when it comes to getting ideas for how to wear something, Pinterest just seems to have that covered.
- Home Decorating ideas–Thinking about doing a little home project? Redoing a certain room in your house, maybe doing a little spruce-up of sorts? Pinterest has TONS, and I mean TONS!!! of really neat ideas when it comes to this area. So many people have posted pictures of rooms and project ideas that are so great to scroll through, and then if you “Repin” something onto one of your boards, you can go back and look at it later. Sometimes I find that scrolling through the pictures just helps to get my creative juices flowing–I don’t see them as things that I want to necessarily replicate in my house, but something about the picture stands out to me, and so I might “Repin” it. If I’ve done this enough times with a variety of different pictures, then I might be able to start to see some common themes and come up with some really great ideas.
- Anything Crafty or Creative (DIY)–I don’t know what it is about Pinterest, but people post the most creative and crafty things on there! It is seriously awesome. A lot of times, it’s a picture showing you the finished product, and then if you click on it, it will take you to a website where there are step-by-step instructions on how to replicate what you just saw. It’s really neat because a lot of times it has to do with reusing something that you might already have, or at least doing a project with very simple, inexpensive materials. For example, check this out: a hanging lamp made out of mason jars! As you probably noticed, that website is a blog written in Dutch. I probably never would have found it had I not seen the picture on Pinterest.
- Don’t even get me started on the food. There are so many delicious-looking recipes on Pinterest, it’s crazy. But awesome. Some of them are so simple, you wonder how you didn’t think of it yourself! But again, Pinterest gives you a place to organize all of the great ideas you’re seeing, so you can go back and make them in the future.
Am I saying that Pinterest has replaced Google? By no means. Google is still my #1 go-to spot for any sort of actual information searching. If I need to know the answer to a question that I have, I don’t even hesitate, I just go to Google. But I think the best thing about Pinterest is that it’s inspiring. I’m a very visual person, and if I can’t picture something in my head, I have a hard time getting excited about it. Pinterest is an awesome way to organize all of the things that inspire me visually, so I don’t have to have a “Bookmarks” list a mile long. My Pinterest boards are kind of like a visual Bookmarks list. If you haven’t tried Pinterest yet, I would definitely recommend you at least give it a try. I think it’s a really great resource, and I think it makes internet browsing a lot more organized and purposeful.
And hey, if you’re interested–here’s a link to my Pinterest profile! Enjoy!
