One of the signature features of Pinterest is the ability to create boards that are customized to fit all your pinning needs. When you pin or repin something, you have the option to use the standard boards provided by Pinterest or you can create your own board. You can locate your own boards on your main profile page. For an example, see my boards here or Chicago Parent’s site here.
Standard Options
When you first sign up for Pinterest, you’ll have a basic set of boards to work with. Typically, you’ll find “Books Worth Reading,” “Favorite Places & Spaces,” “Products I Love,” “My Style,” and a few others. Initially, these boards may suffice for your purposes (I have kept the “My Style”pinboard title as is), but as you progress through your pinning, you may find these titles to be too generic. You may also find that too many pins fit under these broader headings. If these headings do not work for you, you have the option to edit those board names or create brand new ones.
Creating Boards with Purpose
In my everyday life, I am not the most organized person I know. On Pinterest, however, I somehow manage to keep everything in its place. I do this through effective use of boards. Throwing a birthday party for your favorite kiddo? There’s a board for that! When pinning a new idea for that party, create a board and you can edit it. When you edit the board, you’ll have the option of adding a title (Example: Jack’s 1st Birthday), a description (what’s this board all about?), adding contributors (want friends to be able to pin to this board for you also?), the category (help Pinterest figure out where this board goes), or worst case scenario – delete board.
I have created boards for recipes (Food Deliciousness), for birthday parties, for My Other Husband (just pictures of cute guys in Hollywood), different boards for rooms in my house (with craft projects, organization, colors, you name it), as well as different holiday boards when I see fun ideas I’d like to try. The possibilities are endless and the beauty of it is that it is entirely up to you.
Keeping Boards (and Pins!) Manageable
As you begin to pin more and more ideas, you’ll find that some of your boards grow incredibly large. Recently, my sister-in-law went through the painstaking process of taking her food board and re-assigning the pins in it to more specified boards, like Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Appetizers, etc. I would encourage you periodically to re-evaluate your larger boards and see if you can split that board into smaller ones for ease of use. Pinterest is useless if you never actually use the pins, especially if the only reason is because you can’t seem to find the recipe you just pinned the other day.
The other suggestion I have is to comment on your own pins. By doing this, you can alert yourself (and others) to tried and true Pinterest ideas that actually work. Typically, when I comment on my own pin, I add the date I tried it, any variations I made, and the outcome. Finally, if a pin is a flop, DELETE it! No use keeping a pin on your board if it provided you with no benefit.
In short, boards are the lifelines of Pinterest. They are what keep your ideas and thoughts organized in a simple way for quick access when you want to actually put your pins into action. Have you created a specialized board? Tell us what your favorite is.
