Why I QUIT Pinterest (almost)

Have you ever walked into someone’s house and didn’t know how to act because it was spotless?   A house that was perfectly decorated and everything had a place.  And if you had kids with you, forget it.  The nervousness of the whole thing just made you so uncomfortable you couldn’t enjoy yourself.   You look over at your kids with an "evil eye" and mouth the words Don’T.  Touch. AnythinG.  

 I prefer to visit with people whose homes are a little “lived in.”  A little dust here and there, a few things out of order, you know.  Some place that feels like home.  (Except the kitchen.  I like very clean kitchens and bathrooms.  Those two areas can be spotless, I’m good with that. ) 

Have you ever spent hours in awe of all those posts on Pinterest, or Instagram, or blogs, or magazines and felt like your life just wasn’t “picture” perfect?   After re-pinning everything that you would love to have in your Pinterest inspired life, you turned from your screen with blood shot eyes and ended up horrified at the reality around you?   Nothing physically close to you was “Pinterest worthy”  

That’s was me.  Both accounts.  There are people in our life’s who have these kinds of “Pinterest worthy” homes.   We used to call them Better Homes and Gardens.   Nothing wrong with it, but for most of us, it just isn’t real.   We are real.  We have lives, we have kids, grandkids, pets, jobs, errands to run and no, we don’t have a cleaning crew (At least not a paid, professional one anyway!)

We spend way too much time on Pinterest, pinning everything down onto our very own dream board.   All the decorating ideas, the recipes, the crafts, the exercises, the DIY’s and tutorials.  We see the possibility of peace and tranquility “if only ours could look like that.”   The trouble is we don’t have the time, the energy or the money to accomplish all of these wishes.   So what do we do?  We search for ways on Pinterest to manage our time only to end up creating new boards… time management board, how to make more money board and how to have more energy board. 

It all has to stop.   We just get into this endless cycle of ohhing and awing and pinning and wanting but not doing.   Because every pin is a picture of the perfect outcome and perfection scares us a little.   We can’t even try because we know it won’t look like the picture.   It was this realization that made me decide that I was going to stop looking at Pinterest, and stop looking at my fave magazines , Tea Time and Romantic Homes because I was just setting myself up.   In all reality that lasted just a couple of hours, well maybe a day. 

It dawned on me that what I’m not seeing is the trial and error before the perfect outcome.   The “what was happening before” the Pinterest worthy picture.   That I needed to “widen the lens” on my camera and realize that there was so much going on behind the scenes of those pictures.    Please realize that most of the pictures are staged.  I know, I’ve done it for this blog.  Ya, I’ve moved furniture and set up tea for the sake of the blog photos.   I bet you have too, maybe not “set up tea” but you know what I mean.  

This is a set up Tea party - complete with family in the background - waiting to partake of the goodies!

 Really knowing these things has given me a little peace and helped me let go of some of my own thoughts of perfectionism.   That it’s okay to have a dream board…dreams are what we turn into goals.   And the next time I’m invited to That Friend’s house, I will warn the kids ahead of time and when I go in I will compliment her and ask her how she does it?  How she keeps it all together?   I will relax and enjoy the fact that she thought enough of me to want me and my motley crew to come over and spend some time.  And I will imagine that she has a couple of OMG closets and that everything was staged for our benefit and enjoyment.  
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