Pinterest Organizational Hacks That Aren’t Worth Your Time

Oh Pinterest . . . how wonderful you are, with all of your beautiful photos and clever ideas. It’s so easy to spend hours taking in all of the eye-candy, and dreaming of ways to re-create the perfectly organized and decorated rooms.

What isn’t so easy is actually following through on the ideas! We’ve all seen enough Pinterest fails to know that what looks simple online isn’t always quite so easy to replicate. And when you’re trying to reorganize your home, a startling high percentage of the organizational tips and hacks turn out to be a waste of time, money and energy.

We’ve collected a few of the biggest offenders when it comes to effective organization. These Pinterest organizational hacks look great in theory, but are either too expensive or difficult to really make a difference. Some of them actually create more clutter and chaos!

1. The Complex Organizational System

It seems every blogger has a system for managing household tasks that’s supposed to make things easier. Take laundry, for example: A shelf full of laundry baskets, one for each member of the family, seems like a genius idea. Maybe you even color-coded the baskets, with one color designated for dirty clothes and one for clean. You come up with a system where baskets are replaced as they are filled — and while it might work for a day or two, it doesn’t take long for confusion to set in. Eventually, you end up with 28 laundry baskets and piles of unfolded laundry.

Such systems can work if everyone follows the process and does their part. But if it’s too complicated and you have to spend more time explaining the system to the family than actually getting things done, then it’s probably not going to work. Keep it simple.

2. Solutions in Search of a Problem

How many times have you been scrolling through Pinterest and seen a cute or clever organizational hack and thought, “I should do that!” — even if you don’t necessarily need to? For example, kitchen message centers sound great in theory, with one place for everything, but how useful are they if they simply get piled up with paper? Invitations, permission slips, grocery lists — everything gets lost in the shuffle, even if you think you have a fantastic, organized solution.

Before you invest in the materials to reorganize a space that really isn’t an issue — or even one that is — stop and consider why you’re making the changes, and whether you are solving the right problem. Maybe the issue isn’t that you need to organize your mountain of shoes. Maybe you need to think about why you have so many shoes, and whether they are all necessary. When you approach organization with the mindset of only keeping the things that you really need or love, you’ll find that many of the hacks aren’t necessary, because you actually do have the space for all of our stuff. You might even find that you can extend your new streamlined approach to “stuff” to larger items, and decide to donate the old boat or junky car that is just taking up space without being used.

3. Pretty, but Pointless

Many of the images we see on Pinterest are of beautifully decorated rooms. This is especially common when it comes to entryways and mudrooms. Pinterest is full of ideas about how to decorate these spaces with potted plants, colorful pillows, and pretty rugs — but they often tend to ignore the purpose of the space. Without places to hang coats and backpacks, put away shoes, and contain the mail, they often become chaotic and messy, and no amount of paint is going to fix that.

When you are looking at organizational ideas on Pinterest, try to ignore the aesthetics of the space and focus on the function first. What problems are you trying to solve? Once you now what the scope of the issue is, you can look for solutions and then add the “pretty.” Keep in mind, though, that many of the aspects that make a space look nice when it’s all clean and styled only add to the clutter if the organizational strategy doesn’t work. In other words, no one’s going to see the pretty throw pillows on the entryway bench if the kids just throw their coats and bags on them.

Most organizational experts recommend going through your items and determining what needs to be organized, and then coming up with solutions. Otherwise, the containers and other organizational “equipment” just becomes part of the clutter. Extend that approach to your use of Pinterest, and only start looking for ideas once you know what needs to be done. You’ll save a lot of frustration — and won’t end up another “Pinterest fail.”

Know of any other Pinterest organizational hacks that are a total waste of time? Let us know in the comments below!