it's time to clean up.

Happy Monday, friends! In my opinion, this post is an important one, so please give me a minute to explain myself ;) I had a long to-do list on Saturday, but I spent a good three hours re-organizing my Pinterest boards. Was it necessary? No. Was it cathartic? Absolutely. It was so interesting to see how much my style has changed since I first jumped on the Pinterest bandwagon. 

I also started noticing an alarming trend. Many of my earlier pins had terrible sourcing. When I say terrible, some were linked to google.com or simply had no source at all. I couldn't believe it--and started feeling pretty awful I'd let it get that bad. This got me thinking: isn't the whole point of Pinterest being able to have a visual sourcebook for your inspiration? If so, why would we be linking to search engines? Shouldn't we be click through and actually find out more about the content? 

I spend a considerable amount of time creating my posts--and I know those of you who blog do the same. While somewhat flattering, it is beyond defeating to see your work used elsewhere without somehow getting credit. For photographers and designers, I can only imagine their extreme frustration when they see their work without their name attached. I realized I needed to do something to fix it. Fast.

While I didn't have time this weekend to go through and find the proper sourcing for all 1500 of my pins, I certainly plan to do so over the course of football season. {Does anyone else seem to get so much more done when football is on for an entire Sunday? I know I do.} I know it won't happen overnight, but I'll feel so much better once it is done. It's so important.

How exactly am I going to clean up my Pinterest? This bookmarklet searches the interwebs to find all pages with any particular image. {Lisa told me about this incredible resource earlier this year.} Everyone should have it. It's an easy drag+drop into your bookmarks bar--much like the one you use for Pinterest. It may take some digging, but you'll probably find some other great content in the process.

I'd love it if you joined me in this clean-up! It will go a long way to keeping Pinterest around for many years to come. If we're not cognizant of it now, we may lose this resource we love so much due to major legal issues from improper sourcing. {I know that sounds a little "doomsday", but trust me--I've heard rumblings of such issues already!} I'll get off my soapbox now, but thank you for listening.

If you'd like to join this clean-up, help to spread the word on twitter using the #cleanupyourpinterest hashtag and this shortened link: bit.ly/cuypin1 :) xoxo {av}