#Microblog Mondays: Pinterest Purge

I have a lot of Pinterest boards, many of which I could probably get rid of but like any good hoarder I shudder at the thought of deleting a whole set of things I've saved. I'm getting better at not physically packratting, but digitally I am a collector of tabs and outdated Pinterest boards and do a terrible job of bookmarking like a normal person.

One board that I didn't delete is a Garage Renovation board that's actually shared with a contractor, from when we were deciding whether we wanted to put a bandaid on the old house or buy a new house (we SO made the right decision), but maybe we'll use some of these ideas for other projects some day...you never know. It hurts no one to keep it.

I have been toying for months and probably years at this point with deleting two boards that sneak attack me but I just wasn't ready to purge: One Day Our Dream Will Come and When Your Nursery Is Really Tiny (And Doesn't Have A Closet).

Obviously the dream wasn't a swanky new house with our very own pingpong table. It had nursery ideas, articles on inducing lactation, articles on creating profile books and communicating with birth families and cool early childhood crafts and activities...all for a situation and a child who never came to pass. I think having this in my boards was making me have more baby-related ads and posts, which I do not need, and I think my memory for what I wanted for our dream and all the cute forest friends related nursery ideas is burned into my brain. So I deleted it, because why torture myself? Except to sweep through it one more time and remind myself of all the complexities of our dream before I bid it farewell in a weirdly symbolic and strangely easy press of a button.

The other one was easier to let go of, because it was newer and I'd spent less time poring over its contents feeling hopeful. Easier is relative, though. It still felt weird.

Now my Pinterest is mostly reflective of a life rooted in current realities, not my life in a previous iteration. It still has a board full of exercises I've never done (somehow I feel like I get activity credit just for pinning them, which is of course not at all reality), a board specific to 1950s hair for a photo shoot we did years ago, and then million useful gardening and travel and cooking boards that I reference a lot. Most recently, I've created a secret board to plan a possible trip to Scotland (there are way too many resources dedicated to puffin visiting, but that, Harry Potter, and Nessie are my priorities).

It's a strange feeling to have done something that is basically a milestone in moving forward and letting go of  a dream that's been gone for years and to not feel sad repercussions from it beyond a wistful moment or two. But it's also freeing.

Want to read more #Microblog Mondays? Go here and enjoy!