On Inspiration and Organization

It occurred to me that I have been hoarding things besides toilet paper rolls for years.

I am a collector of ideas. I love the idea of being able to have a resource or being able to put my hands on an idea even more than I love actually implementing the idea.

This accounts for my kitchen island shelf full of cookbooks, recipe file boxes, photo albums that I slid recipe cards that I have gathered into, menu ideas I have saved from restaurants, emeals I have subscribed to...and still, most nights I have no idea what to fix for dinner. (Rich people problems, my friend says. If the choice were rice or no rice each night this "problem" would be solved!)

Now that I have a pinterest account, my ideas are filed electronically. I happily hoard away without the storage space issue. It makes me happy just to look at creative, beautiful, and useful things, even without actually making them or buying them. My version of creative fantasy football.

Here is a visual journey of my evolution of filing inspiration. How far we've come.

Manilla File Folders in filing cabinets...both old-school metal utilitarian ones and Pottery Barn-esque built-ins from my school teacher days.

Boxes of teaching ideas together with necessary supplies

 

Idea notebooks of magazine clippings:

I especially like to clip the pictures of amazing athleticism in the Athleta catalogue. Maybe one day I will actually practice and conquer those advanced yoga poses! But today, I just like to collect the idea for "later" when workout inspiration actually hits. One binder is used to help remind me of Pilates exercise variations for teaching my classes, but the other is just for fun.

 

 

File boxes and crates of decorating ideas, paint chips, and swatches for when we built our house: I should probably throw those away now that we've lived here four years, but I might need to match paint or something one day, so I'll continue to hoard/store those until I need the space for something else.

Journals of quotes from inspirational people, notes from sermons and ideas to ponder. Maybe these will spark blog ideas someday as they become true in my life. Maybe I'll say something of value myself one day!

 

Notecards of memory verses chronicling my attempt to hide God's word in my heart and grow into a woman of wisdom

Spiral notecards, purchased notecards with dividers, or notecards on a jump ring:

 

Binders of activities that look fun to me to do with the kids "one day" when we need an idea of something fun or good to do. I'm really hoping some of these will come in handy while we are waiting for things together in airports and hotel rooms for three weeks this summer!

Bulletin boards with clippings of things that make me HaPpy!

This hangs over my scrapbooking table. Mostly my table collects piles of memorabilia to be filed since most our our photos are digitally compiled in photo books now too. Ever so often, however, I still enjoy playing with scissors, paper, and glue.

2012 Enter the world of Pinterest

Pinterest.com/tarynwdavis

 

So fun! This is why I never have any idea what you are talking about when you speak of the latest tv episode of the latest and greatest show. I haven't watched it. I've been to busy collecting ideas.

Now I just need to challenge myself to actually DO some of these creative things...or cook some of those recipes. Here's one of my Pinterest pins that says it all: