I've got the whole world...

...on my wall!

Back story:  I had a great idea for a birthday present for my husband three years ago.  Yes, you read that right.  Three years.  I wanted to mount a large world map on the wall and mark each place he has been (either during his time in the Navy or during work).  So, I headed to a local store that sells teaching supplies called The Learning Shop and picked up world map and a map of the US.  They were about $10 each.  And then I...did nothing!  See, I had this grand idea to make the maps looks old.  I looked up every possible way to do this and it just didn't seem like I would be able to.  I either had to put them in the oven, which wouldn't work because my maps were BIG.  My oven was not.  Or I had to use stain, which meant outside and it was either too cold out when I remembered to do it or I was pregnant and didn't want to ask Michael to make his own gift.  So, after three years I found new maps at Costco, $10 for a set of two, larger, laminated maps.  This seemed like the better option for me.  They would hold up longer because they were laminated and they were bigger, so they would take up the large wall space we had available.  I skipped the idea of making them look old.

Fast forward six months, because I am forgetful like to mull things over, and here we are!  Guess who helped with his own birthday present?  What took me so long this time?  Well, I couldn't figure out an inexpensive way to actually hang the maps.  Here were my dilemmas  this time. A: I didn't want the pins to go into the wall in case we actually move someday and are left with approximately 10 millions holes in the wall to cover.  and 2: I wanted to be able to keep the map and pins (hopefully) in tact if we did in fact move one day!

So, I sent in a question to a site called Craftaholics Anonymous and the readers responded with some great ideas.  The one I went with was to buy foam board from the hardware store, adhere the map to that and then attach the foam board to the wall.  Here's how it went down (or up):

 I gathered our supplies: the map, the foam board, spray adhesive, double sided 

tape, a knife (not pictured) and Velcro (not pictured)

We put the double sided tape on all of the edges of the map and strips down the center

We rolled the map up so the tape was on the outside

We sprayed some of the adhesive spray onto the foam board (about 6 inches at a time) and 

then unrolled the map 

While we were unrolling it, we slid yard stick (also not pictured) along the front of the map to make sure the map was smooth and flat and we pulled the backside of the tape off as well

Here it is attached to the foam

Then my husband used a knife to cut the excess foam board off

Then we added Velcro to the back in multiple places and...

Put it on the wall! 

Here's the world map.  We followed the same exact process and it worked so well for us! 

(Don't mind the missing trim, this is our basement and it's still in the final steps of being completed)

Now, who wants to guess how long it will take me to add all the pins to the places we have been?  Yes, now we will have pins where Michael has been and where we have been as a family.  I'm lucky he isn't a picky husband who doesn't mind helping with or sharing his birthday present!

Did you find this post helpful?  Pin this image to Pinterest!

Cost breakdown: 

Map: $5 (each)

Foam Board: $10 (I needed one for each map since mine were so large, but with smaller maps you could use one piece of foam for two maps)

Tape: already had

Velcro: already had

Adhesive Spray: already had

Yard Stick: already had

Knife: already had

So, I spent $15 per map, $30 for both.  If you didn't have most of these items on had, I'm guessing you would spend maybe $40-$50 on both maps?  

Are you a pinner?

One word...Pinterest.

It is a crazy, amazing, addictive, pretty, inspirational, user-friendly site.  It's one that makes me say, "why didn't I think of that?"  It's been around for a few (almost four) years and I was very hesitant to use it.  I originally heard about it from a blog I had been following for a while.  At the time I was following blogs and I was on the book of face (aka Facebook for those of you who aren't following me here!)  I didn't really want another site taking up my time.  I knew I would get sucked in for hours upon hours of searching, reading, thinking, pinning and wishing I had a house the size of Georgia and as much money as Donald Trump to complete all these beautiful projects I kept reading about.

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Fast forward to now and I can honestly say, I love Pinterest and I have had an easy time keeping it under control for the past year or so. There's is a method to my pinning and I have always kept my Pinterest boards clean and organized.  What more would you expect from me really?!  So today I'm going to share how I do it, the things I think while I'm pinning or looking at pins and what I do with my pins on my boards every once in a while.

First things first.  Here's a great description of Pinterest if you don't already know about it.  

It's best to think about it as a collection of giant bulletin boards.  You know, cork boards, good old fashioned cork, with colorful little push pins holding up pretty pictures.  Does anyone use bulletin boards these days?  I had one when I was younger and  I'm pretty such mine had tons of pictures of Jonathan Taylor Thomas on it.  I hope you know who that is!!  Anyway, teen boy crushes...that's a topic for another day.

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So, on to my method.  First, how I organize my boards.  I have 11 public boards.  Here are the categories I have and a brief description of what I keep in each:

Craft, Tips & Ideas - anything helpful for around the house, crafts I want to try, tips to completing crafts
Basement Ideas - we are still in the process of finishing our basement, these are ideas to help get there
Let's Eat - anything that sounds yummy!
Lookin' Good - workouts, clothing, jewelry, etc.
Ideas for L - things I want to try with Liam, gift ideas for him, decorating ideas for his room
Ideas for D - things I want to try with Dallas, gift ideas for him, decorating ideas for his room
Pictures - new and fun picture poses, tips on using our DSLR camera

Pinterest Ideas I've Tried - anything I have completed from Pinterest, comments of what I thought

IKEA - things I NEED from IKEA.  Yes, I need these things!

Master - ideas for our Mini Master Bedroom Redo
Journey with the Jeffers - pins from this little bloggeroo!

*One note.  The "Master" board, once the master bedroom is finished, this board will get deleted and a new one will take it's place regarding the next room I plan to work on/finish/redo.  I don't like to have a board for the kitchen, one for the living room, one for that bathroom, etc.  I get too overwhelmed finding things for all over the house.  It works better for me to focus on one room at a time.  When the next room comes along, I'll search for new ideas for that room.  Chances are there will be 18 million ideas for the next room, there's really never a shortage for ideas on Pinterest :)

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Next, how I decide if something is pin-worthy or not.  While I'm scrolling though, I see tons of things I would love to do..someday.  But Pinterest for me is about the now.  What I think I'll do either now, soon, or in the near future.  It's not about what I may want to do in five years.

Let's be real here, there's a good chance Pinterest is not going to be here in five years. There's probably going to be some other new hip site that does just about that same thing, but they will have some cutting edge sort of ideas that will blow Pinterest out of the water.  Maybe we will be able to order samples of cookies to try before we bake them using a recipe we found on this new site.  Maybe we will be able to feel fabric through our computer screens before we buy it for a craft project we found on that site.  Maybe we will even be able to Skype (assuming that's still a "thing" at this time) with someone who actually tried a workout activity we found on the new site and ask them one million questions about their experience.

So, in order to keep things practical and organized I pin things I will try in our current house.  I pin things I want to do with my kids in the next year or so.  I pin things I would actually wear now or eat soon.

Another way I decide if it's worth it is looking to see what the pin all entails.  Is it a recipe with 16 steps and odd food items I can't get locally?  Is it a craft project that requires a product you can only get from New Zealand?  Is it a building project that's going to cost double for my husband to make than it would to buy (probably from IKEA)?  If the answer to any of these questions (or any other question I find myself asking) is yes.  I don't pin it.

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Finally, how do I keep my boards organized?  Once in a while I go through my boards and decide if I pinned something I now have decided not to complete or saw someone else tried to complete and said it was not worth the time or effort.  I also look for things I tried and move them to my "Pinterest Ideas I've Tried" board.  At that time I also change the comment of the pin to include my thoughts.  I also take the time to make sure each pin is on the correct board.  Technology is funny sometimes and even though you think you saved something somewhere, it doesn't end up there!  I've found shirts I pinned for myself on my "Ideas for D" board.

I have been able to keep my total number of pins to a manageable amount by completing all these steps and I like it that way!  I  currently have 449 pins and 108 of those are on my "Pinterest Ideas I've Tried" board. I think that's a pretty good record!

Using Pinterest for practical things, that's my tip numero uno!!  What's the point in keeping a bunch of stuff around that you will never really do?  That's the question to ask yourself when you organize your Pinterest Boards, or a room in your house.  Here's an interesting article about what clutter can cost you.  I heard this concept a few years ago and I always thought it was interesting.  Even though this post is about keeping your Pinterest clean and organized, I think this is a great place to share the article with you...

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Pinterest.  What do you use it for?  Have you even heard of it?  Do you loose hours of your life daydreaming about Pins you wish you could do?  Share in the comments!  And in closing...

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and yes, this has happened a time or two!  

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