Best Results Organizing

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that your company gobbled up the last of the leftovers so that you have room in your fridge and freezer for all the upcoming holiday treats. I took an extra day to spend a longer holiday weekend with Paper Mommy, so today’s post includes only a few tasty morsels of updates on delicious things we’ve previously discussed.

I FEEL LIKE A WINNER

No, I didn’t win the Power Ball. (Apparently nobody did — can you believe the new estimated jackpot is $425 million? That’s a lot of little green papers!) But I still feel pretty special. A few months ago, I got a lovely note from Stacey Anderson, publisher of Getting Organized Magazine, letting me know I’d won something in the magazine’s 30 Days of Giveaways.

Loyal readers of this blog can imagine my excitement when I learned that I would receive something I’d listed on my 2011 Holiday Gift List: Favorite Things Edition. The prize? An absolutely gorgeous special edition of The Tote Buddy.

The pattern, a nifty black & white Fleur de Lis, was the envy of Paper Mommy over Thanksgiving weekend, and the interior includes a matching (attached) zipper compartment suitable for coupons, shopping lists, price books, color swatches and the like.

Pretty snazzy, eh? The Tote Buddy portfolios are a great way to avoid saying “paper” or “plastic” so that you can say yes to keeping your canvas bags tidy. As my overstuffed post-holiday car will attest, canvas bags aren’t just for groceries anymore!

HELLO, MY NAME IS…

Before I departed for Thanksgiving, two different clients mentioned that they wished they had a way to keep straight whose drinks and plates were whose during the mingling portion of holiday get-togethers.

Sure, for the super-casual crowd, you can just write your own name on your red Solo cup with a Sharpie. (For those who don’t mind the slightly not-safe-for-work Toby Keith song “Red Solo Cup,” be advised there’s a holiday version of the video.)

And, of course, if your entertaining style is a little more upscale, wine charms are all the fashion. You can opt for custom-made silvery baubles

or DIY chalkboard charms

or a variety of other styles to suit your company and your mood.

But last week’s legal pad napkins led me to another keen product from Decor Craft, Inc., something that helps you keep track of your glass or plate and help other party-goers remember your name.

Hello, My Name Is Napkin Notes comes in packs of 20 dinner-sized (7.88″ x 7.88″) napkins for about $10 or cocktail-sized (5″ x 5″) napkins for about $5.

SHHHHHH. IT’S A SECRET!

Last March, when we talked about mainstream pin boards and their specialized siblings (for guys and other pinners), the one pin that seem to stick in everyone’s craw was the severe dearth of private pin boards on Pinterest. How could a site that was at the forefront of social curation fail to recognize that some things might need to be kept private?

What if you wanted to create a secret board for holiday gift ideas for your family members, and wanted to share it only with Santa’s favorite helpers?

What if you were collecting visual material for a blog and wanted to keep the funny, beautiful or delightful images under wraps until the big reveal on your blog?

What if the items you were curating on your boards were actually elements of your competitive advantage in building a soap box derby car or designing your Project Runway creation?

While the social aspect of pinning made Pinterest and its ilk popular, not being able to keep a few items close to the vest was a sticking point for many potential users. But we’re stuck no longer! Pinterest has announced private pin boards.

In fact, one suspects Pinterest didn’t just respond to user demand — it seems more like Pinterest’s leadership watched the new Bond film, Skyfall, just a few too many times. The private boards have been dubbed “Secret.”

Of course, Pinterest hasn’t gone into this willy-nilly. There are rules:

• You can only have three secret boards at any one time, so if you want to create a fourth, you’ll have to take one of your three secret boards public. But note: once you take a board public, you won’t be able to make it private again, and you can’t change any of your currently-public boards to private.
• You can grant access to any Pinterest member so they can see and add to your secret board.
• If you’re given access to a secret board, it won’t count against your three-board limit.

Creating a secret board is easily handled in one of two ways. Click Add+ at the top right of any page and select “Create a Board” as always, but slide the “Secret” toggle from Off to On. (Don’t forget to select anyone to whom you’d like to grant pinning privileges.)

Or, you can scroll to the bottom of your profile — just log into your Pinterest account, select Boards from the drop-down arrow under your name in the top right corner — and you’ll see three blank secret board outlines:

Click on “Create a Secret Board” and follow the usual prompts. Once you’ve created one, two, or three secret boards, you’ll always be able to see them at the bottom of your profile, right below your public boards.

For more on secret Pinterest boards, check out the official Secret Boards 101.

Still not sold on the need for a private board? Check out Pinterest Secret Boards: 10 Reasons To Use This New App Feature to see if any of those situations might apply to you.

That’s all for this week’s Paper Doll leftovers. (As for the last few slices of Paper Mommy‘s peanut butter mousse pie, I’m not sharing!)