What a month October was! It flew by and I can't believe it's November already. We celebrated Thanksgiving in October here in Canada as well as Halloween, so November is kind of an "in-between" month without holidays. Gives me time to get organized for Christmas!
I won't do a picture collage for October because it would just be more of the 31 Days of Organizing Tips button and you've probably seen enough of that this month :)
Here's a quick recap of the month on the blog.
Most Read Post:
The most read post in October was 31 Days of Organizing Tips (Introduction). This was actually written at the very end of September but it was the post I updated every day with a link to the latest post in the series and it was the one I linked to The Nester's 31 Days link party so others could follow the series. I also linked it up to a few other link parties throughout the month to promote the series. Becky from Organizing Made Fun pinned it and I can't believe how many people have visited the blog since then. {If you haven't read her 31 Days of Organizing Fun series, you definitely should!}
Most Commented On Post:
This title goes to 31 Days of Organizing Tips: Day 17 (Medicine Cabinets). But I loved all the comments throughout the series as people shared their own organizing tips and also discussed ways they were applying the tips I was sharing in their homes. It's rewarding to know that these posts were helping you out!
My Favourite Post:
This is a tough one this month because there are so many posts to choose from. I loved the whole series, but I think the early posts that helped outline some helpful steps to use when you are organizing were my favourites, since they can be applied in any context (which is probably why I referred back to them throughout the series). Planning, De-Cluttering, The Organizing Process, Grouping Like with Like, Containers, and Labels all top the list :)
Other Posts From This Month:
I won't list all the 31 Days posts here because there are so many of them. I have put a tab at the top of the blog that has links to every post in the series, so if you missed any or you need to refer to any of them when you're working on an organizing project you can just click there.
There were a couple other posts this month that weren't part of the 31 Days series though.
1. Google+ Blog Hop - I was so honoured to be one of the co-hosts for this fabulous hop. The hop is over so you can't link up, but if you want to meet some great bloggers and build up your Google+ circles, you can still click on everyone who linked up. The next hop starts at midnight CST tonight! I won't be co-hosting this time but you can go to In The Old Road after it starts to link up your G+ profile.
2. The All Star Block Party - again I was so excited to be a guest co-host for this fabulous link party. That party's over but you can check out all the great links or click on one of the regular hosts' links to link up to this week's party.
3. Features from the All Star Block Party - I had so much fun choosing the posts I wanted to feature from among all the great links. Of course, I was drawn to the organizing posts and featured my favourite links that would help you get organized!
Previous Months' Posts That Were Popular This Month:
1. Gifts In A Jar continued to be well-read this month. As Christmas approaches a lot of people are looking for these types of gifts so I'm happy to be able to share this post!
2. My Daughter's Closet is Finally HERS! was popular in October. With the change of seasons I think a lot of people are interested in tips for organizing closets. I also linked this up with the Kids' Closets week of Home Organization 101 from A Bowl Full of Lemons which brought some new readers to the blog.
3. Summer Reading Club and Journal Writing was viewed a lot in October again. This really seems based on spam because I get a lot of spam comments for this post (and a few other old ones). Anyone know how to prevent spammers from being counted as pageviews?
3b. The Garage Clean Out Part 2 post was also viewed quite a bit this month. Since #3 is skewed by spammers, I wanted to include this one as a more legitimate popular post. I know a lot of people are cleaning their garages before winter and they can be so overwhelming. I'm so glad to be able to give some tips to help you organize yours.
Highlights This Month:
1. Where to start? There are so many! Let's start with the fact that I did it! I posted 31 posts in 31 days on organizing. See my reflections on this challenge if you haven't read it already for more on what I learned from doing this series.
2. I have been completely blown away by the increase in pageviews this month. I started October being excited about reaching 25,000 pageviews (after 4 months) and ended the month with over 38,000! It's not all about numbers for me, but seeing more people reading my posts really kept me going this month. It is so rewarding knowing that I am helping people move from overwhelmed to organized. Thank you!
3. Everything grew this month. More Facebook likes. More Google+ fans (especially after the Google+ blog hop!). Lots of new Pinterest followers! And more email and RSS subscribers. If you haven't followed in one or more of these ways, I encourage you to do so (buttons are all on the right sidebar). Subscribing means you'll never miss a post (which is important now that Facebook isn't showing everything in your newsfeed from pages that you've liked!). Following on social media gives you access to more organizing tips, ideas, questions, reminders, and fun! I try to share different content on each site so you won't see a lot of overlap if you follow all of them. I love interacting with you so come join in the conversation!
Goals From Last Month:
1. Post every day for the month of October as part of the 31 Days of Organizing Tips series. Done!
2. Write at least one other post each week based on organizing projects I'm doing in my house. Nope. Wrote a lot more content into the organizing tips posts than I had intended and co-hosted 2 blog hops/link parties, so I didn't write any posts on what I was organizing.
3. Continue to spend time getting to know new people on Pinterest, Facebook, and Google+. Yes! And will continue to do this on an ongoing basis.
Goals For Next Month:
1. Pin all the ideas that were part of the 31 Days series. {I had planned to do this as the series progressed, but I only pinned some and but didn't keep up on all of them}.
2. Contact all the bloggers whose pictures and ideas I shared in the 31 Days series to let them know (in case they didn't see the posts) and to thank them for being part of this series. {Again, I had intended on doing this as I wrote the series but I didn't keep up on this either.}
3. Catch up on writing posts about organizing projects I've done in my house.
4. Continue to spend time getting to know new people on Pinterest, Facebook, and Google+.
So that's my look back on the month of October. It was an amazing {busy!} month and the accountability of writing a post every day was really good. I'm not committing to continuing that pace but I did learn that I can write more than I thought I could and also that I'm passionate about helping people get organized. So I plan to write more consistently than I did in the first few months of blogging.
Once again, I am so grateful that you have taken the time to join me on this journey from overwhelmed to organized!
Happy organizing!
