The Best of Just a Girl and Her Blog 2016

The Best of Just a Girl and Her Blog 2016- There are so many helpful organization posts in this roundup! Click through to the post to see them all!

Happy 2017, friends! I can hardly believe it’s time for the “best of” post for 2016 already– I feel like this year just flew by! And what’s more, as of yesterday I have officially been blogging for 4 years. Wow.

It’s hard to believe how far this little blog has come since those first few posts and how much our lives have changed because of it! Crazy! (If you’d like to see exactly how much things have changed, you can visit past years’ “best of” posts here: 2013, 2014, 2015.)

I am so very thankful for all of you who have come alongside me on this journey. You are truly what makes this blogging thing fun and worth it for me, and I hope that 2017 will be the best year yet.

The Best of Just a Girl and Her Blog 2016

But before we move on to that, let’s take a look back at the posts people loved most in 2016, according to my analytics at least! 🙂

January

January is typically a busy month here on the blog because everyone is looking for organization ideas, and we certainly have a bunch of those! It’s no surprise, then, that two of the most popular posts of the year were organization-based: How to Organize Every Space in Your House and How to Get Organized When You Live in a Small House.

Love all of these brilliant tips, tricks, and ideas for getting organized! Click through to the post to see them all!

One post that surprised me by drawing a lot of traffic in 2016 was my personal blogging story, found here: From Hobby Blog to Thriving Business: My Blogging Story. I wrote it for my 3 year blogiversary, just because I was feeling kind of nostalgic and wanted to have a record of the major moments of our blogging story, and I was thrilled that others seemed to enjoy it too!

This blogger's story is incredible! She started out knowing nothing about blogging and now both she and her husband blog as their full time jobs! Click through to the post to read more!

February

The organization trend continued into February (and all through the year, as you’ll see!), and Donnie’s updated paperless post, The Ultimate Guide to Going Paperless, topped the list yet again. He talked all about the systems we use to keep all of our files and documents digitally rather than in a clunky and cluttered filing cabinet, and people were all over it!

Love this helpful post about going paperless! This couple keeps all of their files digitally-- no paper filing cabinet or cluttered mess of folders! Click over to the post to see how they do it step by step!

Organizing food must’ve been on peoples’ minds as well, because my Free Printable Organized Grocery List, printable Recipe Binder, and my How to Organize a Small Kitchen post all made it to the top of the popular posts list for 2016!

Awesome tips and tricks for organizing a small kitchen-- and proof that small kitchens can be beautiful too! Click through to the post for her amazing organization tips!

March

In March I talked about How to Form a New Habit (Even If You’ve Failed at It Before), which seemed to resonate with readers, but some of the first decor-type posts made it to the top of the list this month as well.

With every room of our townhouse pretty much completed, I shared a Before and After Home Tour, and it was fun to see the transformation of the old, outdated spaces to much more functional and beautiful rooms.

Kitchen Renovation Before and After. Beautiful white IKEA SEKTION GRIMSLOV kitchen with aqua and green accents, a gorgeous marble hexagon backsplash, and quartz countertops. | JustAGirlAndHerBlog.com

And since I’ve tried nearly every shade of gray paint in the known universe, I also rounded up My 5 Favorite Gray Paint Colors of all time. 🙂

April

In April I admitted that I had hit a bit of a lull that I had to work through, and I talked all about how I did it in a post called How to Be Productive When You’re Not Feeling Motivated. I think we all need a little bit of a motivational boost from time to time!

I also confessed my love for storage bins (not that it was a big secret!) and shared some of my favorite ways to use them in my How to Organize Every Room of the House with Storage Bins post.

Love this list of ideas for different types of containers to use to organize each space! Click through to the post to see them all!

April also brought the launch of one of my very favorite projects to date, our first full-fledged course, BookBoss: Write + Launch a Profitable eBook in 90 Days or Less! We have loved watching so many amazing blogger authors go through the course and crush it with their eBooks!

Write and Launch a Profitable eBook in 90 Days or Less with BookBoss!

May

My theory that people really love food and meal organization was confirmed in May when my Free Printable Recipe Cards post took off!

We also began a brand new chapter of the blog when I made our moving announcement, finally spilling the beans that we were selling our townhouse and building a new construction home nearby.

June

As we were packing up the townhouse in June, I reflected on 10 Organizational Systems that Are Essential for Every House (mostly so I would have something to look back on when I started to organize the new house)!

And many of you must’ve been interested in what our new house was going to look like because my post called Our New Home: A Preview climbed to the top of the popular posts list as well!

A preview of our new home build with Ryan Homes! This is the Palermo main level floor plan.

July

Next to January, July and August also tend to be big months for organization because people start thinking about getting ready to send the kiddos back to school. My Printable Student Binder was not only one of my popular posts in 2016, but has become one of my most visited posts of all time!

This cute student binder would be so helpful for getting organized for class each semester! Click through to the post to snag it!

I also talked about a super simple, yet effective way to be more productive, The Brain Dump Method of Productivity.

August

Productivity won out again in August, with two of the most popular posts of the year being The Simple Technique that Helps Me Be Insanely Productive Every Single Day and My Home Binder and Planner Tour.

Time blocking has helped me become so much more productive and make the most of my time! My productivity is through the roof! Click through to the post to get this helpful free printable for time blocking!

September

September was alllllll about the new house! I shared an update a few weeks before we moved in: New House Update: We’re Getting Close. And when we finally got the keys I went a little crazy taking pictures of absolutely everything and shared them with you as well: Our New House: The Before Photos.

Love this gorgeous home! It's new construction, a Ryan Homes Palermo, and I can't wait to see how she decorates it. Click through to the post to see the full tour!

October

My free printable monthly calendar always seems to make it into the top posts each year, and this year was no exception. You can find my Free Printable 2017 Calendar here.

And one of the first projects I tackled in the new house? Create a Pretty and Organized Pantry, of course! I used removable wallpaper for the first time and ended up loving the result!

Love these ideas for making a kitchen pantry organized and beautiful! Click through to the post for all of the details!

November

I continued to wage war on our new home’s builder grade closets in November, creating a Beautiful and Organized Master Closet (that we are still absolutely loving!).

This is a gorgeous master closet! I love the closet system and all of the incredible functionality they were able to get out of this space! Click through to the post to see more!

We also finished our very first full room makeover in the new house, our boys’ shared bedroom.

Home Decor: Shared Boy Bedroom. Love this cute shared boy bedroom with an adventuring theme! Click through to see all of the fun details!

I was also surprised to see that a more personal post I had written about how my emotional energy “tank” was running low was one of the most visited posts of the year, which tells me that I’m not the only one who experiences some emotional burnout every now and then!

December

And finally, December! It’s hard to judge which posts from the end of the year will take off, but my 2017 Budget Binder already seems to be gaining some traction!

This beautiful budget binder is the perfect tool to help us save more money and spend less this year! Click over to the post to snag these helpful free printables!

Home tours also seem to be popular, and it was fun to see some traffic to our first tour in the new house, our 2016 Christmas Home Tour.

Home Decor - Christmas Nights Tour, Christmas home tour, Christmas decor, holiday decor, Christmas lights

Whew! So those were the top posts of 2016! If you have any requests for posts in 2017, I’d love to hear them– feel free to leave them in the comments! Thank you again for following along with our crazy adventure! It truly means so much!

Have a wonderful week!

14 Comments

  1. I love your free printables but cannot print them. Can you tell me what I am doing wrong?
    Thank you!

    1. justagirlabby says:

      Hi, Judy! Can you tell me what happens when you try to print them? You should just be able to go to File > Print and have them print out. Sorry for the confusion!

      ~Abby =)

  2. Abby, what an exciting year! A new home and so much blogging success. You’ve inspired me to become more organized this year.

    1. justagirlabby says:

      So glad it’s been helpful for you, Danielle! <3

      ~Abby =)

  3. Sarah @ The Teacher's Wife says:

    So much fun to look back through your list! I missed some of them, so I’m glad I can get caught up! I look forward to following along in 2017! 🙂

    1. justagirlabby says:

      Thanks so much, Sarah! <3

      ~Abby =)

  4. Maria @ Leisurely Does It says:

    Your story really inspires me. It’s amazing how far you can go. I’m now starting out on my blogging journey and I am terrified but so excited. Fingers crossed that I’ll look back one day and be amazed by my own story.

    1. justagirlabby says:

      Thanks so much, Maria! You’re too sweet! Have a wonderful week and happy blogging! <3

      ~Abby =)

  5. You have had an amazing year 2016 and i so wish you loads of luck and wishes for 2017. You are so all over the places Abby here in india because of your income report , there are ample of website who publish you as an inspiration and truly you are one. Especially for me 🙂

    1. justagirlabby says:

      You are too sweet! Thanks so much, Richa! Have a wonderful day! <3

      ~Abby =)

  6. You had such a great year, Abby! Congratulations on your new house!
    Hugs, Jamie

    1. justagirlabby says:

      Thanks so much, Jamie! Have a wonderful week! <3

      ~Abby =)

  7. Hi Abby! I’m a new blogger, and I’m trying to become familiar with the blogging world and other people’s content. Your page is designed really nicely, and you have great ideas! I would so much appreciate it if you would be able to check out my own blog if you ever get the chance, and advise me on how to get it out there for people to read. Thanks! – Jordie blog: http://www.talesovertea./

    1. justagirlabby says:

      Hi, Jordie! I tried to visit your site but kept getting an error message. Sorry about that! I wrote a post about how to get the most out of every blog post and I think it will be helpful for you: https://justagirlandherblog.com/blog-post-checklist/

      Enjoy your blogging journey!

      ~Abby =)

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