spring cleaning for your blog

sometimes i get emails from bloggers asking how to make their blog look not so "crowded". i know not everyone is the same when it comes to thinking what their own blog should look like, but for me, less is more! so i give them my opinions, maybe walk them through a couple things & they always turn out loving it. because a clean, organized, & pretty blog can go a long way.

so today i wanted to show you some of these easy little tips for a basic blog cleaning. aka - spring cleaning for 'yo bloggy.

+ REMOVING YOUR NAVBAR
this little guy at the top of your blog can make such a big difference once it's gone! i think it makes such a huge improvement in the overall look, that it's almost a necessity to not have it there haha. it's so easy to take off, but if you decide you'd rather have it back later on, it's simple to reverse. go to your layout section, find navbar in the upper right and click edit. scroll down until you find OFF, click it. hit save!

+ UNCLUTTERING YOUR COMMENT SECTION

there's a bunch of post page options to add at the end of your posts along with your comments.. but limiting those to just a few can take it to ughhh to ahhhh in seconds. haha do you like my crowd commentary? so again, go to your layout section and click edit on your blog posts body. there you will see all the options that can be customized to your preferences. you can even rearrange how you want them organized. cool, huh! just remember, less is more. and don't forget to SAVE when you're done.

+ SIZING IMAGES SO THEY'RE THE SAME
when i first started blogging, i didn't know about this pretty little gem. all my pictures were tiny & looked weird. but i didn't know it could be changed. and having good pictures on your blog is one of the most important aspects, i think. it just looks soooo good when you are reading a blog and they're pictures are pretty, clear, big, all the same size etc... it catches your attention, right? i feel like you could have the best looking blog ever & your pics are sub-par and it throws everything off.

so here's a little tip to change that -
when you're composing your post and you have your image uploaded to your template, click on the image. sizing options will pop up that you can choose from. i always choose X-LARGE.

okay now. your vertical images won't line up evenly with your horizontal ones. if this bothers you, you'll need to edit them to match -which is around 640 pixels wide- after doing that you can choose the original size option instead. OR if you want your images to be post width without editing your pics beforehand, i'll be posting a tutorial to help you do that within the next couple of weeks. but for now, if all of this extra is a little confusing, just stick to choosing size x-large and you will be set.

+ REMOVING SHADOW BOXES FROM AROUND IMAGES
    see here

+ REMOVING YOUR POST FOOTER DIVIDER LINES

depending on your blogger template, your post divider will look different but this is what mine is defaulted to.

there are lots of ways to customize your post footers and what not, but without getting into designs & your template html, i'll show you the easy way.
go to template >> customize >> advanced >> post footer
find the red dotted lines that surround your post footer on your blog preview. 

in the template designer you'll see on the far right the shadow color options. click on the color box with the down arrow and then click transparent. APPLY TO BLOG and you're done.

or if you have no interest in removing that divider, you can customize it to your liking in this same section. if you want something different than what you have (like a straight, dashed, double lined or something) i'll be doing a tutorial on how you can customize that in your html template.


+ SIDEBAR REVAMP
you can make your sidebar go on for dayzzz people. especially if you've got affiliates, sponsors, button swaps etc.. there are gadgets on gadgets on gadgets that you can choose from. resist the urge to add more than you need! keeping your sidebar clean with minimal gadgets will be a fresh of breath air for readers. when you're in your layout section, remove any gadgets/widgets that aren't necessary. and that's all up to you as the author of your blog. just rememba! less is more. 

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if you have any questions, let me know. and if you need more help customizing your bloggy, you can check out my other tutorials here or my pricing page here for other options. i hope this helps!