Happy spring! These next few weeks we will be going through a cleaning and resetting of your life. Now more than any is a good time! Spring cleaning is a huge part of our lives every year but do you remember to clean out your phones, computers, etc?
Why should you declutter your devices?
The thing about having physical things is you can see when it is getting out of hand. You can see the piles of mail piling, and the photos out of place. However, until storage is full we don’t often see the clutter we hold in our devices.
Whether it’s that meme you sent to your friends months ago, those pictures of that ex you have not yet wanted to delete, or the screenshots of a text thread it’s time to let it go. Somethings in you’ve held on to will be easy to let go and others will take time. Do not push yourself too far but start somewhere.
What should you declutter?
- Photo albums
- Computer files
- Emails and texts
- unsubscribe from emails and texts (this will save you money too!)
- Contacts, call logs, and voicemails
- Apps
- Unfollow social media accounts that no longer serve you
Also in a previous post, I discussed how to have a better relationship with social media. This is also important in the decluttering process because sometimes the amount of time you spend on social media or what you see can need good decluttering.
Benefits of Digital Declutter
The benefits of decluttering can be both intrinsic and external. On a surface level, you will have more storage space, or your device can look more aesthetic if you are deleting apps. It can
How to do it (include doing it in sections)
- First and foremost, do all your cluttering in sections. Start with the easiest thing you you to get through and build up to anything more difficult
- Delete anything you are sure you don’t need – old text threads, screenshots, etc.
- For more difficult things, consider external storage such as the cloud or a physical product. That can at least get difficult memories off your phone but you still have them.
- Buddy up – doing things on your own is sometimes hard but find someone committed to decluttering too. You can even make it a competition.
Digital Declutter Maintenance
The easiest way to maintain a decluttered electronic is to maintain it. Set up calendar events on your phone for the time you generally have free time and clean out your phone section by section. For example, Monday mornings clear out your emails from the week before, and Fridays clear out your photos.
Make a folder system in your emails and photo albums. Each folder should have a category. If the email or photo does not belong to one of the categories figure out if you need a new folder or just to get rid of it. This could be the perfect opportunity to unsubscribe from emails you no longer use.
Email folder ideas:
- Emails to respond to
- Emails with actions
- Work emails
- Personal emails
- Promotions you want to use
Photo albums ideas:
- ___ Vacation (date)
- Selfies
- Quotes I like
- memes
- family pictures
- Friend pictures
- Pictures of (your pet)
Digital Declutter Checklist
