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An Early Spring Cleaning of your Electronic Clutter

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February 5, 2016

Clutter used to be just about junk and excess things you have lying around the house. Now we even have e-clutter don’t we? Dozens of icons on screens, unread emails, seven screens of apps on our phone, and hundreds of pages stashed in our bookmarks. It’s enough to drive you a little crazy and keep you distracted. It’s time to incorporate the words streamlined and simple in today’s over-booked, over-electronic world. Taking time to clear out your e-clutter can feel great and can give a sense of renewal in the final simplicity of the results. Why not start an early “spring cleaning” with your devices?

Phone

  • Contacts: Review them and delete anyone you haven’t spoken to in years.
  • Emails: Clear all unread emails and then delete all read emails except the important ones that need saving.
  • Apps: How many apps do you have that you don’t use? Clear them out. How many redundant ones do you have? Do you really need four weather apps and five navigators? Keep one and get rid of others. Games you don’t play? Delete!
  • Photos and videos: Back them up by storing them on the cloud, sending them to your computer, or printing the. Once they are saved, delete all but your absolute faves.

Computer

  • Photos: Delete duplicates and ones you never need again (think that rainbow you took a photo of in March 2014!) Save your important ones on the cloud or storage device.
  • Favorites/bookmarks: How many pages did you bookmark only to never view again? Go through them, delete unnecessary ones and organize the ones you do want to keep to make a manageable bar.
  • Desktop icons: This one gets to me. Some people use them, some don’t. It just looks messy to me when I log on. Organize them into folders if possible or keep the very few you use every single day. Ditch the rest!
  • Documents and downloads: My folders were amazingly full of junk. Every time you download anything to read, it saves. Old school documents from my kids projects were there too. Schedule 10 minutes a day to just sit and drag the ones no longer needed to trash. You’ll free up space and make searching for a document, when you do need one, a breeze.
  • Emails: Check your spam folder and delete them all! Maybe change your settings so you get less spam (some filters are stronger than others). Unsubscribe from the online stores you no longer shop at, and the news feeds you no longer read!

Repeat this clean up for everything digital. Your laptops, tablets, e-readers, etc. It’s like clearing space in your home and yes, it really feels freeing in a sense. After all your e-junk is gone, you can move onto your bathroom cabinets and closets and be ready for streamlined, cleaner and clearer areas around you this spring season.

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