Digital Clutter Areas to get Organized

There are a million perks of having a gadget with vast internal memory. You can store a gazillion files without encountering ‘Memory Full’ pop-ups from time to time. You can take as many pictures and videos as you can think. But even that is inevitable because there always comes a day when you begin to have storage issues. 

But even if you are sorted, and think there’s ample free space left you must clear digital clutter to work smoothly and keep your gadgets healthy. They are bound to slow down, lag for hours otherwise.  

All this makes you frustrated and overwhelmed at some point. You can’t work efficiently if your computer is cluttered with files and keeps lagging now and then. Hence, it’s necessary to declutter your digital space from time to time.

But, if you don’t know where to begin, Read on!

Here’s how to proceed for a de-cluttered digital space. 

Digital Clutter Areas to get Organized

Here are 7 Digital Clutter Areas to Get Organized:

1. Mails

Deleting emails is a hassle. However, it is something you have to do. You can make your task easier by selecting multiple messages, or, you can pick one subscription that your mailbox is full of. Supposedly, if

you happen to use Amazon a lot, then your inbox might be full of amazon mails. So start with searching Amazon in the email search bar, and select all to delete them. 

While you are at it, do consider unsubscribing from platforms and websites that are irrelevant. It will avoid accumulating clutter in the future. Secondly, if you happen to have important emails, then always ensure that you mark them important, to prevent them from going down the trash. 

The easiest way to do this is to pick one day or a few days a week to do it a few at a time. I like to spend about 30 minutes at a time and unsubscribe and mark as spam, especially if I know I didn’t subscribe to the list at all. I do as much as possible in that timeframe, and then I wait until the next week or day to do the next list. Hot tip — do this when you have your favorite beverage of choice and it will make it go faster and your wallet will have more money left!

2. Screenshots

Your screenshots are most likely to contain things you haven’t seen in a gazillion years. Even then they just sit there somewhere in your disk creating storage issues. Time to clear them up. You can start by deleting older ones, and retaining some recent ones that you might need.

I always take screenshots which sometimes are meaningful while most are meaningless. In the moment, I usually think I will remember the importance or use the information, however it sits and I forget about it.

3. Delete cookies

You have to do literally nothing here. If you happen to have windows, then you can simply press Windows + R, and type %temp%, and delete the files that show up.

For iPhone, go to settings – Safari – clear history and website data. Likewise, some apps like Amazon and Tumblr allow you to clear cache internally within the app. Make use of the features. 

On Android, the process is easy. You can use some third-party applications to clean cache and cookies.

4. Your music library

In the era of music streaming, why would you still keep music stored in your gadget’s library? Rather get a subscription, or listen to music free on YouTube without creating a strain on your storage. 

5. Old programs and apps

Our gadgets come installed with apps and programs that are of no use to us. Therefore clean them up. Here’s how. 

To do that, search programs in the Windows search bar, click add or remove programs. Find the one that you don’t need in the list, and uninstall it. 

On Mac, Open Finders – Applications – Click the program you want to delete – click move to trash. 

On iPhones and android, it’s really easy. Just long-press the app, and click uninstall to remove it. 

This happens to all of us, we download something because it’s the new thing or next productivity tool but we never open it past the download. These take up valuable space on the device and can cause increased anxiety or stress especially if notifications are on.

6. Photos and Videos

Photos are memories; you would not like to delete them. We understand the sentiment. However, even in

the photo albums, you can find numerous pictures that are identical or multiple shots of the same moment. You can start by deleting them. If you are like me, and your kids get on your phone, you very likely have multiples of the same photo. You can look through and decide which one or few you’d like to keep and delete the rest. 

Once you are done, then head to the video section, and do the same. 

7. Conversations and sent media

Did you know even if you delete media from your phones, they still remain in the media compartment of apps through which you shared them with others? Both WhatsApp and iMessage store media that you send, creating a digital burden on your memory. 

Here’s how you can delete them. 

Whatsapp – Go to WhatsApp settings – storage and data – manage storage -and select the media you want to delete. 

On iMessage, you have to delete the media files conversation by conversations.

Here’s a hack – You do not have to click one image or one message one by one, instead, click select, and swipe vertically, to select multiple without having to click on them. 

Well, here are the major areas you can declutter, but there would be many, so look close. Have a happy decluttering. Trust us, it will only make your life easier. 

Hey, have some tricks and hacks to share? Feel free to drop them in the comments section.