Life is so busy, and while technology does make my life easier, I find that I am bombarded with everything from notifications to emails to texts. Sometimes this can be a bit overwhelming. Just like physical clutter, electronic clutter can also be stressful, distracting, and cause anxiety.
Every so often I go through my devices to do some spring cleaning! Too many e-mails? Too many notifications? You can pare down and feel less stressed about it. Plus, by getting rid of stuff on your devices, you can clean up and open up more space.
Start by going through your e-mail and unsubscribe to anything you don’t need.
For example, if you subscribed to a newsletter about a certain topic, search your e-mail for the name of the newsletter and delete them all.
I find that I often subscribe to a newsletter to find a good deal, but then I am bombarded with e-mails from a company – even multiple e-mails every day! I usually sign up for some digital store flyers in the fall to help me with my holiday shopping, and before I know it, I am getting texts and emails left and right. It is so refreshing to get rid of all those newsletters and have less in my inbox to have to sort through.
Photos
I take a lot of photos, and they add up quickly. I find that a good time to go through these is when I am stuck waiting for something. For example, car repairs or a long sports meet. Sort through your photos and get rid of duplicates and things that need to be tossed. When I went to upgrade my phone last time, I had almost 13,000 photos on my camera roll, but was able to delete several thousand.
Videos
Videos can take up a lot of room, and it is good to stay on top of these. When I go back through my videos, I usually find some can be deleted, shortened, or uploaded to YouTube (and then deleted).
Texts & Voicemails
It is good to go through texts once in a while and delete the conversations that you don’t need. I find that there are some that are irrelevant and can be deleted. Then when I am looking through contacts and conversations, it is easy to find what I need. I also tend to have voicemails dating back months or even years, so go through those and get rid of anything you don’t need.
Notifications
Getting a lot of notifications all day can be distracting and stressful. I do want to keep tabs on certain things, but I often find unnecessary or unexpected notifications popping up from apps, so I go into my notifications center and change my preferences to reduce the number of notifications.
Apps and programs
My mac and iPhone both have a place in the settings where I can see what apps and programs are not being used, so I can get rid of them as desired. I tend to accumulate apps, and it is nice to get rid of some and prioritize what I use.
Trash
Go through spam and trash and empty these. I get so many spam e-mails and website comments, and it is nice to get rid of them.
Update
Lastly, make sure your files are backed up and updated!
About the Author: Marysa
Busy blogger and mom of two girls! We love traveling and the great outdoors, and are always looking for our next adventure!
I love the idea of digital spring cleaning. Especially need to unfollow those who don’t make us feel good about ourselves!
Yes I am the worst when it comes to pictures I need to get them in order as well
I need to do this! I started to do this with my photos on my phone.
I definitely need to go through photos on my phone there are a lot of random screenshots and photos from my kids.
Yes, I try to do this every three months! It’s the worst with photos and emails. I just push and hold the camera button for a while to get a good shot, cause in Motherhood it takes a billion pictures to get just ONE good one! lol.
I’d never thought of doing digital spring cleaning. That’s a great idea! I’ve got so much stuff on my devices that I don’t need.
Yes! Great tips. I periodically unsubscribe to emails. Just that one think alone really cuts down on the amount of email I get daily.
I had a mini Spring clean of my photos but I seriously need to do some more! I hate the way my photo albums fill up with random photos people have sent me on whatsapp. I do try to unsub from emails as they come in if I remember. So much virtual clutter!
For sure make sure your files are safe! I actually go through this same process, so that my phone runs better. Cleaning out the emails and unsubscribing is such a task and I legit ask myself when and how did I even sign up for most of them lol.
I’ve been taking the last month or so to really declutter my digital life. I’ve unsubscribed to so many emails!
I definitely need to go through my email and unsubscribe. My phone has too many photos too but it’s such a boring task! I’ll get around to it.
Your post has reminded me to do some spring cleaning for my phone, I needed to take some time to do that.
I’m big on decluttering but when it comes to my phone it just keep getting full, have got thousands of photos i need to clean out. Thanks for the tips.
This has reminded me that I do need to do this. thank you for the checklist hun, I will use this to make it easier xx
I go through my emails, videos and texts once a month and sort through what I want to keep and delete. I also have a few folders in my inbox to store different information emails. I get so many photos and videos from the whatsapp groups i’m in that it clutters my phone gallery!
Funnily enough I actually sat clearing my phone yesterday from apps, texts and emails. I still have some more emails to go as there were loads! Not quite sure how I end up with so many
I do a digital spring cleaning every once in a while! It’s great to look back at old photos and messages to reminisce, especially during this period.
Great tips! I recently sorted out all my photos and the amount I had was ridiculous. I really need to declutter my emails as well. What I would give for an empty inbox!
Hahah lovely article , I was just doing the same cleaned up all the photos on my phone and cleared up 30 gb space. I also unsubscribed from unwanted emails and cleared my emails inbox as well. Good tips to stay organized.
I was so proud of myself last week because I finally emptied my inbox and felt liberated. It’s full.of junk again but I remember that moment. Ha.
Ah I need to clean up and upload my pictures.