This week of the challenge we are taking a little break from decluttering the physical spaces and diving deep into our electronic clutter. This includes emails, folders on your computer, backup storage spaces, subscriptions, and apps and downloads on your phone.

Email

• Separate your work and personal email accounts
  • this allows you to not sort through work email while at home or sort through personal emails while at work
• Unsubscribe from 90% of newsletters
  • make it a habit to unsubscribe immediately when they hit your inbox
• Utilize folders and labels to sort and archive important email
• check your email at least once per day to avoid an overwhelming inbox
• Aim for inbox “zero”
  • by staying on top of your inbox – unsubscribing, deleting, and using folders to organize – eventually this will be achievable
• Utilize your calendar rather than your email as a reminder to follow up with appointments and projects, etc.
• Delete or archive emails once you’ve responded to them
• Turn off alerts for new emails to avoid constant interruptions during the day

Computer Files

• remove old files
  • delete old, insignificant files and folders
  • if they are old files that you don’t open often and are important or sentimental move them to an external hard drive or cloud based storage
• Set up a filing system – you can organize by either content, date, or type of document or you can create your own system utlizing a combo
  • whatever you do, be consistent
• Sub-divide your folders
  • You can further organize folders by sub-category to help you more easily find documents you are looking for
• Only keep heavily used folders and or documents on your desktop to avoid it from being over-cluttered
• Don’t let files sit in your downloads filter
  • either save them appropriately or delete; this will free up space on your computer as well
• Delete or uninstall unused applications
• Clear out the cache and cookies in your browser history for enhanced internet performance
  • Warning: if you have any usernames or passwords auto-saved then this will erase them
• Review documents and folders in your external hard drive or cloud based storage a few time a year that may no longer be important or of significance anymore

Phone

• Delete unused apps
• Free up additional storage space by deleting downloads
  • For example that email document you downloaded from your phone or that restaurant menu you downloaded when you were deciding where to eat
• Only keep frequently used apps on your home screen
  • Our phones come with apps that we can’t always get rid of despite not using them; while we may not be able to delete them, we sure don’t need to clutter our home screen with them
• Determine how you want to organize your apps
  • You can organize by usage or types; creating folders to organize apps will also free up home screen space
• Photos tend to be a huge source of phone clutter. If you are like me you carry photos over from previous devices.
  • Delete duplicates or poor quality photos, then back them up and delete them from your phone
  • For photos you refer back to often you can buy additional storage fairly cheap (compared to buying a new phone with more storage) and move your pictures over to the external disk freeing up space on your phone
    • This is what I do since I refer back often to DIY projects I’ve completed
  • Make sure you utlize folders to organize your photos as well
• Disable notifications from email, social media, texts, and other apps, etc. which only serve as distractions
• Update the contacts in your phone
  • Update phone numbers, email addresses, social media accounts, etc.
  • Remove duplicates or people you are no longer in contact or connected with
• Perform device maintenance regularly to improve phone speed and optimize battery life

The Sweep

Now that we’ve cleaned up our electronic clutter it’s time for the daily sweep! Before bed (or at the most convenient time for you) go to each of your refreshed rooms with a basket. Look around the room and throw anything that does not belong in the room in your basket. Take care of anything that is out of place. Then take your basket and go through the house putting the items that don’t belong in the laundry room in their proper place. This should be a quick pickup and should not take long. Clean anything that looks physically dirty. Remember your family is there to help you as well.

The nightly “sweep” will also be a good time to evaluate the effectiveness of your systems in real time as you may notice different trends occuring. Does it still look as good as it did when you completed the room? Are there things out of place or items that don’t belong? Do the systems you have put in place seem to be working? Determine what is and isn’t working and make adjustments to your system as you see fit and continue to evaluate changes each night as you go through the house.

Until next week!