Spring Cleaning Your Digital Life: Tips for Organizing Your Tech

In the age of digital media, where our phones are connected to our hands, going through your digital library and maintaining your apps is essential. Spring cleaning is no longer just for the physical world; it also applies to your digital life. It’s easy to accumulate clutter on devices and harder to know when to clean them up, especially when you’re not looking at the mess every day like you do in real life. This spring, make time to clean up your digital realm with our effective tips and tricks. 

Evaluate Your Devices

Start off your digital Spring cleaning by evaluating what devices you use regularly. From phones and computers to tablets, reading devices, and storage servers – any and every device might need an update. The most often used devices are likely the ones that need the most cleaning. If you notice any devices during evaluation that you don’t use often or have become obsolete in your life, consider donating or selling them. 

Declutter Digital Files

One of the biggest sources of clutter on devices comes from the unorganized and messily stored digital files. Whether it is PDFs and files saved on your computer or the 15,000 pictures you have sitting in your general photo album on your cell phone – decluttering these spots can save a ton of space on your device and bring you a new sense of organization so you never have to declutter again. Apps like Google Photos and Google Docs can help upload the entirety of your photo album and clear up space on your phone while still having access to your photos and files. 

Tidy Up Desktops and Home Screens

One of the easier tasks when it comes to decluttering is tidying up your home screens and apps. Although Deciding how you want your home screens to look is a much harder task now, with tons of options and aesthetics, making sure the home screen is pleasing to you is important because of how often it’s looked at and used. You can also edit your settings, shortcuts, and more efficiency techniques to optimize your devices. 

Review Passwords and Unsubscribe from Emails 

One of the most tedious but necessary areas to hit when Spring cleaning your devices is reviewing passwords and unsubscribing from emails. Does your email app show a notification for 8,432 unreal emails? It’s time to take care of that. Overrun with promotional content, newsletters, ads, and spam – taking an hour to unsubscribe to businesses you don’t buy from or companies you don’t use can not only tidy up your device but also your inbox. Reviewing passwords should also be a yearly occurrence, saving you from forgetting them and making sure that if one password gets hacked or leaked, all of your accounts are not compromised. 

Update and Streamline your Aps

We use our apps daily in our digital lives, but with an overwhelming number of apps you can have, you want to make sure you download the best apps for efficiency. On the other side of the coin, going through your downloaded apps and deciding what you use and what is inefficient can also be an easy way to save space, organize your device, and save some screen time. Ensure all your apps are up to date, and do some research on streamlining apps that can help diminish your downloaded content.

Entertainment and Subscription Clean-Up

Going overboard with entertainment apps, social media, and numerous subscriptions is easy. The content these apps possess, like saved content, drafts, and data can slow down the apps and their productivity. Take some time to review these apps and the money you are spending on them. Delete and unsubscribe from apps you no longer use or enjoy. This can also include utilizing the infamous ‘unfollow’ button—cleaning up your social media pages along with your apps and subscriptions. 

Backing Up Important Data

Possibly, the most critical aspect of digital cleaning that is often overlooked is backing up your data and making sure processes are in place for a continuous system that will keep your devices backed up year-round. In today’s day and age, it’s also essential to protect and safeguard your data, and by updating your systems and protecting them from breech or spam, you ensure your safety. Whether you use any external hard drives or you save everything directly on your device, make sure it’s up to date and secure to use.