11 Ways to Declutter Your Digital Life Right Now

Spring cleaning season is officially in bloom.

A lot of people focus on ways to declutter your physical life and space, including ways to organize your desk, clean out your closet, and choose only items that “spark joy.”

However, although our physical lives (and spaces) get much-needed makeovers, our digital spaces – including our phones and laptops – go completely missed. But if you’re anything like me, an organized laptop and clutter-free phone would do wonders for my sanity. I mean, wonders.

So if you want to dive deep into your digital life and execute a thorough declutter, look no farther. Here are 11 ways to declutter your digital life right now.

{ONE} Apps

Chances are you aren’t using half of the apps on your phone, let alone all of them. Take a moment to go through and delete the ones you haven’t used. You can even go into your phone settings and see how much space each app takes if you’re not sure which ones to remove!

{TWO} Photos

Selfies and screenshots galore! I was shocked how many photos were actually hiding on my phone, let alone laptop. It takes a bit of time, but deleting unwanted photos is worthwhile, trust me. Make sure to go into your “Recently Deleted” folder on your phone and delete them there, too!

{THREE} Notes

Ever write a grocery list in a note on your phone? Chances are, you don’t need it anymore. Go through your phone notes and delete the ones that are unnecessary.

{FOUR} Podcasts

This is a newer discovery for me. I didn’t realize the podcast episodes I listen to automatically go into the iCloud. There were dozens of podcast episodes taking up precious storage that I didn’t need to keep. Removing the episodes doesn’t unsubscribe you from the podcast so no need to fear!

{FIVE} Notifications

This is a mental decluttering hack, as well as, a productivity tip: Turn off the “non-essential” notifications on your phone. It’s insane how we constantly get bombarded with notifications: news, social media, emails…just to name a few. I turned off the “non-essential” notifications and it truly makes all the difference.

{SIX} Social media accounts

How many “friends” are actually your friends in real life on social media? Take a moment to purge your social media accounts. A few ways to do this: unfollow accounts that bring you down (whether mentally or emotionally), unfriend people you no longer communicate with, and/or completely delete social media apps you no longer use.

{SEVEN} Emails

I’m not sure about you, but my email inbox can quickly spiral out of control. A few ways to minimize the clutter and regain your sanity: unsubscribe from unwanted senders (promotions, brands, email lists), create folders to organize the important stuff, and delete everything you do not need. This sounds simple but for some reason, it’s a difficult habit to enable at first. It’s worth it, though!

{EIGHT} Files

This is, by far, the most tedious one on this list. I promise it’s worth it, though. Go through your files, open all the folders, and evaluate if you truly still need them all. Maybe there are multiple versions of the same document or a random excel file that is no longer useful. Go through and assess the situation. Once you have eliminated the unnecessary files, create new folders to take your organization to the next level (and then go reward yourself with cake or something, because this is no easy feat).

{NINE} Trash

Empty your trash! It’s as easy as that. You have no idea how many useless files are in there clogging up precious space. Empty it and don’t look back.

{TEN} Downloads

Similar to your trash, I bet there are tons of pointless files hiding your Downloads folder. If you’re like me, there might be 4…5…even 6 copies of the same file hiding in there! Delete them. Odds are they’re outdated by now and/or you got your use out of them.

{ELEVEN} Desktop

How many files are on your desktop? I bet there are a bunch and just the thought of that makes me panic. I like to keep my desktop clutter-free so take a moment to put files into folders, delete completely, and/or reevaluate if you truly need to keep an excel doc from 3 years ago.

Happy decluttering! You got this!