First, I want to acknowledge that this is a little bit of the blind leading the blind here…
“Welcome to the digital mess club. First thing, deep breath. You're not alone. We've all been there, drowning in a sea of digital clutter.” —rigondo, Reddit
I am definitely an information hoarder… and my ADHD makes me overthink my organization, so I often have folders for my folders for my folders… listen below or keep reading for tips to declutter your digital life.
Who We Are
We're your go-to duo for all things digital organization. With a combined love for decluttering and a knack for finding humor in even the most chaotic situations, we’re here to help you tame your digital mess. Join us for practical tips, relatable stories, and a whole lot of laughs as we guide you through the world of digital decluttering.
Listen
Part 1
Part 2
Basic Tips to Start
Get a password manager
1Password, Bitwarden
Remember that your labeling system has to work the way that you think about grouping things.
A common mistake is trying to mimic another person's system! It won't work for you because this isn’t how YOU think.
Start small to gather some momentum
“Friend advised me to start with organizing 2 digital files on my computer each day, then increase to 4/day, continue to build on that daily number. It gets easier and more satisfying as you go along, so there have been a few days when I get on a roll and do 100+.” —perrier346, Reddit
Put on a good playlist/podcast that makes you feel productive.
Set a timer. You only have to do this for 10 minutes a day, or you only have to declutter 3 files, etc. Allow yourself to quit once you’ve met your goal.
This is a marathon, not a sprint. You can’t do these things once and then expect it to stay this way, because we’re all constantly consuming digital content. It’s gonna get messy again. So commit to a certain amount of time every week (day, whatever) to make sure things stay organized.
Digital Decluttering, Part 1: The Computer
Files
Start by creating “mega folders” that you can then break down into any system that you want. Start big, then work your way into smaller groupings that make sense.
EX: Mega folders = Family, Finance, Fun, Personal
Family
Finance
Taxes
(Break down by year)
Car
Loan info
Maintenance
Registration
Insurance
Home
Mortgage/loans
Maintenance
Insurance
This tip from socrtc21 on Reddit is my new favorite: Avoid being too specific! You don’t want to end up with a bunch of folders that only have 1 file in them!
Then, go through that “downloads” folder – chances are it’s a mess. Sort those items into your mega folders.
Lastly, is there crap on your desktop? Is that your temporary holding space? Delete or sort into your mega folders.
Emails
“Search for two different ‘senders’ or unimportant email accounts a day, delete everything you don't need. Very easy to do with emails you've never even opened before.” —perrier346, Reddit
Unsubscribe and unfollow
I saw a tip a while back that someone used: search for any email that has “unsubscribe” in your inbox, select all, and then delete.
Use Unroll.me to roll all of your promo emails into 1 email per day
Use Cleanfox to get rid of newsletters that you don’t read
Close inactive email accounts. Set up forwarding for email accounts that you DO use, or roll them all into 1 email app
All of my email accounts are in my Apple Mail
Personal, work, podcast, etc.
Finally, check out “have i been pwned” (yes, that's how you spell it) to see if your email address was in a data breach and remove yourself from those websites or update your passwords.
Random Saves: Bookmarks, Tabs, Articles, etc.
Context matters! Did you save an article because you just wanted to read it? Did you save it because it will actually assist you with a home project? Be prepared to answer those questions. If you don’t know why you saved it, it should probably go.
First, Ask yourself if you’ll actually come back to this – if you won’t, don’t save it. Otherwise, find one system that you like and stick with that.
The bookmarks bar, Pinterest, Napkin, MyMind
A tool like “GetDoombox” was recommended on Reddit (this last one didn’t seem to be working when I checked at the end of September 2024, but fingers crossed b/c I want this one!)
Things like YouTube “watch laters”, Reddit saves, and read later saves… go through them and set a time threshold for deleting.
Ex: if it’s been here for more than 6 months I’m deleting it (change the time based on how anxious that makes you!)
Digital Decluttering, Part 2: Your Phone
Pictures
Highly recommend a picture backup app: I use Google Photos because it automatically sorts by year.
Pour yourself a glass of something you’ll sip and get ruthless with deleting.
We all take multiple pictures to try and get the ones where we all look good and aren’t blinking—delete the crappy ones!
Bursts take up tons of space and you ultimately only want 1-2 of them most of the time. Purge the ones you don’t want.
Screenshots: these are my kryptonite… I have started taking them, sending them immediately, and then deleting them OR saving them to the notes app on my phone. If I plan to use them for the show, I upload it to Canva on my phone.
But listen, if it’s a meme that you thought “OMG this is hilarious, i’mma keep it for when I’m sad…” but then haven’t looked at it again? Girl, bye.
Social Posts
Again, context matters! Did you save an ad because you think it would make a great gift? Did you save a post because it’s a hairstyle you really want to try? Be prepared to answer those questions. If you don’t know why you saved it, it should probably go.
If it’s one you saved because you wanted to send it to someone, do that, and then unsave it and move on.
It’s okay to unfollow people whose content doesn’t serve you anymore. And don’t feel bad about it.
If you used to find someone funny but you’ve evolved past that style of humor? Unfollow.
Your favorite reality TV stars stopped sharing updates and now they’re just peddling crap you don’t need? Unfollow.
Caveat: if it’s your Great Aunt Herbina and she’ll get upset if you don’t follow her, you can mute her content. She won’t know.
Your Notes App
Um, please don’t look in here, okay? Thx bye.
If you’re like me, you probably have some super personal crap in there.
That said, this tends to be a source of stress because it’s like a digital sea of sticky notes.
Does it have a title?
If you didn’t bother to title it, it’s probably a 1-off you needed at a particular moment, so you can probably get rid of it. If it got a title, it’s likely important enough to warrant a closer look.
Can you merge the content with any other notes?
I have like 4 different notes with books I’ve been meaning to read on them. I can consolidate those notes… or better yet, add the titles to my GoodReads and then delete the notes. Good grief.
Is the content super personal and/or compromising?
For the love of Snoopy, get this crap off of your phone. If it’s passwords, put that -ish in a password manager and get rid of it. Or, at the very least, retitle it so it isn’t all obvious.
Other Phone Apps
This is tricky because I also have an Apple Watch. So, I started there.
If an app has the audacity to install itself on my watch and then send me alerts that actually tick me off, I am probably going to remove it from my watch. I don’t need apps telling me that there is a sale on leggings during a work call. Just, no.
Make App Folders
I keep all of my apps on my home page. The only thing on my second home page is my business card widget.
All of my apps are sorted into folders.
Ex: Sammy, Finance, Health…
All of those folders are sorted by frequency of use. I might have 15 health-related apps, but the ones I use the most are accessible with 1 tap to that folder.
Apps I can’t/shouldn’t delete are in a folder called “Utilities” and are all in the 2nd-3rd pages of that folder.
Once again, the folder structure has to make sense to you. You could sort by frequency of use, you can make them motivational (I saw a post of someone who made her folders say “I Am Healthy, I Am Responsible,” etc. like affirmations)... it just has to work for you.
If you don’t use that app often, get rid of it. You can see which apps are used most often and which ones are never used, and then just get rid of them.
Alerts
This is where I went on a rampage. I went through the notifications I allow on my phone, and if an app isn’t urgent (hello, Fabletics app) or the badge gives me anxiety and makes me feel compelled to check it, those badges are no longer allowed.
Facebook? No badges allowed. Same for Twitter, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, Snapchat, and all of the other time-vacuums I have in my “Social Media” folder.
My son’s school communications app? Yes, badges allowed, because that’s how the teacher communicates with us.
Email badges: Did you know that you can have some email accounts add badges and others don’t?
For example, my work emails don’t count toward that badge total. So, if I ever get down to inbox zero (the ultimate goal), any unread emails in my work inbox won’t give me a badge, which means I won’t feel compelled to check that app.
Remember that almost everything with your phone’s structure is flexible, so you can update it at any time. Restart alerts, move apps from one folder to another… whatever. Just make it work for you.
More Resources
If you are completely lost and have no idea how your brain organizes things at all… these 2 books were mentioned in that Reddit thread:
My Final Thoughts:
As someone with ADHD, I’m constantly thinking that some new tool is going to save my life. I have notebooks, planners, etc. galore, and I rarely stick to them. So, if downloading that “super awesome to-do list app” that everyone swears by didn’t work for you 2 years ago, don’t download another resource thinking “Aw yeah, this one is the ONE,” because it probably won’t be.
Consider this a form of self-care. When you're in the habit of keeping your digital junk decluttered, it will feel soooo freaking good.
Thanks for listening, reading, or whatever you did. We appreciate you!
Make good (digital) choices,
CK
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