Digital Spring Cleaning.

Hello, friends! There is so much going on in the world right now. It’s hard to find the balance between staying up-to-date with everything that’s going on and not fixating on things that you cannot control. So. I thought I’d write a blog post about something that’s maybe a little trivial, but it’s something in life that we CAN do to make our brains a little less cluttered. And that’s a digital spring cleaning.

1. The first thing that we can do is go through all of our technology. Phones, video game consoles, cords, etc. We have a tendency to hang onto these items when they may not even work or we may just not need them anymore. We can get rid of the technology that is no longer useful to us and are just taking up space in our junk drawer. Some items you may even be able to sell for a little bit of extra money. Others, you can take to a store that will recycle or donate them.
2. Something that I did this week, that I’ve been putting off for months, is delete old emails. I have a tendency to keep every single email I receive, even if I know for a fact I don’t need to. I had over 3,000 unread emails in my inbox when I decided to go through them. I will note that most of them are from shops that I signed up for emails for, I didn’t have 3,000 IMPORTANT emails waiting around for me. Delete emails that you don’t need!
3. Clean up your Feed. I have a habit of watching a reality show and following EVERYONE from it, and then a month or so later, I end up unfollowing most of them, because I just don’t need to keep up with their lives! Every so often I think it’s a good idea to go through your followers list and unfollow some people. Social media should be used as a place to keep up to date with our loved ones, become inspired, or benefit from in some other way. If you’re not feeling any of those emotions, it may be a good idea to remove them from your following feed.
4. Clear out your photos. This can be done on your phone, camera, and laptop. I have a habit of hoarding photos on all three, but more often than not, there are plenty of photos that we take that we do not need to keep. While you’re doing this, you can also print out some of your favorite photos. It’s really nice being able to see all those photos, printed out. It’s also a good way to decide whether or not you should keep some photos. Is this picture worth printing? And now, not every photo we take needs to be printed out, but it’s a nice tool to help us be more intentional with which photos we take or keep.
5. Delete old text messages. Some text messages are worthy of saving, but many are not. Think back to those mass texts for group projects, your boss asking if you can cover someone’s shift, or even text messages from companies, informing you of the weekend’s sales. Those can definitely go. I recommend going through your messages and deleting ones that aren’t important or wanted. It frees up so much space on your phone.
6. Get rid of unneeded apps. Back in my shopaholic days, I would spend hours on shopping apps, mainly Urban Outfitters, Forever 21, and L.L. Bean. Since all but eliminating my online shopping habit, I have no need for such apps. I recommend taking a good, long look at all the apps you have on your phone (or any other device) and delete the ones that you don’t find yourself using very often. You can always download it again, if need be.
7. Delete notes/google docs. As someone who enjoys writing poetry, I have a habit of writing snippets of lines that I think up, only to look back at them to realize they’re really not that good. Feel free to delete all of those old poems, grocery lists, or tweet ideas. There’s no need to hoard them.
8. Delete old social media or email accounts. I’m one of those people that have downloaded and deleted Tik Tok SO many times. I ended up deleting my account on it because I just didn’t find myself using it often. You don’t need to keep these accounts active if you don’t find yourself using them. Our time is too precious to mindlessly scroll on apps that we don’t even enjoy!
9. Unsubscribe from mailing lists you no longer care about. I mentioned this tip in another blog post, but I think it’s one that is worthy of repeating. The less emails you have coming in, the less you’ll have to eventually delete! It makes your inbox much less intimidating when you end up going through it.
10. Delete old posts. I generally will do this by utilizing the “On this day…” option. When Facebook asks me to look at posts that I made a year or two prior, I take a peek, I cringe at my past self, and then I delete the post. That way, you’re able to rid your feed of unnecessary posts. If you’re feeling REALLY ambitious, you can scroll through all of your old posts and delete a bunch all at once. The internet just doesn’t need all of my posts from when I was thirteen. They just don’t.

Thank you so much for reading, my dear friends. I hope that you are all hanging in there.

XOXO,

Mattie Mae