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When You Know It’s Time to Declutter Your Digital Life

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It’s like Maxie was listening to my inner thoughts the past week when she wrote this post. I’m definitely overdue for a digital declutter session…
When You Know It’s Time to Declutter Your Digital Life
Guest post by Maxie McCoy
Spring cleaning is a “thing” for a lot of people. Get rid of those so last year patterns. Throw away the boots that basically have a hole in the sole. Ditch the dress that you didn’t even consider wearing out once last year. Make space. Make room. Simplify. Declutter.
It’s fun and awful all at the same time. You have to let go of things. You have to clean (ugh). And while spring cleaning can be a great thing, there’s one aspect of it that basically everyone is forgetting about. 
You spend so much more time on your computers, phones and tablets than you do in your closet. It’s like your constant distraction. Is it a good one? How often do you ever take the time to organize and purge your digital lives? I think there’s a solid argument to be made that it’s so much more important than your closet.
Think about it, you enter a giveaway… you’re on a new email list. Do you like what they’re sending you? You joined Twitter years ago and who knows what you were thinking when you followed all those people. Do you even care about what they’re tweeting? You took so many photos on your trip to Europe your phone barely functions. And don’t even get me started on the look of your desktop…
It’s time to make the place where you spend the majority of your time clean, beautiful and in alignment with what you want to be consuming throughout the day. If you’ve ever thought the following, you’re probably due.
Who is this person again?
There’s so many people I don’t know on my newsfeed anymore. Either they were chance meetings in college that I didn’t stay in touch with, or they were a part of the “Friend Everyone You’ve Ever Heard Of!!!” stage of being new to facebook. Or they got married, changed their name, and I’m not good enough friends with them to even care to remember. Whatever the reason is, if you can’t figure out who the person is, they probably shouldn’t be in your newsfeed. Unsubscribe!!
Why do I have 20 emails before 8am? Are any of these humans?
Seriously though. You’ve got brands on brands on brands on brands emailing you. Without being totally sure how you even got on their list. So if you’re waking up to countless email promotions and sales, I think it’s time to unsubscribe to handfuls of them. If emails are consistently getting deleted, ignored or archived, go ahead and create the space in your inbox for new and better emails to grab your attention (like mine and Carly’s, helllooo *wink*)
There’s nothing interesting in my Twitter feed anymore.
You probably have batches of old follows that aren’t serving you anymore. A while ago I realized that my twitter feed is so so saturated with sports. And while I do like sports, I don’t live and breathe them like I did when I was on my sports broadcaster track. So it was time to go unfollow a bunch of those old people that I once cared about. And to follow new ones that I’m more in line with. If your Twitter or Instagram isn’t in line with the things you care about, out with the old to make room for the new!
Nope. Clicked the wrong tab againnnn.
Guilty. So guilty. I’ve said before that my tabs are a horizontal to do list, but if you’re ever at the point that you can no longer even see the little tab icon, I think there’s a problem. Shut that down. Get rid of tabs. I know you feel attached. I do too. But you don’t need them all. If there’s a tab that’s been up there since before the last holiday, you should probably just bookmark it and be done. 
I hate my phone. I hate it. I’m going to throw it at the wall if it says “Not Enough Storage” one more time.
The worst. The absolute worst. And while it’s easy to blame your phone, you’re the one who can do something about it. I spent months deleting apps, deleting photos and refusing to take responsibility for the lack of space on my phone. Then it drove me so crazy I finally decided to do something about it. (Wish I had done that six months ago). Sign up for Dropbox, or get an external hard drive, and move those photos over! You’ll be so glad you did. And you’ll finally be able to download Snapchat back onto your phone. Hallelujah!
I know it doesn’t exactly feel like spring yet, but that doesn’t mean you can’t begin the cleaning. The important cleaning– the digital one. Create space on your phone and in your life for the good stuff!


xoxo
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15 Comments

Annie

I really should do this more often but it does make you feel so refreshed afterwards. Often times I clean out my computer when I am in desperate need of procrastination. I just did this to everything I have tech wise and my oh my do I feel 100 times better. Not waking up to emails about upcoming sales and new things to buy has also cut back on my constant "need" to buy! I definitely did not think to clean out who I follow on social media — love that new tip!

Annie Belle

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Michaela Fisch

The one thing I'm crazy about is defriending people on Facebook. Every day when someone's birthday comes up that I'm like, "How do I know you?" I delete them. It's mean (then again they probably don't know me either) but it's efficient!

Michaela || The Monogrammed Midwesterner

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Michelle Zewe

I'm glad I'm not the only one who does this! I do this all the time, I'll either wish them a "Happy Birthday" or defriend them.

Michelle
michellezewe.tumblr.com

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Southwestern Prepster

Ahh, this post is beyond "on point", Maxie! I made my Twitter account years ago but didn't start to become more active on it until about a year ago – I didn't realize how many people I followed that I had absolutely no interest in what they were tweeting/I had no idea who they were (to this day I'm still unfollowing people, it's a neverending to-do!). I am really, really bad about teh tab thing – to make myself feel less awful, I started opening up multiple desktops on my Mac and multiple windows! My emails, however, are probably the worst and the one I avoid the most, but this post gives me a lot of motivation to clear some time in the next week and really dig a hole through them all!
xx, Mikkaela
The Southwestern Prepster

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Amy Grant

I use Unroll to clean up my inbox. You sign up and it accesses all the lists you're subscribed too. Once you select to 'roll it up', you get a daily email with all of the lists you've selected included. I swear it cuts my inbox in half most days!

Girl for Granted

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White Cabana

Yes! This is a great post with a lot of useful advice. I'm going to take some decluttering steps myself in the days ahead (both on and offline).

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Manpreet Kaur

LOL It was like I was reading my own diary.
I started unfollowing people yesterday because my timeline wasn't interesting anymore. My phone is piled up with a lot of photos that I wouldn't even want to see in the first place.
And don't get me started about how many emails I get a day and how many I actually read. I seriously needed your advice. (yep, need to throw away dome shoes too).
Thanks 🙂
Regards
http://www.finixpost.com

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Champagne Star

I'm having a time with my phone being full now. The problem I have is that I don't have a lot of apps, but I can't delete the ones that came on the phone. Besides, what would I do without Candy Crush.

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