Are your digital files a MESS?
Clutter is a hot topic these days. And I am all for it. I have evolved over the years to where I keep much less physical clutter than I used to. I would not say that I am a “minimalist” quite yet. But I have come a long way in the way that I think about clutter and organization. But what about your digital files? This year, after a merger at my company, I have learned some super valuable lessons on physical clutter and cleanup. And the even more important lesson learned is how to minimalize digital clutter.
Truthfully, in the past, I did not give much thought to digital clutter. It was not until the company that I work for instituted new rules for going PAPERLESS with our files. In the beginning, I could not at all envision what a paperless environment would really look like in the workplace. Like many offices, we worked from paper files, folders, copies, you name it and we had it and I had always worked that way. So paperless, wow. But at any rate, this was and is my new reality, so I tried to embrace it.
Could a paperless life really be a reality?
I never thought so. Now I am a few months into going paperless. And guess what? I absolutely LOVE IT! It is wonderful and I get excited now to organize digital files. If you are not so sure you can give up paper, check out my post on trying new things. Now, going paperless just does not happen overnight, and without some major thought. You must put thought into planning out your file cabinet structure to ensure consistency with everyone. So far, the benefits have been great with not having to drag heavy boxes of files to work from home, and always having a clean desk.
Going through this process started me thinking…what if I applied this paperless life and digital cleanup to my life at home? Well, I am trying to do just that. And file organization is a long process. But I really love it. Now, this post is not about the process of going paperless, I will later do an entire post on just that. One thing that is a huge part of going paperless in any capacity is the DIGITAL CLEANUP.
Why do you need to organize your digital files?
It is of the utmost importance to keep your digital files orderly and do periodic maintenance to keep them that way. If you do not…well it is just like physical clutter, it will stack up and become unmanageable. Taking time to organize digital files is necessary from time to time. There is no better time than the present to get started with this.
What kind of digital clutter am I talking about, you ask?
There are quite a few types. I will list a few important categories and you may have more or less. The main point is to do the maintenance on all digital files as to not accumulate digital clutter.
OLD FILES (kept in file folders)
These are the “miscellaneous” type files that you saved into folders (if you are like me, years ago!). Purge, and scan in what you want to keep. Go through and delete out anything that is not useful or something that you need to keep long term.
EMAILS
This is the most difficult thing for me. I have had my two email accounts get up to an embarrassing number of emails because honestly, I find it exhausting to keep it decluttered on the regular. For instance, I get email from certain stores that sometimes contain a coupon. So, I do not want to necessarily unsubscribe, but at the same time, I do not read each one. What I do here is go through now and again and delete an entire group of emails from that store. Apart from those, review periodically and unsubscribe to emails that are not useful or meaningful.
MUSIC
Digital music has been around for some time. And as an avid music fan, I have a lot of digital music files. Do I love each one that I have saved or bought over the year, well the answer is no! There were a couple of times where I downloaded free music files, for Christmas. I can say, that was a bad idea because they were free for a reason. Also, another time when my nephew got into my iTunes. Do I want the song Pokémon world? Ha-ha, no. So digital cleanup of music files helps to get rid of the junk and make sure that my road trips are filled with music that I love.
PICTURES
This digital clutter is the most difficult for me. As many people with children do, I have thousands and thousands of family pictures. And like most people, I am busy and rarely find time to organize those pictures. The problem with pictures is not only that they take up a lot of space, but also you normally take multiple pictures of one pose. So that adds up to a lot of digital space. Like going paperless, I will make another separate post on dealing with digital pictures but the reminder here, for now, is to at the very least try and save only the best photos so that you do not clutter up your devices or cloud space with many unnecessary pictures.
These are just a few of the areas for digital organization. Better Homes & Gardens had an article that you may enjoy that goes into all digital devices. https://www.bhg.com.au/how-to-declutter-your-digital-devices
HOW DO YOU ORGANIZE AND DECLUTTER DIGITAL FILES?
MAKE FOLDERS THAT MAKE SENSE TO YOU
A file system is only useful if it makes sense to those who use it. It does not have to be complicated, just take a few minutes and visualize the folders as if they were in an actual file cabinet. What would you call the folders?
CLEAN UP YOUR DESKTOP
This one is simple. Your desktop screen can become cluttered over time. Take a few minutes, get rid of what is unnecessary, and make them pretty. Better yet, change your background out to something pretty!
CLEAN UP YOUR CONTACTS
For me, carrying an address book is a thing of the past. I use a cell phone app to keep up with my contacts for Christmas cards, etc. This is easy, but yes…there is a but. You need to clean them up occasionally because if not, all you will have is a bunch of old addresses. I normally do this at Christmas time before sending out cards. I update new addresses, remove old ones, and then done. This task does not take long at all.
USE CLOUD BASED BACKUPS
Having a backup for any files is always advised. Cloud backups are very helpful with digital clutter. Find a trusted provider and buy a subscription. Most are priced and allow you to organize and keep your digital file backup off-site.
If you would like further help on organizing your digital files, here is a video by organizer Alejandra Costello and she goes into detail on this type of organization.
Every person’s situation with digital clutter will be different. But it is possible to organize it, just as you can organize physical clutter. Incrementing these organizational steps can be done a little at a time. I believe that clutter clouds the brain and makes you feel disorganized. Straighten it up a little at a time and I think that it will give you a good feeling of having things in order, which helps with mental well-being and lessens feelings of stress. Also, when you need a file, it will be so easy to find it.
Here are a couple of articles that may help you get motivated to organize your digital clutter!
I hope that this post has INSPIRED you to organize away and get rid of that digital clutter!
Mrs. Accountable
SusanNe says
This was just what I was looking for! Thanks so much!
Lori says
I think it’s time to clean my desktop. Thanks for the inspiration!
Carolyn m says
I read a good article on cleaning out the inbox the other day. It was basically go to your last page and delete them all. I was like ” wow” how drastic but then got to thinking i have some emails in my inbox that go back to 2014. I was thinking i need to download and file some of the e-file authorizations, then got to thinking know i don’t, i only have to keep them 3 years. I think i really can delete all those emails and probably a whole lot more.
Sayra says
This is amazing! I really need to de clutter my digital files and this has been super helpful!
Nisha says
Omg I can so relate to this! I’ve been planning on decluttering my digital stuff for a couple of years now. And it’s amazing that you went paperless. I do try to use everything mindfully and savvy, but I’m not ready to go completely paperless as I like to journal things in a traditional way.