Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from Angela Horn of Mostly Mindful.
In 2008 I convinced my wife, Sporty, that we should sell 90% of our belongings. I gave a TEDx talk called: The less you own, the more you have. And I brag about how little we now own every chance I get. If there was a secret club for minimalists, I’d probably join it.
But recently I realized—or rather, finally admitted to myself—that while my outer world may accurately reflect my ‘less is more’ lifestyle, my online life paints a somewhat more cluttered picture.
The Weight of Clutter
Anyone who has ever spent time decluttering will attest to the light feeling that arrives almost immediately after cleaning out the garage, hall closet, kids’ toy room, or whatever. There’s a sense of freedom that comes from getting rid of the junk and tidying up. It’s like you can breathe again.
What a lot of people don’t realize, however, is that all clutter weighs on you—even if it’s not taking up physical space. If your email inbox is a mess, it’s going to take up residence in the back of your mind until you do something about it.
The Many Forms of Digital Clutter
At least with physical stuff you have tangible reference points. You can no longer park your car in the garage, you risk life and limb every time you open the hall closet or you’re continually tripping over your kids’ toys. Digital clutter however, is both sneaky and insidious. The evidence is hidden on your laptop and various other devices, so nobody but you is privy to the mess.
In my first ever office job, we used floppy disks to store our work. Each disk had a sum total of 1.2 megabytes of space available. Our hard drives were also pathetically small, so we had no choice but to be discerning about what we saved. The advent of the Cloud means storage space is now infinite.
From your email inbox and photos to bookmarked websites, eBooks and newsletters, the extent to which you’re able to hoard in virtual space is scary.
Right, now that I’ve outed myself as a digital hoarder (and given away my age), let’s look at the different kinds of online clutter and what we can do to lighten the virtual load. (I’m going out on a limb here, but I’m guessing I’m not the only one with this problem?)
Emails.
Emails are the new paper trail; they’re the evidence we need to prove we contacted that client, placed that order or deleted that account. But somehow we’ve lost the ability to discern what’s important and what’s not. It’s almost easier to just keep everything. You know, just in case.
The other morning, I received this email from a friend I haven’t seen in a long time.
Subject: Cleaning up the inbox.
The note was short and to the point: “I am doing an inbox clean up and wanted to check if this was still your address?”
Wow, I thought, how clever to do that at the beginning of the year. Then I glanced down and saw that she’d replied to an email I’d sent her in September of 2014! (She was working her way through 8000+ emails, I kid you not!)
I’m in no position to judge though. I still have emails from a client I haven’t worked with in more than two years. They’re all neatly filed in properly labeled folders, so of course I felt justified to just leave them there.
Note to self: Organizing is not the same as decluttering!
Action: Empty ‘trash’, delete all ‘sent items’ older than six months and get rid of all of those, umm, ‘organized’ emails.
Subscriptions (newsletters, RSS feeds, etc.)
I have an annoying habit of subscribing to every vaguely interesting blog I come across. Either they’re offering some cool freebie or I want to see what sort of content they share with their subscribers. But then the emails arrive and I ignore them.
I signed up for Feedly because I wanted a central place to read the latest posts of all the blogs I follow. But the problem with Feedly (or any other RSS feed) is that if you ignore it, it’ll quickly turn into the virtual equivalent of that deadly hall closet.
Action: Unsubscribe from any newsletter you ignore for more than two days. Schedule a reminder to log in at least once a week to see what’s going on in the blogosphere. Assess what you’re reading and what you’re not, and make the necessary changes. Make a point of not following more than five blogs at a time. Quality over quantity.
Downloadables (eBooks, PDFS, photos, misc. Files, etc.)
I haven’t looked at the gazillion photographs I have stored in Dropbox in years. A lot of people would argue that photos are important, a link to the past if you will. If you’re someone who actually looks at the photos you’ve taken, then it makes sense to keep them. That’s not me.
I love reading. I’m a grabby piglet when it comes to books. I still take books out at the library, but the majority of my reading happens online. There’s a problem with having instant access to millions of books though. Right now I have 151 books on my Kindle and I’ve read only 80 of them.
I also have a bunch of writing-related Word docs as well as PDFs and eBooks (remember the newsletters I signed up for?) on Google Drive and DropBox. Again, just in case.
Action: Delete all old photos. Read all unread books on your Kindle before you buy more. Read all PDFs, eBooks, etc. by the end of the month and then delete the lot. Sort writing documents into a system that makes sense. Delete anything old or half-baked.
Bookmarking (Save for later services)
I used to bookmark the old school way, but then I discovered Pocket. I added the Chrome extension, downloaded the app to my phone and immediately set about saving absolutely everything. Over the holidays I spent a couple of hours categorising the 100+ articles I’d pocketed. Seriously?
Action: Commit to reading any new articles saved within a week. Do a blanket clean out once a week so you can begin the new week with a clean slate (or in this case, an empty pocket).
Cloud Storage.
Cloud storage is one area where Sporty beats me at hoarding.
(It’s not just me!)
She has two Dropbox accounts and two Google Drive accounts (one for business and one personal). She also has an iCloud account, two project management tools that give her the option to store files and finally, she has finance software that she uses to store invoices.
Granted, a lot of these are for work, but still. I see plenty of room here for amalgamation and simplification. Or maybe I’m just deflecting?
Action: Declutter my own digital space before pointing a finger at someone else’s.
There are plenty of opportunities out there for creating digital clutter. I’ve included the ones that I’m guilty of, but I’m sure there are plenty of others that I haven’t thought of. What about you, how cluttered is your digital life? What can you do to streamline your cyberspace?
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Angela lives in Cape Town. She enjoys spending her time drinking coffee and writing about her urban hippie adventures on Mostly Mindful.
Septanto says
I think it all down to collecting. As seen from many ways, collecting is just a pointless move. In the end, our “collection” will only eat up the available time and space. Digital collections are way more dangerous as it is not in the form of physical. But as nicely stated in this article, the best way to get rid of collecting is to remove it. Even easier for digital collections, all we need is to push “delete” button.
Angela says
That’s SO true Septanto, decluttering online is way easier. Hit ‘delete’ and it’s gone. No sorting into boxes, no taking out the trash or selling on eBay or delivering to Goodwill. Just ‘delete’! :)
Nicki says
I’m working on iPhone apps at the moment. If I haven’t used it in over three months it’s “bye bye app”. I might lower the limit later.
Angela says
Hi Nicki
We use the 3 month rule around our house, it’s a goodie! I’m lucky that my Samsung doesn’t have a lot of space, otherwise I’d probably be an app hoarder as well! :)
Daikuro Estrada says
I have went into minimalism for 5 years now. But digital hoarding is still quite common for me. The pictures are all too hard for me to let go as well as some files that I think I may need in the future.
Angela says
Hi Daikuro
Yip, photos can be tough to let go of. I still have family photos (prints not digital) that I’m holding onto, even though I don’t look at them because, to be honest, they always make me feel a little down in the dumps. I still have to figure out what to do with them, but luckily it’s just a really small pile.
For your ‘just in case’ stuff, I’d suggest putting a timeframe on them. For example, if you haven’t looked at or used them in a year, then let them go. :)
Evie says
Why do they make you feel down in the dumps? I have, in the past, kept photos I couldn’t bear to look at because I had lost someone and thinking of those times with them was just to painful. Now that the grief has past they are treasured memories and I do not want to forget that those people were in my life.
Angela says
Hi Evie
I think that’s exactly why I’m still holding onto them, because somehow I know there’ll come a time when those photos will make me smile rather than leave me feeling down in the dumps. :)
Ginny Grulke says
Wow, your post really hit home. I’m 65 but worked for IBM and got “into” computers early on, and now am somewhat hooked to them… and I am a digital hoarder as well. This will motivate me to do some serious housecleaning, both on files and on email folders. (I did install Evernote a few weeks ago and love their clipping app, so if an email contains important information I want to keep, it can be clipped and filed in an Evernote note. Only for very important info)
The only disagreement I have is deleting old photos…. I figure when I’m sitting in a nursing home, they may be the one thing that cheers me up… I led a good life!
Angela says
Hi Ginny
If you like the photos and anticipate looking at them and reminiscing, then you should totally hang onto them. Especially if you led a good life, as you say! :)
ingus says
I had a MacbookPro with 500GB+1TB drives full of digital clutter. Because i didn’t want to buy my wife a new computer i decided i will give her mine and will find a way to make her MacbookAir (120GB drive) work for me. It was quite a challenge, but i figured out which stuff i really need for work and for personal use. I got rid of evernote, feedly, documents unused for years and years, got rid of my email archive (minimised and redirected everything to one account with multiple identities). Documents and work related stuff now amounts to about 5GB easily accessible on my owncloud. Pictures (i am a photo geek) – in the beginning my library was 120GB so i got rid of Aperture.app as i figured out it makes photo library twice as big. And after that i organized everything in folders by years and went through each and every and deleted mercilessly leaving only the best and important. Finished at 26GB. And now i do my digital imaging from Camera to Phone then editing and sharing online and after that only select pictures go to my computer via owncloud. By the time they arrive on my computer they are already edited and done. Family videos take up around 30GB. I merged videos by year using quicktime player – couldn’t be bothered editing those :)
Ron says
I am right there with Ingus…though I also have my business archive (is it really protection against the forces that be in case of an “audit”?.
I travel the world and have the photos to what? Prove it? I have not edited those trips in a few years I must confess. Then there is the music of mine, my former roommates, my husband – so much not even to my taste. Never mind the SEO pdf’s from 8 years ago. I feel like I need a snowstorm so I can just hunker down with the computer and practice by hitting the delete button.
And email…sigh…email. I ran an internet company WAY back and still have nearly every email…ever.
So as in physical “stuff” I am using the analogy of a car windshield with the past in the rearview mirror…getting smaller and smaller…letting things go as history moves further from my present. I would love to hear more actionable strategies if you have them.
Angela says
Wow Ron, sounds like you have your work cut out for you! I’ll ponder some more actionable steps, but in the meantime what about committing to cleaning out your digital clutter for just 10-20 minutes everyday?
That way it’s not this mammoth, overwhelming task, but rather a small chunk of time in which you do whatever you can? :)
Angela says
Wow Ingus, that’s incredible. It just goes to show what we’re capable of when we set our mind to it, right!? I’m interested to know, how often do you go back and watch your videos and look at your photos? Just curious. :)
ingus says
We have them as a screensaver on our tv, and we make calendars for family as a present almost every year. And during holidays we show selections from the years long ago and laugh at ourselves with family :) When some years ago i almost lost all of our pictures i cried. I show pictures of my mom to my kids sometimes, because they never met her. Pictures bring back memories and emotions for us. Photography is my passion, any event with camera in hand becomes adventure – like fishing or hunting for other man. For me it is the light, the angle, the moment. But as i said, i delete them ruthlessly and leave only the best. For example – week long vacation is about 10-20 pics, no more; family reunion – 20-30; christmas – 2-3.
Angela says
That’s amazing Ingus, I love hearing how people actually enjoy something they’ve collected e.g. you and your photos. So many of us just collect for the sake of collecting! :)
Sarah says
This is definitely me. Each time I get a new computer I copy over everything from the old computer ‘in case it is important’. I think I might have 3 computers worth on my current computer. There must be so many duplicates! It is one of my goals to start tackling this…after I read my 300 unread emails and continue my unsubscribe purge that I have been doing this month
Sporty says
Hey Sarah, sounds like you’ve got quite a bit to tackle. I reckon small bits every day will get you through ;) Set a task of focusing for 15 minutes every day, then try and stick to the time so you don’t experience overwhelm.
Djk17 says
Gahhhh….oh the digital clutter. For the most part neatly organized digital clutter. (Sadly, not all)
However what I do with emails is do a periodic search for “unsubscribe ” just to see what I can get rid of. That’s an easy way to pull up the low-hanging fruit and mass delete them all.
Angela says
That’s a really cool tip! Also, starting with ‘low hanging fruit’ is usually what gives us the incentive to carry on. In all areas of my life I’ve found that small wins provide momentum. :)
Jacob Zoller says
I would highly recommend a program like Unroll.Me that will automatically pull your subscriptions and allow you to unsubscribe with one click, keep it in your inbox, or “roll it up” into a once-a-day digest. Very helpful.
Thanks for a great article, Angela!
Angela says
Hey Jacob
I’ve never heard of Unroll Me (clearly, or I wouldn’t be in this mess!), so thanks for the heads up! Glad you liked the article. :)
Sandy says
It is very important to eliminate less used things from our life to make space for better things. Good Article.
Sporty says
Thanks, Sandy. We totally agree. Since understanding that sentiment our life has become so much more user-friendly ;)
Primal Prosperity says
I call this ‘cloud clutter’. For me, it isn’t the inbox or the files that make me feel stressed… it is the amount of social media out there. I like blogging and will continue to read and comment on blogs, but that’s about it. I gave up Facebook years ago and I am still resisting Twitter and Instagram. I even gave up my smart phone and went back to a flip phone. I realized that I am online enough with my computer, that when I unplug, I want to really unplug and experience the real world.
Sporty says
I love the term ‘cloud clutter’. I totally understand what you mean about social media. I spend an hour every 2 days to try and tame those beasts but I still have not managed.
Alaine says
You got me! I laughed at this, cause this is so me! I hunt through emails trying to find a specific one. Dropbox notified me that I’d not signed on in over a year and would close my account in 90 days…and of course lose all that “important stuff” that I’ve not looked at !
Sporty says
Ha ha ha! We once had a hard drive with all our back-ups stored on it. We lugged it around with us for years. So long that one day we looked at it and wondered what was on there! Defny time to erase and turf ;)