Technology, whether you like it or not, is here to stay. Unfortunately, technology can be tough. It takes time and effort to understand. It can get expensive. We can spend as much time investing into technology as we actually save from using it. And without intentionality, the endless pursuit of the latest and greatest gadgets can be a fruitless endeavor.
On the other hand, technology offers countless benefits: the ability to stay connected, the ability to communicate to a far broader audience, the ability to solve complex problems, the ability to save time, and the ability to clear some physical clutter from our lives.
For those of us who hate physical clutter, consider these 15 ways that technology can help clear clutter from our homes:
1. Photos.
While many of us enjoy our physical photographs arranged in photo albums and scrapbooks, few people have good systems for storing physical photos. Luckily, a simple software program such as Iphoto or Adobe Photoshop Elements not only store your photos digitally where they can never lose quality, but offer a wide range of options for sorting them. Without the right equipment, the process of converting physical photos to digital files can be time-consuming. But, for a fee, services such as ScanDigital will do it for you.
2. CDs.
Even the smallest of MP3 players (8GB) store approximately 1,500 songs in their memory, somewhere around 150 CDs – that’s a lot of shelf space that can be replaced by one device that fits easily in your pocket. And MP3 players can easily be played on any audio system that allows for an auxiliary input.
3. DVDs.
Less and less homes these days are showcasing DVDs. For starters, Blu-Ray players have replaced DVD players in both quality and functionality. But more importantly, companies such as Netflix stream such a large assortment of movies and television shows on demand that keeping all those DVDs on the shelf is no longer necessary. And what about all those movies that you’ve already purchased on DVD? DVD-Burning software (such as Handbrake) quickly eliminates any reason to keep the physical DVDs cluttering up your living room.
4. Contacts / Address Books.
The contact information of business associates, extended family, and old friends used to fill address books, rolodexes, and the margins of phone books. But this is no longer the case. Every computer today provides opportunity to digitally store the information of even your most-obscure acquaintance.
5. Yellow Pages / White Pages.
Depending on the community you live in, those Yellow Pages may be taking up far more space than you prefer. But yellowpages.com contains all the same information… providing an invaluable opportunity to clear up some space in your junk drawer.
6. Maps.
Maps come in a variety of forms: atlas, fold-up, handwritten directions. Today, GPS devices come standard on almost all smart-phones (Iphone, Blackberry, etc.) and even some vehicles. For those of you who don’t use a Smartphone, a simple GPS device can still replace all those maps taking up space in your glove compartment.
7. Cookbooks.
Cookbooks may be among the hardest hit by the recent explosion of free websites and ebooks. The number of photographs in physical cookbooks is severely limited by price, size, and opportunity. But online, recipes are not limited by the same restrictions. As a result, not only can countless photographs be used to guide the rookie chef through the cooking process, but limitless videos can also be used to answer any questions. An entire shelf of cookbooks in your kitchen can quickly be replaced by a few keystrokes on your computer.
8. Books.
Ebook readers (Kindle/Nook) have exploded in popularity and digital books now outsell physical books on Amazon. While reading books on a screen may never replace the actual experience of flipping pages in your world, it certainly provides a golden opportunity to lower your monthly book budget and conserve space on your bookshelf for only the books you desperately need to keep.
9. Newspapers/Magazines.
EBook readers offer newspaper and magazine subscriptions (Kindle subscriptions/iPad subscriptions) to some of the most popular industry journals. This means, of course, fewer periodicals cluttering up your home or office… and more trees standing in the forest.
10. Sticky-Notes.
Ever wish someone would create a product that could replace all those sticky-notes and scratch pieces of paper laying around your home and office? So did the creators of Evernote. And while it may take a bit of effort to figure out how to use, it’s certainly not more effort that sorting through a stack of yellow-sticky notes every time you need to find a note.
11. Cameras (Still/Video).
With the ever-increasing quality of cell-phone cameras, the need to carry a simple point-and-shoot camera is far less important today than it was even 1-2 years ago. Skilled photographers will still use their advanced equipment to capture photos far better than cell phone photographers. But for those of us who just want to be able to capture life’s unpredictable moments in the blink-of-an-eye, the camera lens on most cell phones does the trick.
12. Cable TV.
There are new products entering the marketplace nearly every month that make cutting the cable in your home that much easier. Products such as Netflix, Apple TV, and Google TV are offering more and more television programs than ever before. And while dropping Cable TV from your home may not clear much physical clutter, the savings of $50-60+/month will certainly clear up some space in your checkbook.
13. Landline Phone.
With more and more people choosing to rely exclusively on cell phones, only 49% of American households use a landline phone (that is down from 97% in 2001). People all over the world are making the switch from landline to cell-phone coverage only. After all, why send money to two different phone companies when you can only talk on one at a time?
14. Computer Data Storage.
Computer workstations and office drawers used to be home to floppy disks… 3.5in disks… CDs… and external hard drives – all for the purpose of storing more and more data. But now, office drawers are beginning to empty again as more and more people choose to store their data in the cloud using free services such as Dropbox. Not only does Dropbox keep data safe from fire and flood, it stores it in a place accessible from anywhere.
15. Calendars.
Oh sure, nothing may ever fully replace the family calendar posted on the inside of your pantry closet door, but the Calendar functions and the syncing abilities across platforms (desktop computers, cell phones, and online) of computer devices sure helps the digital storage of your appointments give that old calendar a good run for its money.
Now I know full-well that the use of technology is a personal decision. Some people will never replace their physical books, magazine subscriptions, or favorite cookbooks. People lived their lives free from clutter for thousands of years without the technology available to us today.
But with the recent advancements in both the functionality and intuitiveness of technology there are very real opportunities available to us to clear physical clutter by using it. And if that’s the case, I’m in!
Bree says
Am I the only one who sees the irony in so many people “poo pooing” technology whilst commenting on a free Internet blog?
Cash Advance Online says
well-behaved like it
Brandyn says
A lot of good tips on here. I strongly disagree with GPS over maps though. GPS will get you from point A to point B 98% of the time, but you end up at your destination with no frame of referrence to how you got there. I have a friend who is totally lost without GPS. We were meeting at a movie theatre in her hometown, but she was coming from school instead of home. Her GPS wasn’t working so she had to drive home and then drive to the theatre because she couldn’t get there directly – home was in the opposite direction of the theatre. Maps have context.
Also I will alway have physical books. I do have some on Kindle, but I would much rather have the real thing.
Cb001 says
I think technology can help us declutter. While i understand many of people’s concerns with using technology, it seems that these folks are just unwilling to adapt to the new advantages. The person who lost 50% of their music with mp3 player change should have gotten some help in (1) picking a better device or (2) having someone else transfer. Yes, it is all about simplifying for you personally, but most of these technological advantages need to be learned, then the value will come.
Chrissy says
And if there is a power cut, we can….
I have to say some of these things are good ‘backups’ for the real thing.
Thanks for the article though, I love aperture for my photos and vids, but will definatly work towards getting the best photos printed in a book, they take up less space than bulky albums. :)
Kat says
I’m sure I’m not alone in spending more time than I would like — which I consider a waste — in researching what technology is best to replace what I currently have. I often wonder if it’s worth it, especially when it seems each electronic device I buy bites the dust so much faster.
'Dr Sniffle' says
As someone who has lived a nomadic lifestyle for the last 2 years, the necessity to reduce what I transport from place to place was always at the forefront of my mind, with paper being the heaviest and most cumbersome thing to move.
I now no longer purchase any physical media as it introduces storage and transport issues of course the costant battle with DRM means this is not an ideal situation yet as you have to pick your suppliers carefully.
The one benefit of digitizing your photos is that if you use a digital photo frame then you will actually have the opportunity to look at your memories on a daily bases, after all if we are honest when was the last time we opened our family album.
I have had evernote on my pc for ages and as you point out have never really got to grips with it, its not a scheduled task manager and to my mind is simply a service for placing random notes that are available anywhere you are digitally connected.
Jesscia says
Those are great tips!
But what about digital clutter? Sure you can use technology, aka your laptop to clean out (or store away) DVDs and CDs and the like, but then your computer’s harddrive gets cluttered. Sure, you won’t notice this at first because data is not as tangible as stuff, but isn’t a cluttered computer even worse? Imho, if you use your computer for work, then for example a clean desktop and a good “filing system” is crucial.
Holly Dominguez says
I’m far from an expert, but I have spent quite a bit of time trying to solve this problem in our home of numerous devices. Everyone’s needs and devices are going to be different, but the first step could be attributed to Joshua’s message: Own {digitally} less stuff. This is where technology personally satisfies my desire for minimalism.
For instance, we don’t have a huge music collection, neither in CD nor digital song format. We subscribe to Pandora and Spotify. We delete songs we don’t like from our collection, which is so much easier than donating an old CD from high school.
My husband uses his laptop for work and keeps a thumb drive in his briefcase for personal documents. The files on there are organized, so he can locate anything in seconds and if he needs to get a new laptop, he just hands over his current one. Being ruthlessly organized is key to fighting digital clutter.
I try to keep up with the bulk of backing up and purging our digital files. Our laptop screens have almost no icons. I keep photos on one hard drive in my fire safe box (brought out when I upload my pics from my iPhone), documents on another, and business documents on a third. Everything gets burned to DVDs biannually and stored elsewhere. I keep about a year’s worth of data on my hard drive (useful when the yearbook lady emails asking for a photo from the fieldtrip two months ago). We also use Crash Plan to keep everything constantly backed up. And while I’m divulging, I might as well add how I keep up with the transition from tangible to intangible. When I scan a paid medical bill or the latest kiddie creation from my iPhone app (I use a ScanSnap for business papers), it goes to Dropbox. Dropbox temporarily holds my documents until I transfer them to my tiny 1 inch drive that lives on my key chain. This is not a fun process, but it keeps digital clutter to a minimum, and absolutely keeps physical clutter (like file cabinets) out of my life.
It took some chunks of time and money to get digitally organized, but it created a foundation for us to get our digital lives (more like my digital brain) in order. If you’re striving to be minimal and efficient, you just have to carve out sometime to spring clean your digital house. I hope that helps!
David Martinez says
Another tip, any time I get an invitation or important document I photograph it with my iPhone which I quickly email to myself or my wife. Saved my ass multiple times. I
Holly Dominguez says
We do all of those suggestions, and then some, because I have a paperless office and scan (on my iPhone then sent to Dropbox) all the papers that need/should be kept (like all the kiddos’ school papers, paid bills, etc.). I used to have a home office and closet full of books and photo albums and file totes. Now we have a camping closet instead, because we camp almost every month. All my records are triple backed up, and my file cabinet is on a 1 inch drive on my keychain.
I also love that we have switched to Netflix & Hulu. We used to pay $123 a month for Directv on 4 tvs. Now we pay less than $20 a month, and we use free codes for Redbox when they come out, so we no longer store movies.
We boxed up all our books and made a list to see which ones we would want after 6 months. There were 7 books, plus a set from 1840. Only the kids get to keep their books.
We don’t romanticize having information (like on a map) or data (like on a cassette) in a tangible form. Even my grandmother (who just completed a decluttering of 40 years worth of stuff), is happy to have her pictures on DVD. We took her to EPCOT to celebrate her 91st birthday on Tuesday, and now she gets to share all those pictures with her great-grandkids. I was impressed when she said that it’s better than having them sit in an album on the shelf.
I keep a quote handy that helps me visualize the information/data as separate from the thing it is stored on (like paper): “In a world where students are surrounded by information, the most important skill to learn is how to curate. Our ability to grow and to think and to learn is a function of our ability to collect and to organize and to sort.”