#30days Home Organisation Challenge
DAY 29: When we think about clutter, most of us think about items around our house. The mail piled up on the counter, too-full closets, junk drawers, and other things that are taking up space without being particularly useful. We’re often so focussed on physical clutter that we overlook one of the biggest culprits in our lives, our mobile phones.
When was the last time you deleted an app? Backed up your photos? Purged your old voicemails? Even though your phone might be working just fine with all of that clutter, it’s a good idea to declutter your phone every once in a while.
JOURNAL:
Can you use your mobile phone for journaling? Use your notes section on Google docs to respond to the following prompt:
Today I feel inspired to do…
TASK:
Declutter the Apps on Your Phone
There are a few compelling reasons to clear out that digital clutter.
1. Improves functionality
Your device works better.
2. Saves time
Digital clutter wastes your time. When you have too much information to sort through you can easily forget what you’re doing or waste time looking for something.
3. Reduces distractions & mental clutter
Ever pick up your phone and start clicking around on various apps without any real reason or purpose? Decluttering your phone can help to reduce your distractions so that you’re more intentional with how you use it.
4. Start cleaning up pictures saved to your device.
Sync and save your pictures and videos to the cloud. You might be surprised to see just how much memory you’ve freed up.
5. Delete any apps you don’t use.
Take a few minutes and delete any apps you don’t use from your phone. Don’t be too careful here. If you delete an app that you eventually decide you need, all it takes is a tap on the screen to download it again.
6. Organise the apps you do use.
Once you’ve scrubbed your device of all those unwanted apps, take a look at the ones that remain and see how you can organise them. Pull apps you use most often to your home screen so they’re easily accessible. Organise others into folders, grouping them by type or function so you can quickly and intuitively find what you need.
7. Delete old, unneeded voicemails.
If you’ve never deleted your voicemails, you might be shocked to see just how many you have saved on your phone. Those voicemails are taking up valuable memory space, and contributing to clutter that you just don’t need.
8. Minimise your notifications.
Many of the apps you install come with pre-configured notification settings. Those apps want you to use them constantly, so they’re set up to ping you about every single notification or non-event. Minimising notifications will help you to reduce distractions in your life.
9. Clean up your contacts.
When was the last time you really looked at the contacts list on your phone?
You’ve probably got all kinds of numbers saved there that you don’t need at all. From old colleagues and former friends to that guy you went on a date with once, it’s a treasure trove of old memories – and a lot of information you really don’t need anymore.
Take a minute and delete any numbers you know you won’t need again.
10. Delete your old downloads.
If you’ve ever opened up a PDF menu on your phone, chances are it didn’t just open that file, it saved it somewhere on your device. If you can find your downloads folder, you’ll find all kinds of interesting files you needed once, and never used again.
How has decluttering your phone helped you? Leave a comment and us me know!
“I actually have this fantasy of giving up my cell phone.”