Deep Cleaning Your Life Part 1: Digital Clean-Up

I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels like my life is just too cluttered. It’s not that I own too many things, but that there is too much nonsense. There are simply too many things in my life, that just don’t bring any value. That is why one of the things I want to do this year, is to cut the nonsense out of my life. I am going to completely deep clean my life, starting with the digital space.

Isn’t it funny how often you open Instagram or Youtube and you feel like there is nothing truly interesting on your feed? How every time you see an Instagram story by a certain person, you feel inferior? How you don’t even open some of the videos the channels you’ve subscribed to on Youtube post? It doesn’t make any sense, let me just tell you.

I often find myself opening Instagram stories and just clicking fast forward, because the content is not what I’m looking for. I’ve unfollowed almost all of my friends on Facebook because they post content that I’m not interested in. And that is not all. My phone and my laptop are full of pictures, videos, and documents that I will never need or necessarily even want to open. 15 pictures from the one time at the park? That makes no sense.

Sometimes I miss the time when people could only take photos that had to be developed, meaning there would be a couple of pictures of every event and other fun moments. That made every single photo special and valuable. If there are 10 pictures of the year you were 5, all of those pictures tell a story, and all of them are irreplaceable. For people who grew up a century ago, there might be 1 or 2 pictures of their whole childhood, making those photos truly magical. But today’s child might have 1000 pictures (if not more) taken of them in any given year, which I think is the other end of the spectrum.

Because less is more, I am going to go through all of my accounts and files and see what I can get rid of. It only makes sense to keep the files that you will need or value, and the same goes for what you follow online. Without further ado, let’s get to work!

Instagram – The place of inspiration

I’m sure people use Instagram for different reasons, but for me, the main reason is to find inspiration and motivation (and to escape reality for a few minutes). I also do want to follow some of the people I know, of course. But for some reason, my feed is still cluttered by posts from accounts I don’t really care for. There are also some people I’ve just followed since the beginning of time, so now it feels almost mandatory to have them there.

However, the truth is, that you will feel much better when you only see content that actually benefits you, and nothing more. There is no reason to follow a huge number of people just for the sake of it.

I went through all the accounts I follow on Instagram and unfollowed every single one I don’t honestly benefit from. Some old classmates, people I got to know during my internship, Youtubers that were interesting to me a couple of years ago, and people who don’t post much anymore. I also unliked some of the posts that don’t represent the kind of content I want to see in my Explore feed. Now opening Instagram means less time spent on the app. I will see content that is more to my liking.

Facebook – The place for friends

Facebook might be one of those sites that people are starting to use less, but it still takes a chunk of my day. That’s why I have to be careful with it, meaning that I shouldn’t be in groups I never check, I shouldn’t have people I never even liked much as friends and I shouldn’t have old, useless conversations hanging around.

First I went through my friends list and unfriended the people I have nothing in common with. Then I unfollowed people I want to stay friends with, but whose posts don’t interest me. And then I left some groups, such as the two groups for the students of my university and groups to find places to rent.

Now checking Facebook takes very little time. There isn’t almost anything on my feed and I won’t end up wasting much time reading new posts in the groups either, because I left the unnecessary ones.

Youtube – The place of entertainment

Youtube has it all – funny videos, documentaries, vlogs, nostalgic TV shows, news, and educational videos. Sometimes I’m still surprised by what I find there. While Youtube has everything to offer, I seldom use it for anything else than something to listen to while I make food. Despite that, for some reason, I am subscribed to quite a few channels, and my homepage feed is filled with content I’m not interested in.

I unsubscribed all the channels that no longer post the kind of videos I want to watch and the ones that don’t provide much for me anyway – I can search for them a couple of times a year if needed. Additionally, I paused both watch and search history. That way whatever I watch will not appear in the suggestions, and I can’t be lured into watching that “one more video”.

You can also use an app that lets you hide your recommendations, comments, or the sidebar, which helps you to stay focused and not end up spending the whole night on Youtube.

Unnecessary pictures

We all have hundreds, if not thousands of pictures saved, that we will never need for anything. Many pictures we will never even look at! It’s good to always delete the bad pictures you take right away, but it is as important to go through your folders every once in a while.

Your folders will have more value when you only have the important and useful pictures in them. There’s no need to keep something “just because” since that would mean tens of thousands of pictures over the years. I have a habit of saving things just in case and also because I think I will one day want to read my old university essays or see all those daft pictures from 3rd October 2013. But it is not reality.

That is why I went through all of the pictures on my phone, as well as the pictures and other files stored on my laptop and hard drives. I deleted thousands of files. Now going through pictures from last summer is actually nice, because I saved only the good pictures that I want to look at. I also didn’t leave much from my university years. If I will ever need to know something about welfare chauvinism or Émile Durkheim, I’ll just google it.

Useless apps

The problem with smartphones is that they offer you way too many options. There’s an app for everything and you can spend all day on your favorite ones, such as Youtube. And talk about the notifications!

To make your phone a little less cluttered and time-consuming, do yourself a favor and uninstall the apps you don’t need. If you tend to read the news on your browser, you might not need a separate news app. If you only check Twitter once or twice a month, that app can go. And you probably don’t need five different apps for editing photos.

I deleted a language app I no longer use, editing apps, one news app, and a habit tracker I don’t need. I additionally disabled every one of the system apps that have that option available.

+ Backup Your Files!

While you’re decluttering your digital spaces, don’t forget to back up all your pictures and other important files. An external hard drive is an excellent investment for your personal files. It’s best to start a habit of backing up everything for example every month or every three months – depending on how much you’re willing to lose if you get unlucky. I have two external hard drives, just to be extra safe. Of course, you can also use a cloud service. Just make sure you do it!