Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash

Regularly going through our digital space and decluttering what we don’t need or want anymore is just as important as cleaning our physical space. Chances are you’re already holding your phone in your hand half the time anyway so why not turn it into a little decluttering session (or a big one if you’re feeling ambitious)? Here are 10 things to go through and declutter on your phone:

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1) Photos

We’re starting with the big one but don’t get overwhelmed if you have hundreds (thousands?) of photos on your phone, and going through them feels daunting. It’s ok to do it in small batches, deleting a handful of photos at a time (it only feels endless!), but what I like to do is transferring all of my photos from my phone to my computer because it’s easier to sort them there, and deleting all photos I absolutely don’t need from my phone.

This can be done during several sessions as well but at least your phone gallery is tidy now! :- ) Don’t forget to go through the screenshots and downloads folders as well – that tends to be a particularly deep black hole full of stuff I saved for reference and completely forgot about.

2) Contacts

This was a section that really got me. Since I’ve been continuously decluttering all possible areas of my life for the last couple of years, I was under the impression that there weren’t many places and categories that haven’t been touched for a long time. Then it occurred to me to go through my phone contacts and there were ones I haven’t needed for a decade! It’s an area that can be easily overlooked but let me tell you that deleting all the no longer necessary or wanted contacts felt really good!

3) Apps you no longer need

Most of us have way too many installed apps and I felt it might be useful to split them into several categories. First, we have apps you genuinely don’t need anymore, either because they are tied to activities you no longer do, or you’ve found another way to manage them.

These can be fitness tracking apps you no longer use, apps connected to a city you no longer live in, language learning apps when you’ve finally admitted to yourself that you’re not that interested in learning that particular language… This might be tricky because it could involve getting real with yourself and either finding closure, or revisiting abandoned activities.

4) Duplicate apps

On a similar note, there might be apps for things you still do but you might have more of them in a given category than you need. If we go back to fitness-related apps, I know I downloaded tons of them when I was trying them out but then never deleted the ones I didn’t end up using. I also found several timers and app blocking apps on my phone while in reality, these are the types of apps I only need one of.

5) Apps you don’t actually like that much

This is a special category for apps that you do use but you’re not entirely satisfied with them. Maybe they don’t have all the functions you’d like or they have a really irritating feature that annoys you every time you use it. It might sound counterproductive since we’re decluttering, but in this case, it’s not a bad idea to look for another app for this purpose. Because decluttering is not only about getting rid of stuff but also optimizing the stuff you already own, as well as noticing holes in your possessions that might be beneficial to fill.

6) Social media

Ok, we’re done with apps – except we’re not. :- ) Social media, although technically apps like any other, carry a special weight with them so if you want to take your decluttering one step further, you might want to think about your presence on social media. Are you happy with the way you’re using social media on your phone? Are there any social media that regularly make you feel like crap or that make you super unproductive and behind on things because you’re constantly itching to check them, and once you do, it’s extremely hard to close them?

We all probably know the reason why it’s so hard to avoid spending too much time on social media – they are designed to be addictive and they are pretty damn successful with it. For me, spending too much time on social media and controlling my usage in any way is still something I majorly struggle with and it’s a whole another topic but realizing I’m not happy with something is the first and necessary step to make things work better for me.

There are several options we can explore in this regard, like blocking out certain time for specific social media (with apps that passed the criteria mentioned above, haha), deleting some of them from our phone and only using them on desktop, or deciding to leave them altogether. Social media add a lot of value to my life, but I know they also detract from my wellbeing so I feel better when I’m at least trying to use them a bit more intentionally instead of totally succumbing myself to them.

7) Accounts you’re following

While you’re thinking about social media, it’s also a good idea to look at the accounts you’re following. Obviously, there are no rules on which types of accounts you should follow but it’s probably safe to say that they shouldn’t make you feel bad about yourself in an unproductive way.

For example, I follow some accounts that motivate me to clean my apartment because I struggle with keeping up a regular routine, and some calls to action can make me feel bad about myself because I let things go far too messy again, but in the end, the actual effect of the posts is positive because they made me unglue myself from my phone and finally clean the bathroom. :- D

Examples of accounts and posts that make you feel truly bad will be very personal but if you try to be more aware of your feelings while scrolling, you might be able to spot them. You don’t need these in your life. And if you’re not comfortable with unfollowing someone, muting is an excellent option as well.

8) Home screen

Ok, let’s switch to something less deep – your home screen. The way we set up our home screen can have a bigger impact than it might seem, both in the positive and negative sense. On one hand, I like to keep apps for things I want to track (habits, spending, etc.) on the first screen so I don’t forget to use them regularly, and on the other hand, it helps a tiny bit to have time-sucking apps hidden from plain sight on the third or fourth screen. There’s the option to combine apps into folders or not, to have the whole home screen filled, or only highlight a few apps, go for various widgets… you can get quite creative with it. :- )

9) Notes

Do you use several places to take quick notes during the day, and it ends up being a hard-to-use mess? I do sometimes but I’m trying to switch to having one digital inbox for all of my notes (plus maybe one physical place for times when I don’t want or can’t reach out for my phone) because it would make it much easier to deal with them later than looking for a specific note at five different places and not being able to find it when I need it.

10) Items on your to-do lists

Speaking about to-do lists, the ultimate thing you can declutter during a digital decluttering session are items the previous-you wanted you to do. That’s right, things change, and just because you thought you needed to do something doesn’t mean it’s still true. If you don’t have any digital to-do lists, feel free to switch to your physical list(s) at this point because while paper has a physical form, the items on it are still more of the intangible kind of potential clutter so they can be included to digital decluttering. (Anything at all that you manage to declutter is great, really.)

To make your to-do list less overwhelming, you can ask yourself questions like: Does this have to be done today? Does this have to be done by me? Does this have to be done at all? This is reaching into the productivity and life organization territory but why not delete some no longer relevant (or already accomplished) tasks while you’re already decluttering? After all, the whole point of minimalism and productivity is managing the things you own or need to do in a way that gives you more time for things you actually love doing. :- )

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What are your thoughts on digital decluttering? Do you find it easy? Can you think of any other areas I didn’t mention? :- )