How to do a Digital Declutter…

Now is the time to do a digital declutter and today, I’m going to give you some tips and tricks on how you can declutter and simplify your digital life.

I can’t recommend a digital declutter enough.

I can’t work at a messy desk because it drives me mad and, as daft as it sounds when there are much bigger things to worry about in the world, it genuinely stresses me out.

I’m exactly the same with my phone and laptop. When my inbox is overflowing, my desktop is covered in random files, my phone is constantly pinging and I can’t find the photos or documents I need, it all starts to feel a bit overwhelming. It’s only little things, but they all add up.

That’s why I make time for a digital declutter every now and again. It’s my way of organising the digital side of my life, and honestly, it makes me feel so much calmer.

We spend so much of our day looking at screens that it’s easy to forget how much digital clutter can affect us. Constant notifications, thousands of unread emails, apps we never use and endless photos all create little bits of background noise competing for our attention. Clearing some of that away doesn’t just free up storage—it frees up headspace too.

For me, a digital declutter is a form of self-care. It helps me feel more organised, less distracted and more in control of the little things. I waste less time looking for files, I’m interrupted less often by unnecessary notifications and my devices are much nicer to use. It’s a small job that makes a surprisingly big difference.

If your phone, laptop or inbox are starting to feel a bit chaotic, these are the simple things I do to get everything back under control.

How to do a Digital Declutter

1) Unsubscribe from unwanted emails

For the next few weeks, every time a marketing email lands in your inbox, ask yourself one simple question: Do I actually want to keep receiving emails from this company?

If the answer is no, scroll to the bottom and hit the unsubscribe link. Most companies make it really easy, and it usually takes less than 10 seconds.

I’ve been doing this recently because my inbox had reached the point where there were more emails I didn’t want than ones I actually looked forward to reading. Some were newsletters I’d signed up for years ago, while others seemed to have appeared from nowhere. Spending just a few seconds unsubscribing each time one arrived has made such a difference, and now my inbox feels so much calmer.

I’ve also dug out an old email address that I’m going to use whenever I sign up for discounts, newsletters or freebies online. That way, all the promotional emails stay in one place rather than taking over my main inbox.

2) Tidy up your bookmarks

I’m forever adding things to my bookmarks that I think I’ll come back to one day… and then I completely forget about them. As a result, my bookmarks have everything from Pinterest trends from 2019 to reviews of subscription boxes I was thinking about buying for Miss Frugal one Christmas years ago.

Set aside half an hour and work your way through everything you’ve saved. Ask yourself whether each bookmark is still relevant and whether it’s actually worth keeping.

If it’s a recipe you’ve been meaning to make, cook it. If it’s an article you’ve wanted to read, read it. If it’s something you genuinely think you’ll need in the future, organise it properly by saving it to a Pinterest board or another place where you’ll actually be able to find it again.

Your bookmarks should be exactly what the name suggests—a collection of your favourite websites and pages that you use regularly, not a digital dumping ground full of things you’d forgotten you’d saved.

3) Clean up your Social Media feeds

One of the easiest ways to make your online life feel less cluttered is to tidy up your social media. There’s no rule that says you have to stay friends with everyone on Facebook or keep following every account you’ve ever clicked ‘Follow’ on. If an account no longer interests you, makes you feel negative or simply fills your feed with content you don’t care about, it’s OK to let it go.

Facebook can be a bit awkward because unfriending someone can feel quite personal. My solution is much simpler—I just click the three dots on one of their posts and choose Unfollow. We’re still Facebook friends, but their updates no longer appear in my feed. As far as they’re concerned, nothing has changed, and I get to enjoy a feed filled with people and pages I actually want to see.

Do the same across Instagram, X, TikTok and anywhere else you spend time online. Follow accounts that inspire you, make you laugh or teach you something useful, and quietly unfollow the rest. It’s surprising how much more enjoyable social media becomes when your feed is filled with content you’ve actually chosen to see.

I do the same for any sponsored posts in my Facebook feed because whilst I can’t control the fact that I’m going to get ads in my Facebook feed when I’m using the Facebook app, I can control the ads that I see by letting Facebook know what I’m not a fan of.

When you do hit Hide ad, you get some options to say what you don’t like about the ad. For example, I bought some bras online a couple of weeks ago from Ann Summers (honestly, really nice normal bras) and for a few days after, my Facebook feed looked like something from an adults-only channel with every third post being something naughty.  Letting them know your ad preferences definitely works as I was back to PG-rated ads in no time. 😂

Instagram is exactly the same for ads with it being part of the same company as Facebook and it’s pretty similar if you don’t want to actually unfollow someone to remove them from your feed too Muting- just click the three dots in the top right of their post and mute them. Again, they’ll be none the wiser and you don’t have to see their posts in your feed.  If it’s a business page or someone that you don’t know then it’s even easier to remove them from your feed with the unfollow option so don’t feel you need to be polite.

I do this whenever I’m scrolling through my feed lately – I genuinely only want to follow accounts that either interest or inspire me so any that make me feel sad, inadequate or angry just get deleted or muted.

4) Clear up your desktop on your laptop

If your laptop desktop is covered in random files, screenshots and documents you’ve been meaning to sort out “later”, now’s the time to tackle them.

Set a timer for five minutes and be ruthless. Delete anything you no longer need, move important files into the correct folders and empty your recycle bin once you’re done. It’s one of those jobs that always feels like it’ll take ages, but you’ll be surprised how quickly you can make a difference.

Once you’ve finished, choose a desktop background that makes you smile. Whether it’s a favourite family photo, a beautiful landscape or a motivational quote, it’s much nicer to look at than a screen full of forgotten files.

I do a quick desktop tidy every week because I’m on my MacBook every day, and it stops the clutter building up. Plus, there’s something really satisfying about opening your laptop to a clean, organised screen. 😂

5) Sort your photos out

I could leave them all cluttering up my phone, making it harder to find the ones I actually need, or I can keep them organised somewhere else. I use Lightroom to store mine because it keeps everything safe, easy to search and available whenever I need it—which, thanks to the blog, is pretty often. 😇

Moving my photos across frees up space on both my phone and my MacBook, but it also forces me to be a bit more organised. As I upload them, I sort them into folders and delete the blurry duplicates, accidental screenshots and random photos that I’ll never look at again.

You don’t have to use Lightroom, though. Any cloud storage service or external hard drive will do the job—the important thing is having a system that works for you.

6) Delete unused Apps on your phone and organise the rest

Apps have a habit of quietly taking over your phone without you even noticing. Every now and then it’s worth checking what’s using the most storage.

On an iPhone, head to Settings > General > iPhone Storage and you’ll see exactly how much space each app is using. I was amazed to discover that the Podcasts app was taking up almost 20% of my storage, even though I hadn’t listened to one for about a year. Deleting it instantly gave me back over 11GB.

Once I’d sorted my photos, I went through the rest of my apps and looked at when I’d last used them. If I hadn’t opened something for months and knew I wasn’t going to miss it, I deleted it. It only takes a few minutes, but it frees up storage, makes it easier to find the apps you actually use and leaves your phone feeling much less cluttered.

I have my apps stored in folders (just drop one app on top of another and it makes a folder which you can add more too) so I have a finance folder, a productivity one, an entertainment one and a couple of others so I feel like I’m super organised there. 

6. Disable notifications

Ask yourself this—do you really need a notification every time someone follows you on Instagram or when M&S has a special offer on Percy Pigs? Probably not. 😂

Take a few minutes to go through your notification settings and switch off anything that isn’t genuinely useful. Keep notifications for messages, calls, reminders and anything time-sensitive, but ditch the constant stream of alerts from shopping apps, social media and games.

Not only will your phone be quieter, but you’ll probably find yourself picking it up less often too. It’s amazing how many times we unlock our phones simply because they’ve buzzed, only to discover it was something we didn’t need to know in the first place.

Less noise, fewer distractions and a little more headspace sounds like a win to me.

7. Delete old contacts from your phone

When was the last time you looked through your contacts list?

Until recently, mine still included the parents of my children’s friends from primary school, old work numbers and people I hadn’t spoken to in years. Realistically, there was almost zero chance I’d ever need to contact most of them again.

I spent ten minutes scrolling through my contacts and deleting anyone I no longer needed. By the time I’d finished, I’d probably halved the number of contacts on my phone.

It’s a small job, but it makes finding the people you actually want to call or message so much easier. And if you’re anything like me, you’ll probably come across a few names that make you wonder, “Who on earth is that?” 😂

A digital declutter isn’t a one-and-done job. Just like tidying your home, it’s much easier to keep on top of if you do a little bit regularly rather than waiting until everything feels overwhelming.

I’d recommend setting yourself a reminder to work through these steps every month if you can, or at least once every quarter. It doesn’t have to take long, but keeping on top of your emails, photos, apps and files means the clutter never has the chance to build up again.

You’ll save storage space, waste less time searching for things and, perhaps most importantly, your digital life will feel a whole lot calmer. That’s got to be worth half an hour every few months!

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