Declutter and Organize Your Phone
Do you have apps on your phone that you don’t even remember downloading and can’t even remember what they’re for? Let’s get your tech life under control with these tips on how to declutter and organize your phone.
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Nowadays pretty much everyone has a smart phone. Phones have become a lifeline for most people, myself included. Your phone is how you connect with others, how you get stuff done, and how you find answers. How in the world did we survive before Google?
Have you ever had one of those days where you just look at your phone and cannot find what you’re looking for? You have so many apps and half of them you don’t even remember downloading, much less what they’re actually for.
Is your phone a hot mess? Is it full of clutter and unorganized apps?
Let’s do something about that!
Grab your phone (or save this post for later if you’re reading this on your phone) and let’s take a minute to declutter and organize your phone.
How to Declutter and Organize Your Phone
Delete Unused Apps
Some people have up to 100 apps on their phone, yet only use about 10 of those. That’s a lot of apps taking up space and cluttering up your phone! We clean out our homes to make them clutter-free, so why not do the same with our phones? Delete and uninstall all the apps you haven’t used in a long time. Chances are you won’t miss them. And if you do, just reinstall them!
Organize Apps by Creating Folders
Folders keep your phone from becoming too cluttered. Creating folders help keep things organized and looking nice and neat. I have several folders on my phone. One of them is labeled “Social Media” that I keep Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram in. These are time consuming apps and by keeping them in a folder I don’t see them as soon as I look at my phone.
Manage Your Photos
Photos are a huge clutter source on your phone. We take way more photos in 2 minutes now than the whole world took in all of the 1800’s! Yes, it’s very difficult to narrow down photos to delete them, especially when it comes to photos of our kids. Delete duplicate photos and the “accident” photos. You know – the ones where you accidentally took a close-up selfie that made you look like Yoda. I back my photos up with Google Photos and once they’re backed up I delete them from my phone. This saves space and makes your phone run smoother. Use a print service like Shutterfly, Walgreens or CVS to create keepsake photo books if you wish.
Unsubscribe From Email Lists
Online shopping deals newsletters take up a lot of space in your inbox because they are constantly coming. Try RetailMeNot or Rakuten instead so you can check up on deals only when you are actually shopping. If you need certain emails for a particular site, update your email preferences to receive fewer emails.
Tip: Every time you get a newsletter, open it and either adjust preferences or unsubscribe. That way you won’t get overwhelmed trying to do it all at once!
Declutter and Organize Bookmarks
Before Pinterest I bookmarked things like crazy so I wouldn’t forget them. I no longer bookmark things because I save them to Pinterest or Pocket. If you have bookmarks and use them often, organize them into folders to make things easier to find. Delete everything else.
Clear Out Downloads
Your downloads folder tends to take up a lot of space on your phone. Every time you download email attachments or web files they go into your “download” folder. To delete your downloads from your Android phone, launch the files app, then select “phone files”. Here you will see a list of folders; scroll down and select the “download” folder. All the files you have downloaded will be in this folder. Long pressing them gives you different options so that way you can delete them. (I’m not sure how to do this on an iPhone.)
Sweep Up the Junk
Delete any unnecessary data by removing old texts, your call history, and voicemail. Clean up your contacts list as well by deleting duplicates and removing old contacts. Clearing the system cache will clear up space and keep your phone running smoothly.
Factory Reset
If you’re a hard-core spring cleaner, “factory reset” your device once a year, but do so cautiously and only if you want/need a fresh start. This will allow you to only reinstall the things you actually use instead of building up clutter.
Tip: Make a list of all the content you want to keep before you start the factory reset. Double check your list!
Is your phone organized or out of control? Following the above steps will help you declutter and organize your phone.
Looking for more organizing tips? I recommend these great posts:
Bedroom Organizing Ideas That Will Work for Anyone
Organizing a Small Closet on a Budget
How to Maximize the Storage Space Under Your Bed
How to Organize Your Paperwork
My Clutter-Free Series
Great advice! I do that often! God bless!
Thank you! That’s great! Phones get so cluttered and then go super slow which makes people want to replace them. Doing this saves you money! 🙂
Great ideas here. Putting things in folders….so simple and makes sense, so no idea why it had never occurred to me before!! Oh I would LOVE to do a factory reset but then I’m scared incase I lose something i’ll miss. Although truthfully, a few weeks ago, I accidently deleted some apps from my first page…only realised as the apps were all in different places. But I have no idea what I deleted, so just goes to show that you often don’t need what you think you do. Thank you for sharing these fab tips! x
Thank you! I’m scared to do a factory reset, too. I’ve had to do one in the past and completely forgot to make a list of all my apps so I lost everything! I didn’t remember all the apps I had so I guess they weren’t that important to me anyway. 🙂 Thank you for reading! I hope you figure out your deleted app situation.
Oh no that sounds like it was an eek moment! But in a way allowed you to lose the ones you didn’t really need. 🙂
Excellent ideas thanks.
Thank you!!
Thanks Michelle—great tips!!
Thank you!
Great tips! I really need to organize my photos. I have way too many! Lol
Thank you!! I have the same problem! I have my phone set to automatically back up to Google Photos, but I still forget to delete them from my phone. 😀
So necessary. Too many photos always seem to be a problem. Good motivation from you. Guess I better get started. Many can just be deleted. Thanks
Thank you! Have fun decluttering your photos. That’s always the hardest part for me. 🙂
Great post like always Michelle. I can relate to those unwanted emails (honestly, sometimes I can not even figure out how I signed up for them) and photos and photos and more photos. I love the convenience of having my favourite on the phone and now I have the whole family messaging me when they need to post something. I really need to clean these up. And yes downloads!! I have to remember to do this frequently. Smart phone are so convenient but like everything else in our lives have to be decluttered and organized. Thank you for a great post.
Thank you! I think that we somehow get signed up for unwanted emails without even doing anything. The same thing happens to me! I’ll sign up for something and then suddenly I have tons of junk emails! 🙂
Very cool post, and so pertinent! We all spend way too much time on our phones these days, it’s crazy. I’m very conscious of how many apps I have, and I hate cluttering up my phone with unwanted stuff. I’m like this with my iPad as well. Storage space is precious!
Thank you! I agree with you on storage space. We only have so much space and try to cram so many apps in there. It’s great that you don’t clutter your phone. I’m the same way. Sometimes I think I need an app, but I have to remind myself that I really don’t. 🙂
Great information!
Thank you!
http://drawingclosertochrist.com/2019/04/20/the-mystery-blogger-award-2019/
I presented you with the Mystery Blogger Award. Thanks for inspiring me with your blog.
Thank you! ❤️
You’re welcome!
These were all such good tips! Thank you for sharing.
Thank you so much!
Fantastic tips! I need to clear out some games I stopped playing and some organization apps that I downloaded and never used XD
Thank you! Enjoy decluttering!
Would love to follow your tips if only I can figure out what to do since I’m not that techie. I’m afraid to uninstall or do things to the apps, as suddenly the phone might stop working. I usually call on the younger generation to help me, but they are not patient enough to explain things.
I understand. ? The people at the store where I got my phone are very helpful with stuff like that. Maybe someone at a store like Verizon could help if you need it. ?
Thanks for this Michelle. You prompted me to delete some downloads, which was a good start. I’m really bad at deleting photos, even if they’re backed up . I just don’t trust the back ups sometimes ?
A good tip for emails is to use the search facility to bring up a group of emails to delete in bulk. So if you search for the word “unsubscribe” you will get a bunch of newsletters and you can get rid of them all. I have a quick skim through first though!
I also try to delete emails as soon as I have read them but I’m behind with that again ?
Marie xx
I understand about the photos. I’m like that, too with certain ones. That’s a great tip about unsubscribing from emails! I didn’t know that. Thank you for sharing! ?
Great advise here Michelle, I’ve actually started to declutter apps from my phone, feels so good to delete them out, especially those that I have not used for at least a year, if I haven’t used them in a year most likely I will not and don’t need it. I’ve never done a factory reset, great advise to keep a list. Thank you
Thank you! It does feel good to delete the unused apps and declutter. ?
These are fantastic ideas! Thank you for sharing Michelle 🙂 I definitely need to unsubscribe from e-mails when they arrive instead of just deleting them! Creating folders sounds like a brilliant way to keep everything neat and organised too. Great post! <3 xx
Bexa | http://www.hellobexa.com
Thank you! I’m bad about letting emails back up thinking I’ll look at them later. I eventually delete them anyway usually without reading them! ?
I’m really a dinosaur. I still have my landline, and use (infrequently) my flip up ‘Star Trek-like’ phone. One of these days maybe I’ll need this advice. I am such a collector, I am sure I will collect on my phone too.
My mom still has her landline, too. I was surprised when she got a smartphone! 🙂 I understand being a collector. Sometimes it’s just too hard to get rid of certain things.
I declutter physical things ALL the time but my phone is something I tend to ignore. However I don’t have an awful lot on there anyway compared to some. I always delete apps as soon as I stop using them and delete photos that I 100% don’t want or need anymore!
Jenny
http;//www.jennyinneverland.com
That’s great that you remember to delete apps as soon as you stop using them! Sometimes when I don’t use an app for a while I completely forget to delete it. Oops.. 😀
Great ideas here! I’m one for phone organisation. Folders and more folders! Must go and clear out my bookmarks and downloads though, thank you for the reminder!
Megan | https://meganelizabethlifestyle.com/
Thank you! I do love that we can put things in folders. ? Thank you for reading!
Such Great tips!
Thank you so much!
You’re right Michelle, I definitely need to declutter my phone!! Thanks for the push!
Jenna
You’re welcome! Have fun decluttering! 🙂
I try to stay on top of my photots and not take a million at a time, but they still get out of control. Thanks for the suggestions. Definitely need to do some digital cleaning!
I completely understand that! I have mine backed up to Google photos, but still forget to delete them from my phone sometimes so they pile up. Good luck cleaning up your photos! 🙂