Spring has finally sprung. Or at least, it’s trying to.
I actually saw snow a few days ago and to say I wasn’t impressed would be an understatement.
Regardless of how the weather is acting, the beginning of spring always sparks some decluttering bug inside me. And despite being on this minimalism journey, I’ve been slowly seeing an influx of … stuff creeping back into my life lately. Not good.
I need to throw away hoards of clothes, or take a stack of old documents to the shredder.
But that isn’t what I’m focusing on right now. Now, my focus is on my digital clutter.
Emails.
Files.
Social media.
I spent one evening after work deleting one of my personal emails. It’s been something I’ve wanted to do for such a long time since moving over to my current email address and I have to admit, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. It might sound weird, but it was satisfying seeing email after email get tossed into the trash.
Success!
The next day proved more difficult. The task? To delete my old author email. Like my personal, I changed to another platform and no longer had use for my old email account. But this account was linked to many websites, and so began the process of updating my email across the board.
Deleting old online purchase receipts from 2013.
Deleting old email correspondence with people I know longer correspond with.
I actually found an old short story while reviewing the hundreds of emails I had. Perhaps I’ll post it for Halloween.
And yes, I said hundreds.
So this task might take longer than I originally anticipated. It’s okay though, the first step is to admit there’s a problem.
And it’s definitely not my only one.
I received a random email from Facebook recently about my page apparently breaking some sort of protocol. I’m too lazy to reach for my phone right now to get the actual verbiage but it was along those lines. I thought it was a weird email to be getting in the middle of the night, especially since the only thing I post on my Facebook page are my blog post notifications.
So my knee-jerk reaction was to delete my Facebook page.
I received another email from Facebook the following day stating that the original email sent to me was in error and to disregard it. I strongly believe everything happens for a reason and my impulse to immediately get rid of my Facebook page is one I don’t regret. The page had served its purpose: it was originally about my books, book sales, book tours, book giveaways, etc.
Now it’s just this empty space I fill with notifications that I posted a blog.
So in that sense, I’m not sad to see it go.
I’m far from being done in regards to decluttering my digital life. This is a continual effort on my part and it’s something I need to stay diligent with before all my stuff consumes my whole life, which doesn’t seem very minimal.
Or stress-free.
I’ve committed to myself, every day, to get rid of some form or other of digital declutter:
- Deleting my Notes on my iPhone (I currently have 161).
- Deleting random pictures off my phone.
- Deleting my old author/book email.
- Getting my main inbox cleared.
- Pinterest: should it stay or should it go?
- Removing old apps on my phone that I no longer use.
- Cleaning up my desktop.
- Organizing my computer files.
The solution is a simple click of the delete button.
