Spring into Spring: Computers and Cameras

Cleaning can be a mundane task, and typically held off until the weekends (or not done at all). When you live in a small space, clutter can make it feel even smaller. That’s why it’s important to keep your space clean. Jumpstart your spring cleaning with us!

When it comes to cleaning the apartment, I’m always sure to add cleaning out my devices to the list: computers, phones, tablets, and cameras. Leave your computer until the end.

Phones & Tablets

1. Start with photos. Go through and delete photos you don’t want any more.
2. Next, for the photos you want to keep, download them to your computer. I suggest making a folder just for your device. This way, you’ll free up space to take future selfies.
3. Go through your apps and delete any you really don’t use.
4. Organize apps into folders or screens.
5. On iPhones/iPads: double tap the home button and swipe up on apps to close them. This can save your battery.
6. Plug into your computer, sync, and backup.

Cameras

I’m the worst when it comes to cleaning out my cameras. I just found photos from Thanksgiving and Christmas 2014 that I never uploaded to my computer.

1. Plug in your camera/SD cards to remove photos. You can dump them into one folder or import into folders that already exist.
2. Format your SD cards once photos are downloaded to your computer.
3. Organize any cables or equipment into their proper places/bags.

Computer

Photos

1. Go through your recently dumped photos and organize them into folders.
2. Delete photos you don’t need anymore.
3. Publish any albums to your social media sites.

Desktop & Documents

1. Make a folder on your desktop called “Storage”
2. Delete or file any documents on your desktop.
3. Go through your folders and decide which ones you’ll no longer need on your computer. Place these folders into your “storage” folder on the desktop. On a mac, you can sort files by last time they were accessed. For files I haven’t opened in years, I just delete. For memory purposes, some of these files are placed in “Storage.”
4. Move these unwanted folders to the cloud or external hard drive.
5. Clean your trash bin.
6. Back-up your computer (I use time machine).

Storage

Go through your Cloud storage and/or external hard drives to clean out files you no longer need. A good place to start is your Google Drive.