Declutter your Computer, Inside and Out

by Christine Simiriglia
(Philadelphia, PA, USA)

You need to declutter your computer if:

• your computer been running a little sluggish


• you have difficulty finding files quickly

This article will offer some help with the process to declutter and organize your computer files.
When you declutter your computer you will:

• improve efficiency saving you time.


• improve your computer's speed.


• find your files quickly and more easily.

Desktop Files
Let's begin by looking at your Desktop. You desktop may have become the junk drawer of your cyber world. Whenever you aren't sure where to put something, you put it on the Desktop. If you want to read something later, you save it to the Desktop. If you want to remember something, it goes on the Desktop. Eventually, the Desktop gets so full, you can't find, read or remember anything that you stored there.

Immediately (that means right now) drag all files that are old, no longer needed, or have duplicates somewhere else, to the recycling bin. Shortcuts to programs that you don't use regularly should also get dumped into the recycling bin. The only shortcuts worth keeping are for programs that you use all the time.

File any remaining pictures or documents in the most appropriate folders, for now. We will get to cleaning out your folders in a bit.

If you'd like, choose a favorite photo to use as background for your desktop. Now that it is uncluttered, you will be able to actually see the picture. I have a favorite photo from my wedding... even when I'm feeling overwhelmed with work, I can look up and it always makes me smile and feel better.

Digital Photos

Ever since digital cameras came into being, bad digital photos have taken up space on your hard drives. There is some weird phenomenon whereby you can't seem to ditch the unfocused pics, or the pics of your thumb, or the just plain ugly pictures that you wouldn't dare show anyone else. There they sit, in your picture folders, taking up space and slowing down your processor.

It is time to clean them out and keep only the best.

Systematically go through your picture folders. here is what you are going to delete:

• all duplicates.


• foggy, unfocused, just plain yucky pictures.


• pictures of people that you can not identify.

If you have never named your pictures, you may have hundreds of photos with names like 001, and 243. After ditching the bad photos, name the good ones. Give them names that trigger the memory. Name them so you can find them again.

Next, create folders by year, or event, or family member, and put all applicable photos in the appropriate folders.

Now you will always know where your favorite memories are, and be able to retrieve and share them quickly and easily.

E-Mail
Email piles up, into the thousands, unless you periodically clean it out. Often, you forget about email in the Sent, Junk, and Deleted folders. This email takes up a lot of space, especially if it contains pictures and attachments.

Did you know that you can set your preferences to automatically delete Junk? I have mine set to delete every week. Did you know that deleted items do not really delete? They stay on your computer in deleted folder until you purge them. You can set preferences to purge your deleted items too. I also do this weekly.

I handle my inbox and sent mail a little differently and suggest that you do too.

In your inbox, immediately delete files that you don't need to hold on to, after reading them. If there is an attachment that you want to keep, save the attachment to the appropriate file and delete the email.

Every two or three months, go through your inbox and sent mail, oldest first, and delete unnecessary items. This keeps your inbox and sent box relatively light, and when you need to look for something, the "sort" goes much faster.

Address Book

A lot of people who have electronic address books that sync with their phones, or PDAs or Blackberries. These same people also have a Rolodex filled with business cards and/or a paper address book. Make sure that all of your contact information is contained in your electronic address book. Take a half hour to enter missing information, and make the electronic files complete.

Next, go through your contacts and delete anyone that you have no reason or intention of contacting again. Delete contacts, or update information for contacts who have moved from one company to another. Delete the old boyfriend or girlfriend information. This is the best way to declutter your contact files and you will be able to find people faster that way.

Documents Folder

Your documents are contained in electronic folders, the same way that paper documents are contained in manila file folders. Folders should be created and named appropriately to hold sets of documents.

Before reorganizing your electronic filing system, go through and delete files that you are clear you do not need. Go through existing folders, deleting duplicates and old versions of documents (we've all been there, with 5 versions of the same report, unable to find the current one quickly). Delete documents that you know you will never use or look at again.

Now, organize what's left into uniquely named folders.

Your Favourites

Did you know that when you store something as a favourite on your web browser, it takes up space? Most browsers also store as a memory, of the last several sites you accessed. All of this remembering takes up time and space. Every few months, go through your favorites and delete those that are no longer favorites.
Occasionally, it also pays to clean out the cache, the ghost of websites visited in the past. Different browsers do this differently.
For the most part, you want to get access to temporary internet files and delete them. For more detailed information, you can Google cleaning out cache and directions come up for several different browsers.

Ditching your temporary internet files can really give a speed burst to your system.

Programs

Often we end up with programs on our computers that we don't use. Some come pre-installed, some we installed and then stopped using. If there are programs on your machine that you are certain you don't use, uninstall them and free up the space.

If your computer is like mine, you have a bunch of programs that you have no idea what they do or if you need them, running all the time. For programs that you are not sure about, you may want to ask a professional. Computers can use a yearly check-up, just like people. There are many stores that now offer office visits for PC's.

Staples and Best Buy are two examples. You can bring your computer in, and have it checked for irregularities and useless space hogging programs.

Hard Drives

After doing lots of file clean-up, your hard drive will need to be cleaned and defragmented. You can find tools for disk cleanup and disk defragmenter by clicking Start, going to All Programs, Accessories, System Tools and finally clicking on Disk Cleanup or Disk Defragmenter. Cleanup first, defrag last.

Disk Clean up will clean out unnecessary files. It can be scheduled to do regular cleanups of your machine. Try scheduling it for a weekly cleanup.

Disk Defragmenter will condense what is left on your hard drive, once it is cleaned up. By condensing the files, your machine will be able to search less to find things when you need them. You should defrag whenever you do any major cleaning up of your machine, but get in the habit of running it at least once per month.

Outside

Cleaning the outside of your computer is just as important as cleaning the inside. Make sure the monitor is clean using a cleaner or wipe specially made for computer monitors. Never spray window cleaner directly on your monitor!

Turn your keyboard over and shake it out. Hold it over a trash can and tap the bottom, getting all the crumbs and dust out of it.

Dust all of the components on a regular basis.

That's it. You have just made amazing progress in declutter process of your cyber life. In doing this your have also improve your computer's performance.

For more tips on organizing, time-management and reducing clutter, please visit me at www.organize-more-stress-less.com.