Spring Cleaning? Don’t Forget Your Tech!

It’s officially spring-y in our part of the world. The snow is melting, there are buds on the trees, and the birds are chirping. Plus, you can walk outside without a jacket (as long as the wind behaves)! With this start of a new, more alive season, many of us have taken to doing some thorough spring cleaning. But have you remembered your tech?

Spring Cleaning your Inbox

Even if you aren’t an email hoarder (you may need to reference those cat memes your co-worker emailed you in 2008 at a later date, after all), your inbox (or inboxes) could probably use a little tidying up. Unsubscribe from email lists that you no longer want. Apply rules to incoming emails, to sort them better. That way, you can have folders from retailers, family, coworkers, etc., to organize your inbox. Add interesting extensions, like Dropbox, to your email now, so things like flight information are easier to save. And if your email inboxes are in a particularly bad state, you can find online tools that will make the tidying process even easier.

Spring Clean your Photos

In the past, there was only one thing to do with photos – you got them printed and then you put them in a book, and there they were. Now they are saved on the cloud and accessible from anywhere; and we can even print them into glossy books online. However, there were many years where we straddled the two worlds and our digital photos were saved in a million different places. If you’re anything like me, a lot of those places – like external hard drives – are now gone, and with them, a whole lot of memories.

Now is a great time to go through all the places your photos live and organize them. Print the ones that are especially meaningful and either put them in a traditional album, or use an online service to make one for you. Delete duplicates and create one organized space with all your photos. Then back it up (so, technically, you’ll have two organized spaces). As a rule of thumb, having a local copy and a cloud copy is best practice.

Spring Cleaning your Hardware

It isn’t just our files and emails that build up. Old, broken, and unused electronics that we keep meaning to take to the recycling center can also clutter our spaces. If you have unused electronics, keep them out of the landfill and help us create some refurbished electronics for charitable organizations by donating to Power up the Planet.

There. Now your tech world is just as tidy as your baseboards!