declutterbug

[declutterbug]

I genuinely love deinfluencers. Not the "buy this, not that" types.

The "this product is a waste of money and you can do this at home way easier" type. The "This store is bad quality and let me show you why so you can stop this in the wild for yourself" kind.

I have learned so much about cleaning products, makeup, and how to REALLY tell what products are good quality versus fast fashion.

[declutterbug]

decluttering your phone

this is a device that we use on the daily, so it only makes sense that it should be uncluttered and able to serve the purposes that we need it for most. :)

camera roll

delete duplicate photos, or photos that are similar to each other

go through your screenshots and delete everything that is no longer needed or looked at

if you have any photos that you've been saving to print out, go ahead and do that now or add it to your todo list.

videos: we often video a moment to keep the memory, and then forget the video ever exists. videos suck up a lot of storage on your phone: evaluate which ones are important to you, and trash the rest.

create albums: make it easier on yourself to find a specific image or video, rather than spend time scrolling through every photo you've ever taken to get to it.

apps

delete any unused social media. in fact, try to delete used social media as well. often, viewing social media on a computer instead of a phone will reduce your screen time and wane down your social media habits.

delete shopping apps that aren't used regularly! especially if these apps send marketing notifications that tempt you to spend money.

get rid of mobile games! especially if they're old downloads that you no longer play.

delete old alarms and timers in the clock app that you don't use

email

delete old emails, whether they're communication emails or marketing emails. you don't need all 100+ emails sitting in your inbox, make room so that you can easily see current communications and future emails

unsubscribe from marketing emails! you don't need junk emails from every website that you've ever entered your email. keep the few email subscriptions that you genuinely read/browse, and delete the rest. there's no point in staying subscribed to emails that you end up deleting without viewing.

purge old notes from your notes app. old grocery lists, no-longer-relevant-notes, and things you never look at. clear them out so you can easily view the lists that you do need.

notifications

not every app needs your attention. turn off notifications for mobile games, shopping apps, social media, anything that is constantly buzzing your phone that either gets swiped away or causes you to pick up your phone and spend hours scrolling or shopping.

contacts

anyone you haven't talked to in years and can't think of a reasonable answer to why you would need to message them again, delete it. you don't need to swipe through people you'll never talk to again to get to the ones that you do talk to. less people to accidentally butt-dial.

clear up contact names: if it isn't clear to you who the person is based on the name (ex: "girl from mat class); fix it or delete it.

messages

delete old text threads. they take up more space than you'd think, and if you don't talk to the person or reference the conversation, it can be ridded of without a second thought.

any messages with an ex-friend or ex-partner, delete them. especially if you find yourself looking back at the messages every once in a while- it will help your mental health not to linger on them.

go through any notifications that you've missed or neglected before

overall

delete browser tabs. just because you say you'll look at it again later, doesn't mean you will. i had tabs open for years that i never looked at again, despite telling myself that i needed that information. if you absolutely need it, pin it for later. if you don't, hit that x.

change your phone layout! a refresh in life can be helpful, especially for a device you use daily. place apps that you use more regularly in easy reach, put groups of apps in folders- however you can make your phone more helpful and accessible for you.

[declutterbug]

✨decluttering books✨

i've always been a reader, but since i was a child my accumulation of books have grown on my shelf. also i valued the books that i read, a large majority of my books were things that i had read once, and did not value enough to read again. in fact, seeing my bookshelves i would feel guilty at the fact that i was not rereading all of my own books over and over again. and for the books that i had not yet read, i felt guilty that i had not gotten to them yet.

so, over the past few years, i got rid of most of my books. a few select books that i enjoyed more than others, i gave them one last read before donating. i placed them in various little free libraries around town.

what i kept: books that i loved dearly and read over and over, class materials and textbooks, and books that i haven't read yet. the latter i put in a to-read pile that i made my priority reads, and as i read them i found myself getting rid of those books as well.

as my personal library has dwindled, i've been happier. i know that the books i own are ones that i truly love, and now my library represents me as a reader, not me as a person librarian.

now, i find myself utilizing my library card more often. i get the pleasure of a clean home and still get to read the material that i want.

(pinterest photo)

[declutterbug]

«I have nature and art and poetry,

and if that is not enough,

what is enough?»

~ Vincent Van Gogh