Digital Spring Cleaning Tips for Photo Files and More

The timeless tradition of spring cleaning brings together the symbolic associations of the season, such as renewal, brightness, and fresh starts, with the practical act of cleansing the home. Today, the urge for spring cleaning extends to our devices and digital realms.

The benefits of digital spring cleaning are just as profound as those of cleaning and organizing your physical living spaces. By decluttering your digital sphere, you’ll lighten your (virtual) load, have easier access to important files, and be ready to embrace creative projects like making photo books and turning photos into home decor.

Unlike cleaning the home, digital spring cleaning doesn’t involve any elbow grease or heavy lifting. You can spruce up your digital space while sitting down with a beverage and your favorite form of entertainment in the background. Do it all in one session, or dedicate 5 to 10 minutes a day to the task. Follow our top tips below, and discover how decluttering your devices makes it easier to find, enjoy, and create with your digital memories.

Start with your camera roll

Photographs typically take up a large portion of our digital storage spaces. This is a good thing! We have the overwhelming urge to preserve images of everyday moments, our most memorable experiences, and the smiling faces of loved ones. But, your photo collection will be so much more accessible if it’s organized and decluttered. Here’s how:

• Delete duplicates, screenshots, and blurry shots. Many photo storage apps and software have built-in tools to make this easier.
• Continue with deleting photos that simply aren’t worth keeping – you get to decide how vigilant you want to be with this.
• Organize your photo files into albums by date (month or year), event, person, or theme (e.g. birthdays, pets, vacations.)
• Backup your files to cloud storage or an external drive. As an extra step, keep a flash drive with your most important photo files at a secondary location, such as a friend or family member’s home.
• Set a reminder in your calendar to do monthly or quarterly photo dumps and decluttering sessions to keep everything organized throughout the year.

Find more tips for organizing photos here: How to Organize Your Photos for an Annual Review Book

Tame your inbox

Some people maintain excellent systems for keeping their email inbox organized; others are totally OK while watching that number of unread messages climb higher and higher. Wherever you fall on that spectrum, it’s worth spending some of your digital spring cleaning time on your email inbox. Start with these steps:

• Unsubscribe from unwanted emails. You do not need daily emails from every website you’ve ever browsed!
• Delete or archive existing emails. This might be a lengthy project, so consider spending 10 minutes on it each morning when you first log in.
• Create filters and folders in your email account settings. Folders help you categorize your email archives. Examples include “family,” “school,” “receipts,” and “travel.” Set up filters to automatically move emails to the relevant folders.
• Delete old promotions, such as marketing emails and digital coupons that have expired.
• Update your email signature and appearance settings for your account – these steps give your email inbox that refreshed spring cleaning feel.

Organize your desktop

Tidying up your physical desktop – putting papers into neat piles, corralling pens and paper clips, and wiping away dust and debris – helps you feel eager and ready to tackle any project. The same is true of your digital desktop.

Spend a little time organizing the files and folders in your laptop or desktop computer storage, then do the same for your tablet and smartphone. Along with a more streamlined system, your digital desktop will appear less cluttered. Here are some tips:

• Clear out old downloads, delete unwanted files, and archive any files you want to keep but won’t need to access immediately.
• Sort files into folders and subfolders with a hierarchical structure.
• Establish consistent naming conventions for folders and subfolders.
• Backup files to cloud storage or external drives.
• Choose new photos for your backgrounds and screensavers for a renewed, spring-cleaned look.

Refresh your cloud storage

Cloud storage is very convenient, giving you access to your files from all devices and saving space on your hard drives. However, keeping track of automatic backups and multiple cloud storage accounts can get confusing. Time for some digital spring cleaning! Here’s how:

• Log in to all your cloud storage accounts, which commonly include Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, and iCloud.
• Audit the files saved in each of your cloud accounts. Delete unwanted files and duplicates, and archive or save important files in an organized filing system. You might reorganize by project or year.
• Examine your automatic backups to cloud storage from other devices and accounts. Adjust those settings if desired.

Prep your photos for creativity

If your digital spring cleaning revealed thousands of digital photo files that rarely get opened or enjoyed, then it’s time to get creative. With a refreshed, decluttered storage system, it’s easier to find the best photos for custom photo books, calendars, and home decor.

Here are some top tips for getting creative with your newly reorganized photo collection:

• Choose which type of photo book you want to create, such as a year-in-review, family book, or romance book.
• Browse your neatly organized photo collection and copy photos that you want to feature in your book into a new folder. Upload the contents to your Mixbook account.
• Leverage the Memories tool on the Mixbook App. It organizes your photos, removes, duplicates, and helps you make an amazing photo book in minutes.
• Try out the Auto-Create tool, available on desktop and app versions of the Mixbook Studio™. The powerful tool helps you make instant photo books with just a click.
• Check out the Recommended Layouts options in the Mixbook Studio™. It arranges your photos on the page in beautiful compositions, with multiple options to choose from.
• Did you find a few stand-out photos that you want to display around the home? Turn them into eye-catching canvas prints, metal prints, or acrylic blocks, among other home decor products.

Done With Digital Spring Cleaning? Time To Reap the Rewards!

The time and effort you put into digital spring cleaning promises major rewards, including a feeling of ease and relief whenever you need to browse your files. It’s also much easier to move your favorite photos out of the digital realm and onto the printed pages of a photo book.

Looking for inspiration? Take a look at our Customer Stories to see how other Mixbookers turn their digital photos into tangible keepsakes.