Merry Tidy Tuesday! 🎄
Only two days until Christmas, and digital organization is probably the last thing on most of your minds. That's fine! In fact, it's probably healthy. But I've got one more email for you anyway, just something to think about as we wrap up the series of quick resets to help give you a clean start for the new year.
So far this month, we've covered quick reset steps for your phone, your photos, and your email. For those of you who spend at least some time on a desktop and/or laptop computer--like me, although "some" would definitely be an understatement--it's time to look at a few places where files accumulate.
- Your Downloads folder:
This is the place where your browser (and occasionally another application) puts stuff you save from the internet, at least without being told otherwise. Here's where you'll find application installers you've already run, PDFs you've already read, zip files you've already extracted, and so on. In most cases, these files don't need to stick around. There just aren't any automatic clean-up mechanisms, so you have to delete old stuff on your own.
It's basically a digital junk drawer, and surprisingly, it's the biggest issue for me. At this very moment, I have 59,052 files and 12,201 folders in my desktop PC's "Downloads" folder, dating back to 2021. Holy cow! It's the one area that I almost never go back and clean up, because it never gets in my way. It's the place where new stuff comes in, and I use it right away and then never need to find it again. Out of habit, I know that if I do need to use it at any time other than right now, I just don't save it there; instead, I save it directly into a better location, like a dedicated Documents folder or someplace related to the project I need it for. But good heavens...I need to clean that out.
For a quick end-of-year reset, glance through your Downloads folder and delete anything you don't need anymore--which is probably at least 95% of what's in there.
- Your Desktop folder:
A messy computer desktop has a negative visual impact and higher stress in the same way that your physical desk does if it's got junk all over it. I've seen some pretty alarming virtual clutter where people just haphazardly dump anything and everything onto their desktop. On the other hand, some people have an excellent grasp on exactly what's on their desktop and use it effectively as a flexible launchpad for much of their activity. (My dad is one of these people; his desktop isn't messy even though it's quite full, because everything is grouped and sorted.)
Maybe you're someone who doesn't use the desktop at all this way, so there's no mess to speak of. This is the case for me, because I always have one or more windows open covering the desktop itself. I can't effectively use it because doing so would require minimizing a bunch of things that I frankly never want to minimize. I'm a Start Menu + Hotkeys kind of a guy.
If you've let your desktop get a bit out of hand, now is a great time to give it a quick clean.
- Your Trash folder:
Just like with your emails and photos, your computer has its own Trash (or Recycle Bin) folder. This one typically gets cleaned out automatically by the operating system on a set schedule, but emptying it on purpose is a nice touch at the end of the year--as long as you know you don't need to rescue anything out of it first. Like emptying your spam folder, just check to make sure there isn't anything you actually need in there first.
These areas don't affect all of us the same way, of course. It depends on how you use your computer. But there are definitely some common areas where most of us are likely to find at least some digital dust.
For the rest of this week, I hope you're able to enjoy some time with friends and family, along with some cider, cocoa, eggnog, or whatever your favorite holiday libation is. I'm off to do the same...right after I empty my Downloads folder. Eek.
Until next time, Merry Christmas and happy data-taming!