5 ways to clean up online clutter

I’ve been working hard this week to kick the new year off right and clean up, clear out and simplify. And one of the ways I’m doing that is but cleaning up my online things, if you will.

However, in efforts to continue keeping it real, this is the current state of our office. So much for de-cluttering, eh?! Though, it’s like this because we’ve started working on the guest room! I’m psyched for the before and after. I’ll have a process post for you guys next week so stay tuned.

The first week of every year I take time to clean up my email folders, limit my promotional emails, clear out any non-inspiring Facebook friends, Instagram connections, etc. Why, you might ask?

Well for starters I’m not a fan of non-inspiring people (ha!). And all of these things lead to clutter, even if it’s tangible clutter that you’re not tripping over in your living room.

5 Ways to Clean Up Online Clutter in the New Year

1. Clean Out Email Folders
Do you organize important emails into folders? I do, all year-long. I have house and work folders as well as receipts and blog folders. At the end of the year though they’re stuffed full and many emails I no longer need. Each day I spend a few minutes clearing out 1-2 folders until they’ve all been pared down. This way, it makes it a whole lot easier to actually find an important email I might need.

2. Unsubscribe To Promotional Emails
I know there are mixed feelings on this. There have been studies done stating that when you unsubscribe that site or company ends up sending you MORE promotional email. However, I’ve only had this experience with one company and I’ve been unsubscribing to emails for years. After a year of online buying the amount of email clutter is insane. Each day when I receive promotional emails I unsubscribe if it’s one I never open or don’t need. Oh, and also, the one company that continues to send a million emails a week is NHL.com. FOR THE LOVE. I bought one thing for my brother-in-law I think for Christmas last year. Every time I unsubscribe I swear I get three more emails. So now I just delete as they come in.

3. Unfriend On Facebook
We all have the less than inspirational Facebook friends. Or maybe over the last year you’ve followed a ton of different pages and you’re no longer interested. Don’t let them clutter up your news feed. Instead just unfriend them or unlike the pages. They’re likely someone you don’t really care for or speak with anyway, so remove them from your life!

4. Unfollow On Instagram
Same as the Facebook deal. If you follow someone on Instagram that you really have no interest in then why continue to follow? Or maybe their feed has taken a negative turn. Remove that toxicity from your life. Who needs that!

5. Clean Up Your Blog Reader
By the end of the year I’ve added many new blogs to my reader, however, there are also many that I’m no longer interested in and never read or click into. Then remove them and unsubscribe. BUT DON’T REMOVE THIS ONE! Really though, no sense adding clutter to your blog reader if you’re not actually reading, right?

What tips do you guys have for cleaning up and clearing out online clutter? To me, all of the things above are a whole lot more enjoyable when I can find what I’m looking for, I like what I’m reading and I like who I’m connected with.