KonMaring your Digital Life

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If you can’t open up your dresser without asking yourself if your t-shirts “spark joy,” you’ve probably already binge-watched Netflix’s Tidying Up With Marie Kondo. Everybody (and we mean everybody) has been all over Marie Kondo and her tidying method dubbed the “KonMari Method.”

If you’re unaware (aka living under a rock), Kondo is a renowned tidying expert and author of the New York Times best-seller The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, which got people all over the world hooked on her self-made system for organizing homes. Which got me thinking. If so much of our lives are spent on screens (i.e. phone or computer) wouldn’t it make sense to “KonMari” our digital lives?

Here are 5 Ways to “Tidy Up” Your Digital Life and Spark Joy from your screens:

1. Take CONTROL of your Inbox

Email clutter is a problem that many people run into when trying to clean up their digital life, and we all know how a messy inbox can wreak havoc on our productivity levels. One strategy that I have been using is “unsubscribing.” I especially found myself doing this in January. When I would go through my inbox, I would take the time to “unsubscribe” to ALL my random emails instead of just hitting delete. Yes, it does take an extra second or two, but the results speak for themselves. I can’t even tell you how much this helps my inbox stay manageable. Storing important emails in folders has also helped my inbox stay streamlined. For example, for our upcoming trip to Florida, I saved the emails from the airline and rental car company in my “travel” folder.

2. Say Adios to Extraneous Apps

Do you honestly use all those apps on your phone or iPad? Well if the answer is no, “say THANK you” to those apps and hit the big ole delete. I did this the other day and deleted so many miscellaneous apps that were cluttering my phone. I also created some folders to help organize my apps. We are planning on visiting Disney World in March and I have some apps associated with Disney, so I made a Disney folder and placed that folder on the LAST screen of my phone because it is something we use only once a year. Then I went through and put my most used apps on my first screen to reorganize my phone and make it more efficient.

3. Organize Your Photos

That’s right, we went there. The 10,000 + photos you have from all your “momarazzing” need to all live in one happy organized place. Honestly, I feel like this topic deserves its own post because I have so much to say about digital photo organization. But here are my major points. I like to put ALL my photos and videos in one place on my computer (which I back up on both an external hard drive and google drive). I organize all my photos by year and then by month. This really helps me when I am looking for a picture of last year’s Easter egg hunt. I simply go to “April 2017” and all my pastel bunny hopping pics are there.

Another tip I have for organizing photos is not to keep 25 versions of the same picture. The cute pics of their first steps that you have 100 different angles of, delete, delete, delete. I find it easier to purge those Kodak moments if you give yourself a little time. This week I plan on going through all my “January 2019” photos by taking them off my phone and placing them in my computer folder and then going through them to save the best ones.  

 

4. It’s all about the Unfollow

Have you ever clicked on the home page of one of the “insta famous” people you follow? You may notice that some of them ONLY follow a handful of people. I have my theories on why that might be, but truth be told it takes a lot of time and energy to follow a ton of people. So, let’s take a long hard look at these lists of “friends” and start to unfollow the ones that don’t spark you JOY. The same goes for Facebook. Every once in a while, it is a good idea to go through and pare down all those “friends.” If the people you are following on Social Media don’t bring you happiness, you don’t need that in your life.  

5.Get Rid of Old Stuff

The KonMari method is all about simplifying our lives and making room for things that bring us pleasure. Well in order to create “space” we need to remove the old. Take the time to organize your desktop so it is clear and concise. Go through your folders to ensure you have the most updated versions of your documents. Another hallmark of Marie Kondo method is tackling the sentimental stuff last. Word to the wise, make sure you are in the right frame of mind when going through your “Baby folder” or the twenty-four documents titled “bumpdates” that you wrote about your pregnancies. 

Do you have any other tips on tidying up your digital life? Let us know in the comments!

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nikkim
Nikki has called wonderful Fairfield County her home, her entire life. Growing up on a campus of a private school in Greenwich, CT Nikki swore to her educator parents that she would never be a teacher. Well life has a way of repeating itself and now Nikki and her amazingly supportive husband are happily working at a different independent school in Greenwich. A recovering “type a” perfectionist she is learning to let go of her color coding, alphabetizing ways and embrace the mess. Helping her enjoy life’s everyday messes are her two precocious girls Sofie (11/15/11) and Keira (9/7/13). Nikki loves all things mommy cliché including but not limited to walks on the beach, running, reality TV, organizing closets, wine, chocolate and having her kids help her out in the kitchen.

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