31 Days To A Clutter Free Life Day 24: Digital Data
Welcome to Day 24 of the 31 Days To A Clutter Free Life Challenge! If you want to find out what the challenge is all about or would like to read the previous posts, simply go here.
Today’s challenge will focus on digital data. I truly believe that families today have more digital clutter than physical clutter. We save pictures, documents and emails. Before we know it, we have thousands of files saved on our computers and laptops. My goal with this challenge is to simplify how I save my files and to delete those I don’t need. I also plan on organizing the photos that are currently saved on my laptop by using a photo storage site.
For this challenge my plan is to:
- Scan paid invoices, bills and business receipts.
- Create files with specific categories (similar to my paperwork files).
- Save files on a cloud service such as Dropbox.
- Organize photos on a photo storage site like Flickr. I’ll probably have to get the paid version.
- Save important documents and photos on a USB drive as a backup. I also use my Apple cloud service in addition to Dropbox, but I rather be extra safe than sorry.
I know this may not be an exciting challenge, but it’s one that needs to be addressed. I’ve had 4 different laptops crash on me over the years (no, that’s not a typo). I lost many important documents and photos as a result because I failed to backup my files. If you only have time to work on one challenge, this one should be the first one on your list.
How do you store your digital documents and photos? I always welcome new tips so feel free to comment with your suggestions.
If you want to join in or would like more tips for today’s challenge, check out Living Well Spending Less for more details. Let me know if you are also doing the challenge so we can cheer each other on!
Looking for more organization ideas? Check out the following:
I have been doing this slowly over the last several months. I only spend one hour a week, but I’m almost done deleting pictures that we just don’t need. Eventually I’d like to make photo books for each year since we’ve been married so they are not all on the computer.