How to Use the KonMari Method to Declutter Your Digital Life
What Is the KonMari Method?
The KonMari method is a copyrighted term by Marie Kondo, who named it using the first few letters of her names. She brought the KonMari method though the book. You likely know her better through her Netflix show, where she visits American homes and applies her special method to help people clear their hoarded items.
There’s a lot to master with the KonMari technique, including going through your worldly belongings in categories and properly ‘sending off’ the items you don’t want. However, the core of the technique revolves around one mantra; if it doesn’t spark joy, throw it away.
With this in mind, let’s explore some areas of your digital life where you can apply the KonMari method.
Sorting Out Digital Files and Programs
First of all, let’s apply the KonMari method to your documents. Take some time to go through all your personal files and folders. Note if they spark joy within you, or if they’re “past their prime.” If they still make you happy, great; keep them around. If they feel more like digital dust-gatherers than important files, delete them.
Remember that files can hide away in easily-forgotten places, such as your Downloads folder. These will often have old installers and files that you no longer need, and as such can be safely deleted to recover space.
Don’t forget to go through your programs, too. Open your operating system’s program list and check through all the apps and games you have installed. Haven’t touched it in months and no longer care about it? Uninstall it. Does it play a vital part in your life? Keep it around.
Tidying Up Old Outdated Electronics
Every tech lover has it; the box (or drawer, or pile) of old electronics you once loved. Whether it’s the tablet that you’ve long since replaced or the console you played on as a kid, it’s easy to hoard electronics “just in case” you need them again.
When cleaning out your digital life, it’s essential to go through these old devices and double-check if you’re still happy to have them. If that old Gameboy Color or Tamagotchi makes you smile when you hold it, by all means, keep it around. However, if you’re looking at that old smartphone you kept “for emergencies” but now would make a better museum exhibit than a calling device, it’s time to let it go.
Getting Rid of Old Cables
Next is the second-worst hoarding habit that gadget lovers have. Every time you buy a new device to replace an older model, the new product will come with all the cables to get it up and running. This includes USB chargers for phones and tablets, as well as HDMI and power cables for new computers.
As such, every time you get a new device, one of two things tend to happen; you keep the old cable and store the new one, or replace the old cable with the new one. Either way, you relegate a cable to the dreaded cable drawer, never to see the light of day again.
When cleaning up your digital life, it’s a good idea to do some Marie Kondo cable management and work through the spaghetti-like pile of cords. Keep any cables which you feel will be of great use in the near future, and discard any that feel redundant or outdated.
Deleting Old Online Accounts
How many accounts do you think you have over the internet? As we use the web, we make accounts, use them for a time, then “discard” them. Of course, these accounts are still on the internet, full of personal information.
As such, if someone cracks the password on an old account, hackers can sneak inside and use this personal information for nefarious purposes. In a worst-case scenario, the website still remembers your payment details, which is a goldmine for someone with less-than-good intent!
As a result, it’s a good idea to scrub the internet of accounts that no longer bring you happiness. Of course, there’s no easy way to see every single account you have on the internet, so you’ll have to do some digging to find them all.
While you can go through all your registration confirmation emails one-by-one, a much quicker method is to use your browser’s password manager. If you’ve built up a habit of letting your browser save your login details, you can look through all your accounts and find the ones that you don’t use anymore.
