Clutter is the bane of many people these days. During the tight economy, there has been a surge in the number of people looking to remove excess from their lives.
An often overlooked place where we tend to clutter “stuff” is on our computers. Many people have dozens of files on their desktop, lots of applets running in their menu bar, and thousands of files which will never be accessed again. I have recently discovered a great web site, Minimal Mac, dedicated to de-cluttering computers. Thought I’d share a few nuggets from this site, all of which are also applicable to Windows or even Linux environments.
Trash the Applets
My bare bones menu bar.
What are applets? These are the little icons that show up in the Menu Bar (os Start Bar in Windows.) Most of these little programs suck down memory (albeit a small amount,) are rarely used, and show annoying messages at the most inopportune times. Only keep the ones you absolutely need. Some of them can be removed by simply clicking on them and selecting quit. Others you may have to open the parent application to disable them. Fish around, it may take a little effort to get rid of the ones you don’t need.
Dump the Folders, Use Search
I only have 2 folders...
In a previous post on managing email, I mentioned that I favor using a minimal number of folders to store data. I have 3 primary folders: @archive and @review, both of which reside in my Documents folder. I use descriptive filenames and the operating system’s search features to find what I’m looking for (another idea is to use Google Desktop.) The beauty of today’s search technology is that you can search the contents of files, not just file names and folders. I have found it’s far easier to remember what was in a document rather than where I put the it.
Get Rid of Programs You Don’t Need
When hard disk space was limited, it used to be common practice to frequently delete software you didn’t use. However, once space no longer was an issue, many of us started to keep every piece of software we came across. This is especially problematic on Windows PCs which comes pre-loaded with dozens of useless applications. Many of the applications may have silent programs running in the background, affecting the performance of your computer. Take a look at software folder and trash anything you don’t use on a regular basis. Be ruthless, even if you think someday you might need it, get rid of it for now. You can always reinstall it later.
Keep the Desktop Clear
Don’t store stuff on the desktop! Having all that junk on your desktop is distracting and serves as a constant reminder that someday you need to clean those files up. Also, choose a background that isn’t distracting…although those pictures of the kids are great, most of the time they will be covered up in Windows so why have something that will distract you. Solid colors work great.
Create a Nice Home for Your Computer
Although not exactly related to stuff on your computer, try to find a nice home for your computer. If it’s desk, keep it clean and orderly. Hide cables. Minimize stuff on our around your computer. Leave yourself space to work. Search flickr and find examples of clean workspaces which will inspire you to keep an uncluttered area to work in.
Take a few minutes today and remove some of that clutter junking up your computer. Then create yourself reminders every few weeks to keep your computer clean…it will thank you for it!
