This way you can start the new year with a tidy smartphone

The new year is just around the corner and that means we want to start fresh. Many people tidy their rooms, give their homes soapy water, or clean their cars, which they practically live in. A tidy “house” is a tidy head, is the motto. And you smartphone? With these tips, your smartphone will also have a great start to 2023.

Clean apps

It is easier to start with apps. You know better which apps you use a lot and which you don’t. In the past, you left a store app on your phone so you always had your loyalty card close at hand. In the meantime, it’s not necessary in the first place because you can actually just as easily quickly download the app and log in while you’re in the store.

Second, there are also wallet apps where you can store loyalty cards. As a result, the application of this store is no longer necessary at all: at least not for the loyalty card. Think carefully about which apps you think are worth keeping and which you will never touch again. Also check in the App Store or Play Store if you have a subscription to these apps and cancel it. This way you immediately save money for the new year, which seems to be an economic challenge.

Get rid of photos and videos

The benefit of deleting apps isn’t so much that they take up a lot of space, because that’s usually not too bad. Rather, it’s about preventing them from sneaking around in the background and slowing down your phone without you knowing. And you’ve also found the apps you used to use before, if there aren’t all sorts of other apps in between in your start menu.

Another folder you definitely need to check out is the photos and videos folder. It’s often most of the space on your phone, especially in a world where we constantly send each other crazy videos and crazy gifs on WhatsApp. Your phone is probably full of them. How often are you going to watch a random gif or video of a concert that goes on too long? Throw it away, it will save a lot of space on your phone. Plus, you can immediately browse and put your photos into folders by vacation or activity. It’s also fun to do at the end of the year: review all those beautiful memories you made in 2022.

Clean the phone

Videos recorded inadvertently, photos that are too shaky: it is often better to throw them away. The same goes for documents and downloads, even folders that could definitely use a broom. That pdf of those Peter Pannekoek tickets the other day, you don’t need it anymore. That menu at that restaurant your girlfriend insisted on eating at Christmas? It’s long gone now, so get rid of it. All of this can be a heck of a lot of work, especially if you’re taking a lot of photos and uploading a lot. So don’t worry if you spend a lot of hours doing it.

There is another folder that can take up a lot of GB on your phone and that is streaming services. Whether it’s playlists you downloaded from Spotify or all the episodes of Euphoria on HBO Max, they take up space on your phone. If you still want to keep certain playlists or episodes available offline, you should leave them there, but often you have watched something for a long time or you are actually listening to only one playlist. Also take a look in your browser, like Safari or Chrome: make sure you clear your cache: this is all the data from websites that your phone downloads while browsing to make sure the page loads faster. Get rid of it, then you really start 2023 with a clean slate.

To clean

Cleaning up your phone isn’t just about deleting stuff. It is also to be up to date. So check in the app stores if you have all your apps completely up to date: if there are updates, be sure to download and install them as soon as possible. You’ve come a long way with your phone already, so you’ll probably notice it’s a little faster, runs better, and looks a little clearer. Then there’s only one thing left to do: just wipe it down with a microfiber cloth. The exterior is a kind of dirt magnet. By the way, the latter is not something you should do once a year: more like once a day.

A tidy phone: it feels good, doesn’t it? Now for your tablet, laptop and desktop computer.