Last time I wrote about a man who is completely controlled by digital clutter. He loves having a break from it, but when that break is over, he allows his smartphone to take control of him again.

There is a cure for this: it’s called digital detox. It’s very similar to decluttering your house, except instead of getting rid of all of your digital clutter, you learn to control it, keep only what you need, and to escape it whenever you feel the need.

Given the fact that so many people are addicted to their smartphones, I think the potential market for digital decluttering is even larger than the currently popular market for decluttering your home. Once people taste freedom, whether it’s being able to move about their homes freely, or going through life without the tyranny of checking their phone constantly, they find that they want more.

Like detoxing from other bad habits, there can be some negative emotions at first, like cravings and anxiety. But those who make it through are usually pretty happy they stuck with the detoxing program.

One challenge is that modern life makes it very hard to live without going online. Our bank accounts are there, people pay their bills there, they socialize there. How do you give all that up?

Like decluttering your home, decluttering your digital clutter does not mean getting rid of everything. Instead, you make choices. You choose to keep only what’s most important while weeding out the unnecessary clutter. Keeping up with work emails and phone calls is essential; keeping up with your high school classmates’ latest political diatribes on Facebook is not. When you choose to get rid of unneeded clutter, physical or digital, you leave room for the most important things, and also extra room in your home, or your life.