Tag Archives: digital decluttering

A Future Decluttering Trend? Taking Control of Digital Clutter

By Claire Posted in Clutter, Simpler Living Tagged , , ,

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.

Taking Control of Your Clutter is Not Merely a Fantasy

By Claire Posted in Clutter, Simpler Living Tagged , ,

Clutter:

Gets in your way.

Takes up time that you’d rather spend on other things.

Distracts you when you’re trying to get something done.

Lurks in your mind even when you can’t see it.

Displaces more important things in your house and your mind.

This is true of digital clutter as well as physical clutter. When I took my digital vacation a few months ago, I was able to focus more on reading and on thinking as well as working with my hands. I wasn’t a slave to a device; it no longer controlled me. The physical comparison would be how rearranging your clutter around your house controls your actions and keeps you from doing other things because all that clutter is in your way.

I’m old enough that taking a break from devices lets me go back to the way I used to be, before the Internet. But younger people don’t know what life was like before the Internet. Their reality is a life of being controlled by devices, and I mean controlled. Take a look at this article by a man who visits England every summer and purposely takes the long way home in the form of seven days on the Queen Mary, where it’s too hard to access the Internet.

He loves the break from being online. He loves being able to think, or read, or just sit. But as he nears the U.S., and Internet access becomes available again, his smartphone sucks him back online like an octopus pulling him under the ocean. Once again, he loses control of his actions.

Like physical clutter, digital clutter must be conquered if you ever want to get your life back…..or enjoy having a life for the first time in memory. Am I the only one who thinks the headline of this article, “The Fantasy of Being Disconnected,” is tragic? The author is a person who is completely controlled by digital clutter.

Another Digital Fasting Update

By Claire Posted in Clutter, Personal, Simpler Living Tagged , ,

So it’s been nearly three months since I began my digital fast. While I’m no longer avoiding web surfing, I’m trying to keep it on a short chain. I take a quick look at the news, and move on. No more hours of surfing or following rabbit trails.

I’m also reading more actual, physical books. I’ve been working my way through several entertaining series written by Rhys Bowen. All of the books have come from my public library. I like being able to give back each volume when I’m through with it instead of trying to find a place for it in my home. Libraries are simply wonderful, aren’t they?

I’m still spending more time working with my hands, although I burned out on making dishcloths and have gone back to playing Candy Crush at night while we watch a movie. Once I get some quilt tops quilted, I’ll need to hand-stitch the bindings, and that will take the place of Candy Crush.

Ultimately, I do feel that I’ve reduced the digital clutter in my life. This recently carried forward into another area of technology when I learned that my beloved ancient cell phone with the slide-out keyboard would soon stop working because it’s 2G, which is being phased out.

After much research, I chose a smartphone that cost me $80 (including a year’s worth of use). I have chosen not to use it to access the Internet except for a map app that will help me when faced with the need to find alternate routes while traveling. Otherwise, I’m only using it for calls, texting and the occasional photo. This should help keep my Internet usage down, instead of increasing it.

Whenever I’ve decluttered my home or decluttered my digital life, I am continually reminded that less clutter equals more freedom.

Digital Fast is Extended Indefinitely

By Claire Posted in Personal, Simpler Living Tagged , , , ,

My recent and ongoing digital fast has really opened my eyes to how technology can add virtual clutter to your life. But what does digital fasting have to do with decluttering?

What I’ve learned over the past month is that being addicted to technology, and in my case Internet surfing, keeps you from doing things you enjoy. With the best intentions, you buy more yarn…paint….garden plants, and then struggle to find the time to work with those things because you waste too much time surfing, or checking up to see what people are doing on Facebook, because of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). Future projects pile up and supplies you’ve bought sit collecting dust because you spend too much time with your phone, tablet, or laptop.

While I’ve now discovered this for myself personally, I know of others with similar struggles, like the hoarder who lives in a mess but is constantly checking people’s Facebook and Instagram to see what new clothes they’re wearing or what they’re buying for their house now. Then she orders those new things online; they’re soon delivered and simply add to her houseful of clutter.

An Internet addiction, whether the sufferer is a news hound like me, a Facebook addict like the hoarder I know, or even a gaming or Pinterest lover, eats up enormous amounts of time that would otherwise be spent keeping up with other pursuits, including those that create clutter if you don’t follow through with them. This is one more way people end up with closets full of fabric, tabletops covered with books and basements packed with craft supplies.

In addition to the clutter those things create, we miss out on the fun we could be having with those items. There’s a peace you get from creating and finishing things that cannot be matched by satisfying your FOMO….and news junkies like me definitely have FOMO.

This experiment has led me to decide to stay off Internet news sites for the foreseeable future. After a month away from them, I feel very uninformed, and much less stressed. Best of all, my garden is in great shape, I’m reading a couple of books a week, and I’m having fun with a couple of craft projects that I may actually complete before long, now that I’m not spending so much time online.