DIGITAL DECLUTTER | organizing my files, email & hard drives

[@hippodinoreserve6090]

My hack in email is to type "unsubscribe" in the search. This will bring up all of the emails that have an unsubscribe option in them. Use that option on all of them at once.

[@saraangel6696]

Okay! I commented before reaching the end! I am not the most organized person when it comes to digital things, but I have some tricks. Schedule a time once a month for your backup, that is the best one I can give you. It takes 30 minutes or less, depending on how many computers you have and their processing power (I have two). When you download something, be intentional about it. Go immediately to the downloads folder and cut it and paste it where it needs to be. Never leave it in the downloads... If it's there, then it's pointless and it can go. Set a time for the emails. Don't do them as they come, but set 30 min to and hour each day and go through them. I usually do mine in the morning, and it takes me 15 minutes. Use the cloud. I use outlook, Google and Dropbox. Use it in the same way you would your PC, and keep it organized. It's your primary backup. Figure out what things need or can be out of the computer. I have a bunch of tv shows and movies downloaded, but those go in an external hard drive, not in my PC. Clean your computer, literally clean it with a cloth, every once in a while. Maybe the day of your backup. And turn off your computer. I personally rarely leave it on, I turn it off when I stop using it for the day. Be kind to that battery.

[@caitlinmariedasilva]

SO MANY GREAT TIPS, thank-you so much for sharing!! 🙈😍 going to make “never leave something in downloads” my new motto haha !

[@danielbrylka2228]

All your tips are completely on point. I agree with every single one of them. 👌🏻

[@sarahjackson4481]

i applaud you for getting all of this done!! just reorganized my files last night, but still need to go through my downloads..... thanks for the motivation! hope you're feeling better!

[@caitlinmariedasilva]

Thanks Sarah! And ohhh that’s and awesome start 😍🙌

[@nicolefaith9972]

You can set downloads to ask where you want it to go. I found this helpful, so I can organize them from the get go.

[@caitlinmariedasilva]

Yeah I’ll definitely need to do this 😅 don’t trust myself lol

[@sparklyvamp17]

More organization videos pleasee i need to get my life in check😅

[@caitlinmariedasilva]

Noted !! I love making them :))

[@ElainePMP2008]

I DESPARATELTY NEEDED TO HEAR THESE TIPS... THANKS 2023

[@angiemendoza4965]

'I regret everything' by Ron Swanson is the best line because it describes my life right now 😂😂😂😂 I loved this video 🙈

[@caitlinmariedasilva]

Ron Swanson has a way of always being relatable lmaooo

[@angelweengz]

@@caitlinmariedasilva yasssss

[@alindaheron7780]

Thank you for being transparent and helping me realize that I am not alone in the struggle! I am in pretty much the same boat as you were. This really helps me to see that it can be done.

[@thekiwiforest]

Thank you for keeping this so real! I feel like most decluttering videos don’t shed enough light on how daunting and tedious decluttering/organizing can be 🥝

[@neathenerd]

I have been procrastinating decluttering my digital content and this came through at the right time!!!!!

[@caitlinmariedasilva]

Wahoo! Hope it could motivate you!

[@meirabroderick5646]

I'm in the middle of attempting to achieve the elusive "inbox zero" so I feel your pain. But also this video is SO WELL MADE. Like while important, a video on digital organization could easily devolve in screen grabs, but somehow you made this video so entertaining and informative. I want to organize my phone after my emails and this totally inspired me.

[@caitlinmariedasilva]

Awww that’s so sweet to hear-I’m glad you thought it was a good balance of both 🙈❤️

[@runthomas]

excellent advice.... im going through nearly 3 terrabytes of data ....sorting it and porting the important stuff to the cloud luckily i have a backup and have previously done organising etc. but it is still daunting...and takes forever...but once done you get better at it for next time, you learn to keep things in better order,

[@stephvoz]

Oh my gosh I needed this video! I have been meaning to do this for sooooo long but keep putting it off. Thanks for the motivation Caitlin! 🙌🏼😊

[@caitlinmariedasilva]

Right there with you Stephanie ! Wishing younger luck with your digital organization:))

[@sofiasundkvist]

Thank you for mentioning the ”Email Unsubscribe” thing. Never knew that! Finally I have an easy way of gettong rid of a lot of junk!

[@LuvieIrene]

The thumbnail is aesthetic goals

[@caitlinmariedasilva]

Haha thank-you ! 🙈❤️

[@vbrevolution]

First of all, congratulations! As you found out it's a very time consuming process going through and sorting all of your files. I'm currently in the process of organizing my digital files and have found that if you have a lot of files in order to start the process I create a new folder on the desktop called Need to Sort and dump everything in it. I'll then create two more folders on the desktop one called All and another called Maybe Delete. So when you're done you'll just have your bare essential programs on the desktop and the three folders you just created. As I go through my files I open up each file, look at it, possibly rename it, and determine where it needs to go. If it's something I don't want/need I delete it. If I can't decide quickly whether or not to keep it I toss it in the Maybe Delete folder. As I go through my files if I can categorize any of them (let's say I have a bunch of photos) I'll create a folder and put them in there and then put that folder in either the All folder or in the Maybe Delete folder. My rule of thumb is if you have several files relating to the same thing you should probably put them in a folder. When you're all done sorting everything you'll need to revisit what you put in your Maybe Delete folder and figure out if you really want to delete it or hang on to it. Obviously delete the things you decided you don't want to keep. This is where I usually just drag everything else into my All folder and then delete the Need to Sort folder (however on my Google drive I have a ton of older files) I've decided to keep this folder because of my filing system. When I was mostly done (still in the final stages of this process) I found that many of the things I decided to keep were important to my life and the things in the Maybe Delete folder really weren't however they still contained maybe useful things I'd maybe want to look at later down the line (or who knows maybe I'll wind up deleting them one day)? Hope this helps. P.S. -- I like that you mentioned to back things up twice. I'm an avid advocator of doing that.

[@oliviadanielle]

This was seriously THE most satisfying video I’ve ever watched. Also your layered necklaces in the first narration portion of the video are gorgeous! Amazing viewing experience all around, very happy viewer right here😂💕

[@sethwilliamson]

I noticed the same drift in focus you mentioned. What worked well for me was blocking off 15 minutes per day on my calendar until it was done. I applaud you digging in and doing the whole thing.

[@mrsbekahjoy]

I love how you put this video together!! I'm doing a digital declutter right now too! It's been taking me a month so far to get all of my files organized in Google drive!

[@cherynenglish6561]

Awesome! It is now 2023 (december!) and i just ran across this. I so relate and this is so helpful!

[@evewithwonder]

I like doing digital declutters regularly 😊 I like my phone and my laptop to be organized and only with stuff I need, so I don't really have to schedule times to do it. If I'm bored, chances are I'll take a look and see if everything is where's supposed to be. I wish I was like that with physical organziation 😅

[@thatone7793]

It's taken me over 10 years to go through 208k+ files down to just under 18k. At one point, I had dumped files from multiple computers, drives, cds, floppies (I'm that old), and online accounts onto one computer. I had tens of thousands of duplicates. I still have duplicates now. I expect that if I keep at it, I'll end up with around 10k-12k files. This is a lot, but I keep telling myself that commercial-use fonts, brushes, gradients, and other Photoshop elements are essential.

[@ITSHProductions]

I love this video...and "The Circle", But I was looking for HOW to REorganize Hard Drives....I started using my hard drives in 2008 and i have duplicates and copies ... Which i had a 100Tb that i could just start over completely with ...or hire someone to do this for me!

[@DearDragonfly]

Caitlyn, thank you so much for creating this video. Just what I needed as I was figuring out how to get started on my digital declutter. Luckily my downloads and emails are not in the 1,000s as my best habit has been to clear/delete items in my downloads folder to a certain # and go through my emails once a week. I also try not to keep more than 100 unread emails.

[@KristinNova]

Thanks for sharing! I also use Folder Marker for digital organizing, helpfull thing

[@РМ-405]

Agree! Also, you can check their blog - blog.foldermarker.com/2020/how-to-organize-computer-files-top-9-electronic-file-management-tips/.

[@KristinNova]

@@РМ-405 Checked! It is pretty cool

[@ankex3341]

Thanks for honestly sharing that you had thousands of emails, and documents in Downloads.... I am scared to start decluttering and have been procrastinating untill I graduate (what if I lose important articles?!). I am afraid of all the files I have accumulated over 7 years without a proper clean :') You inspire me to start with some things like my email account that I have had for 10 years or so. Thanks for your clear video and declutter strategy :-)!

[@ajaytz]

Thank you for making this video, I recently decluttered by email from 30,000 emails to 1,450 emails, as for the newsletter I use Feedly now, so you do not get the newsletters in email but rather can check the updates for those newsletters in Feedly App

[@kathymejia1370]

I love the plan!!! Definitely will be using it to declutter my computer and phone mess!! Also the download section also scares me and is definitely the reason why I keep putting digital organizing off.

[@kathrecordss1615]

It's been on my to do list for a while..... I REAL need to do that soon ahhaha (also The Circle! omg i loved it!)

[@admirbarucija2018]

I love being organized with all my school documents over the years haha, I need to get on that more often! I hope you have an amazing week 💓

[@caitlinmariedasilva]

So helpful to be organized as a student ! I was always losing track of things 😅

[@admirbarucija2018]

Caitlin's Corner It’s very useful in the long run to be organized! 😅 I kept good track of my things, but was never a super neat person; whatever system works for you is the best

[@darshanmathukiya7169]

Never thought you would make this video!! Great Video Caityy❤️

[@caitlinmariedasilva]

Thanks!

[@invisibleabi999]

When I first got a phone (and the social media that comes along with that) I didn’t realize that you could turn off email notifications for things, so when I checked my email I had like 80,000 unread emails. I’ve been able to work on clearing it out between classes😂

[@caitlinmariedasilva]

OMG ! What a shock LOL 😂

[@AnnaJCA]

My tip for further digital decluttering: uninstall all phone apps you don't use or need anymore, as well as try to change your phone notification settings so that you're not as interrupted by "unecessary" things! Helps calm my mind, at least :)

[@saraangel6696]

I have the scheduled time for backup the first sunday of every month. It takes 30 minutes or less and gives you a lot of sanity and peace of mind jajajaja

[@caitlinmariedasilva]

That’s a fantastic system 😍🙌

[@rebeccavaden]

would love to see this for your phone! especially the photo library😬😂

[@Granny_Gaming]

such a nice video to watch while doing the same thing

[@kubranurkahveci958]

You can also rename some documents! If they’re related give them kinda the same ‘name’ but with a date or something so that you know the difference. That helps me a lot when I have to rewrite an essay or something!

[@dinasaur2395]

Soo much inspiration. Now I’m going to do that.

[@caitlinmariedasilva]

Yay! Good luck!

[@aarushipotter6144]

This inspired me to declutter my computer too! Dealing with my documents first📃

[@caitlinmariedasilva]

Wahoo! Good luck!

[@sethwilliamson]

You talked about backups. A great combo for Mac users is Time Machine + Backblaze. For PC, Acronis True Image is a solid choice for the local backups. "3-2-1" best practice & automated so it gets done. :-)

[@cutieshan]

ooooh i haven't started this yet, but it's gonna make me so satisfied while watching LOL

[@caitlinmariedasilva]

Haha ! Hope you enjoyed it 🥰

[@bandlover3890]

I started to organize all my pictures on my Computer and gave up because my Abitur exams (my end of school exams in Germany) are coming up soooo of course I'm enjoying procrastinating on it

[@caitlinmariedasilva]

Enjoy the procrastination stage -I did for years lol 🙌😂 its a great time !

[@ClaudiaParedesCP7]

Such a great video. Very helpful and inspiring! 😊😊

[@Eliza524]

One tips for Gmail is you can select Google sort your emails into folders and the algorithm is very smart. All of your newsletters will go into promotions and that way you know what's important or not.

[@ericajackss]

I recently cleared out 11.8k emails in the span of a week over the winter break. The new feature where you can select by holding-and-scrolling on the mobile app made the effort so much more feasible!

[@obscurasangser570]

Since you have a Mac, you could take advantage of Time Machine to help you backup everything monthly! It will automatically remind you when you don’t backup and stuff, I really love it. Also great video!

[@thebookbujo]

I actually also have to do this since I got a new laptop in December. I’ll do one section today! I feel inspired. Watch me drop everything soon and be bored 😂

[@caesuracrossing5473]

I've been avoiding watching this video because i needed to organize my own files it's such a daunting task lol

[@lejanne]

You trying to sip the hot tea is a real mood 😂 burned my tongue way to much on tea, but I’ll never learn 😫 loved the video ❤️

[@ryanb6093]

ME: I want to organize my digital life, so let me hop on youtube to see how others do it. Also ME: I took a look at my digital life and decided to grab a coffee and go for a walk instead.

[@pectoralis1565]

4:02 LOL I had that exact picture in my downloads when I was deleting stuff.

[@michellewren_]

Where did you get the first outfit (blazer and the black undershirt)?! It is soooo cute! I decluttered my computer a couple months back but I'm already down to like 22GB left... *deep sigh* gotta clean it again lol

[@bhavnas1696]

You can create a spread in your Bullet journal as digital organizer coz I have started doing that and it is really helping me keeping up with the sorting process. Choose weekly or monthly depending on how your schedule is. Get well soon Caitlin.

[@caitlinmariedasilva]

Lovely idea 🙌😍

[@celiikizel]

My biggest tip for email is when you are signing up for a new website, check email notifications settings first and disable any notification you don't want in your email inbox.

[@BeccaGargiulo]

this isn’t totally relevant but what exactly is your process for your using a hard drive to store video footage? like do you only back up original camera files that you think you’ll use again or do you back up entire videos or something else? i’m a small youtuber and i feel like i should get a hard drive but i don’t quite understand what people use them for

[@РМ-405]

Thanks for the video! Can you also do some tutorial on color-coding system?

[@KristinNova]

Love this idea,!

[@twocatsandbooks]

Love this!!! I recently cleaned up the files on my laptop, but now I'm tackling emails and have almost as many as you did. I'm not looking forward to this part of the process lol

[@caitlinmariedasilva]

LOL good luck Kelly! I’m telling you, archiving will be your best friend haha

[@jacintico10]

A great tip is to also delete your cookies every now and then. These are stored inside your browser and you can just google how to delete them depending on the browser you are using. I recommend doing this every month or so (it only takes a minute) because they can accumulate really quickly and they can track you all over the internet so its just nice to get a fresh start every now and then, so that companies don't have a timeline of every website you visited in the past 10 years. Be cyber aware y'all :))

[@lvlc5]

At least on my laptop I have a few folders on things I am working on. I work on academics, so every semester is like a fresh start for me. So each semester, at the end or at the beginning I go and file whatever is in my desktop and download folder. I have a folder named ToFile and inside I have the following categories Admin Courses Research Department Other and THESE SAME categories are inside my Documents folder. So I first drop all in ToFile making sure IT IS TO FILE (so the process of deleting happens before this), then I go inside here and sort it into their corresponding categories and then go by categories and sort correspondingly inside there. It has worked like a charm to me for 10 years. I will never go back. My problem is how to go through my permanent files and making sure there is no unuseful stuff. For example. when I update a class material I file them by semester, and never delete de semesters before with the scare of "it might be useful" I guess I need to overcome that!

[@caitlinmariedasilva]

Oh this is sooo good! Thanks for sharing 🙌🙌🙌!!

[@hallyrosesmith]

I'm a year late and super off topic, BUT where is your blazer from?? Trying to pick up those boss babe vibes 💅🏼

[@yvetteoliver]

My need for digital decluttering is daunting! However, I am glad you shared your plan which makes the process seem doable. Unnecessary Downloads and documents... be gone! 🙂

[@KellyLouiseYeahx]

Highly recommend CleanMyMac & CleanMyDrive, gets rid of so many hidden things! And moving my photos to iCloud storage has made a massive difference to my Mac storage!

[@amyshepherd4196]

The key is naming. Have a simple, consistent protocol for renaming your files *as soon as you download them*. You have to save it anyway, so why not call it something you recognize without having to open the file?

[@carolynmiles2067]

been there done that on school network files, took 10 hours, that was 4 years ago 3 years into a new job, really need to sort my e drive, not looking forward to it.

[@FabianGuppenberger]

veeery helpful and u r very sympathic :)

[@Vandel212]

I think your main issue is the 120GB of storage. That was a small amount 10 years ago.

[@lovelyy6491]

the aesthetic part is so important to me tho cuz i just upgraded my computer hardwares and even though its system runs a lot smoother it's still so messy because of my files it doesn't look like i have a new upgraded computer which is disappointing lol spent so much money to still be unproductive because of my 5 years of a mess? it's so annoying

[@zettagotbored9341]

The best organization tips are definitely from Thomas Frank

[@caitlinmariedasilva]

Going to have to check his tips out !

[@ankithrajashekar2406]

Well I’m throughly inspired, my inbox isn’t ready for this

[@ChibiSugar]

I highly recommend an online cloud for backups. They always say that once it’s on the internet, it’ll stay on the internet, and that’s not a lie haha.

[@mollysheacreative]

go thru your phone now ;;;)))) for real tho I needed this motiv and I’m gonna tackle some now

[@missfavoured]

I don’t like digital decluttering because the date stamp changes.

[@MissSyrinxie]

I make it so my computer asks me where I want to save downloads that way my downloads folder never has anything it and I organize things as I download them :) makes my life so much easier in the long run!

[@caitlinmariedasilva]

OOOOoooOoh that’s probably what I need to do 😅

[@johnnymaelee]

"That's Ariel" lolol

[@simplygrace5585]

There’s so many emails I’ve unsubscribed, marked as spam, and blocked but STILL receive them 😭😭😭😭😭

[@xaniaks]

I recently did the email declutter too after reaching over 10,000 unread emails 😅

[@catharina9287]

if you tab command + delete, you delete it immediately without the right mouse click

[@GoodThingsIndeed]

Archiving is the only way I can live my best life 😂😂

[@tepivalero95]

Try adding filters and labels to your email!! You can set actions to make them go immediately to a folder (label) without touching your main inbox, you can check them whenever you want by clicking the label (for example: a label for newsletters, blogs etc)

[@dazita]

Lowkey she looks better without makeup :D

[@isabelcross871]

Use unrollme.com it shows you what you are subscribed to and you can automatically unsubscribe from multiple companies in one place

[@tashainjena]

The photos is what is going to kill me.

[@allisonpiazza2317]

I never keep anything of value in my downloads-I always drag it to my desktop. That way I can just delete all of my downloads without looking at them!

[@caitlinmariedasilva]

You’re smart ! I leave everything in downloads 😅

[@MultiMam12345]

You need Hazel. This app will prevent what you are fixing here and also will save you time fixing it in any stage.

[@_firstlight]

the downloads section really is the worst 😂

[@Swmdwn.Khakhlary]

you're beautiful 🤗💙

[@miraclerat]

My problem with my digital files is I hoard literally everything and just move them onto a hard drive lol

[@caitlinmariedasilva]

Haha honestly same-I’m a digital hoarder lol

[@Moomtaz]

Unfortunately this video confirmed that there is no easy way out of this. I have an incredible amount of Junk spanning 27 Hard drives going into 66+ Terabytes including RAID drives, (8 terabytes of 4 4 terabyte drives) currently connected to the computer and another 14 terabyte drive on the way. I probably have millions of duplicate files from hard drives saved from near death. I have old laptop drives, this does not include multiple thumbdrives. To become organized like I know that I should will be extremely painful. Thanks to CloneSpy for finding digital duplicates with different names. However It is ONE Big Elephant. And it is just so much easier to buy a bigger hard drive and put it all off until a little later. Writing that out let's me know that Hi, my name is Muhammad and I'm a digital hoarder. Let's begin the 12 steps.

[@John83118]

I'm astounded by the insightfulness of this content. A book with similar substance offered me a wealth of knowledge. "A Life Unplugged: Reclaiming Reality in a Digital Age" by Theodore Blaze

[@jinxterpinxter]

You got a Macbook with 121 GB of storage? 😂

[@josephj5486]

Thank you for sharing! well explained! it's probably the best file organization that I've seen on youtube! I'm using this tool called Eagle to manage and organize my files tho, its tag, rating and annotation feature is really helpful in finding the files without making a mess, I basically use it for ideas gathering, reference collections, and work file organizations, I think you will like it too! Plus it supports image files preview(like psd, ai, jpg, png...etc), video footage fast/speed preview, video frame annotations and audio fast preview without having to open the application. en.eagle.cool