Time for a digital spring clean?

So you’ve thought about a spring clean on your house? All the new projects you can start when it finally starts to cheer up outside? Well why not get started inside and now? Not only does your house need a spring clean once in a while but so does your computer! Read this guest post and spring clean with a couple of easy steps! The facebook one was a treat for me I have to say. The amount of  junk & spam that I got used to and always scrolled through. Gone! Fabulous!

More and more people are choosing to implement a digital spring clean and make sure their work and personal computers are rejuvenated. This not only improves the performance of the machine in question, but can also help a great deal when trying to find certain files as quickly as possible.

So, what are the steps involved in a successful digital spring clean?

Install antivirus software

There are two crucial things to consider when using an antivirus for your computer. Firstly, you should choose a piece of software that is well-known and trusted. There is a large variety of services out there, all claiming to offer the best antivirus package, but many of these aren't comprehensive and could even be malicious. Choose a popular program and be sure to look at their ratings on sites such as CNET to check their credibility.

The second thing to remember with your antivirus is to ensure that it is always up to date. New viruses pop up all the time so by making sure that your antivirus is updated weekly, or even daily, you will be maximising the chances of all viruses and malware being picked up. This is perhaps the most crucial aspect of your digital spring clean. 

Sort out your emails

Perhaps the biggest amount of clutter found on any machine is that of email junk. We all know that spam is commonplace and it's inevitable that we are all going to receive a fair amount, but there are steps that can be taken to reduce it. You can delete all of your sent items and empty your junk folders, as well as take some time to unsubscribe from those annoying senders that just won't go away. Another point is to send less emails; the founder of LinkedIn recently made this suggestion. By phoning companies instead of emailing, less companies will have your email address and therefore you'll receive less spam.

Facebook cull

This is something that more and more people are turning to when performing their digital spring clean. We all have "friends" on Facebook we don't really know, whether they have been added after one too many or just so long ago that you are just not going to see them again, so why not get rid? This will lower the chances of seeing unrelated posts that you aren't interested in. After all, the whole point of Facebook is to connect with your friends, right?

These are just a few steps that can get you going on your digital spring clean. You can also take a look at your computer's desktop and internal files to see what you can get rid of. You will be amazed at the amount of disk space you can free up and your machine will love you for it!