If there’s such a factor as a tech hoarder, I am certain I qualify. I’ve over 350 telephones in the home, over 100 earbuds, a ridiculous variety of chargers, cables, energy banks, and so forth. I had an honest system to prepare all of the tech in the home, however the final two years have been notably busy, and I let the litter pile as much as such an extent that I do not actually know the place issues are any longer.
Just lately, I launched into a decluttering undertaking to prepare my tech higher, and whereas it was labor-intensive, the upside is that I can now reliably find merchandise I would like with out losing half-hour, and I contemplate {that a} win. So here is what labored for me and how one can get began.
Find out how to declutter cables and equipment
Cables contribute to litter in a giant method. I’ve lots of of USB-C cables in the home, and whereas the Kindle Oasis is the one gadget that I often use that also wants Micro-USB, I in some way have a number of dozen of these cables mendacity round that I did not throw out.
I nonetheless want Lightning cables due to older iPhones and iPads, USB-A, Mini USB, and USB-B cables that I exploit with varied synths and different music manufacturing gear, and USB Micro-B cables to make use of with previous exterior onerous drives. Equally, I’ve over 100 wired earbuds, and whereas they do not take up a lot room, there isn’t any good strategy to manage them, notably with IEMs.
That is simply the beginning of the cable litter; I’ve dozens of Ethernet cables of various lengths, HDMI and DisplayPort cables, and a boggling variety of RCA audio cables. Whereas I had system to categorize cables previously, issues have gotten out of hand within the final two years, and these days, it is a larger chore to dig by way of the cables than simply shopping for new ones.
My answer? I exploit cable ties, and I began getting storage bins the place I can simply categorize cables based mostly on want or utility. I purchased these storage bins to retailer USB cables, and there are bigger variants if you should home Ethernet or HDMI cables. These storage bins are simply as nice with earbuds and chargers as nicely.
You can too get retractable cables; I used this Baseus cable during the last 12 months, and it is simply a lot extra handy. I simply received the inCharge XS, and this tiny cable has USB-C, USB-A, and Lightning connectors, and it is ready to cost gadgets as much as 240W. With these multi-connector cables and retractable choices, you do not have to cope with as a lot litter, they usually’re simply simpler to handle.
The perfect factor you are able to do is give away cables you do not want. That is what I did lately; I put a number of dozen previous chargers and cables in a bag and handed it away, and it felt nice. I would advocate holding on to 3 of every cable selection with older cables since you do not finally have to have a whole lot of these mendacity round.
One other factor that made a giant distinction is labeling issues. The one motive I will discover something in any respect is as a result of I lastly began labeling all equipment and cables, and I exploit this 10-year-old Epson label maker that is nonetheless going sturdy — the identical can’t be mentioned of my Epson printer.
Find out how to declutter telephones and different {hardware}
I have been testing telephones for over a decade now, and I amassed fairly a group of telephones, together with the newest flagships just like the Pixel 9 Professional XL, iPhone 16 Professional Max, foldables just like the Magic V3, and every thing in between. I’ve a charging routine initially of each quarter the place I ensure all of those gadgets are charged to 50% (what do you do on a Sunday?), and as soon as that is finished, they return into their bins.
I attempted a number of methods for storing telephones, and these days, I simply have a dozen of these IKEA storage bins, with telephones organized by producer (Xiaomi alone takes up 4 bins). I retailer chargers in particular person bins, and charging cables are actually sorted into 4 classes: USB-C PD cables that ship at the very least 100W, USB-C to USB-A cables, manufacturer-bundled cables, and common USB-C cables to switch knowledge.
I exploit anti-static luggage with onerous drives, DRAM modules, and motherboards, however the remainder of the overall tech merchandise — routers, NAS servers, tablets, keyboards, mice, headsets, and docking stations — go into particular person cabinets. The most important concern on this space is discovering the cable related to the product, so nowadays, I simply put energy cables in sealable luggage and label them accordingly.
When you’ve got previous telephones sitting in a drawer, I would recommend charging the gadgets at the very least each six months to make sure the battery would not balloon or degrade. You can too reuse older telephones, they usually maintain up fairly nicely for lots of duties. For instance, you clearly cannot use one thing just like the LG G4 as a day by day driver; the telephone doubles up as a media participant, and the built-in DAC is good in its personal proper. One in all my finest use circumstances for previous telephones is as a safety digicam — Alfred is a good utility.
One other answer is to only promote, give away, or donate older tech. I am notably dangerous at this, and whereas I do not like freely giving telephones, I do job handing out gadgets to members of the family and pals. Promoting older tech is an alternative choice, however you do not get a lot — a more sensible choice is to see in case your service has a trade-in provide towards a more moderen gadget. Barring that, my advice is to make use of a service like Swappa to promote previous telephones, notebooks, and any undesirable tech that is simply sitting round. No matter the way you give away previous telephones or notebooks, you will want to be sure you securely erase your knowledge.
In the event you’ve received decades-old merchandise that do not have any materials worth, it’s best to contemplate recycling them. Finest Purchase has a good recycling program, and most counties provide a recycling service within the U.S., Canada, and the U.Ok.
Find out how to manage and declutter your digital life
Organizing digital media could be a daunting process. I did this train initially of 2024 after I was organising a brand new 100TB dwelling server, and I noticed I’ve the identical knowledge in at the very least three completely different areas. When you’ve got a neighborhood media assortment, I would advocate going by way of the info and utilizing a instrument like MediaMonkey to raised manage your content material. With music particularly, I recommend MusicBee; I used it fairly a bit previously.
Plex is a terrific utility on this regard, and it takes care of all of the group and metadata. Roon is equally nice for organizing your music library, and whereas it has distinctive options, it’s fairly pricey at $15 a month. In relation to photographs, a utility like digiKam is useful for organizing and including tags, and when you want a self-hosted answer, Immich is the very best round.
As for storing photographs, I exploit a NAS to retailer all photographs and movies going again a decade, and it routinely backs up any new photographs taken from my telephone. I then again up this knowledge to a different NAS and use an exterior SSD as a 3rd storage medium. Picture group is dealt with by the NAS, and it kinds photographs into customized folders categorized by 12 months. In the event you’re seeking to get began, I would recommend getting one thing just like the DiskStation DS224 Plus — it prices $297 and is a worthwhile funding.
Whereas it would not must do with digital media, I would advocate backing up all Google knowledge each two years; Google Takeout is a good utility because it bundles all Gmail emails, Drive knowledge, and photographs and movies saved in Google Pictures in a single go. You get to decide on which service’s knowledge you need to obtain; I simply chosen every thing, and the dimensions of the obtain got here out to 828GB this 12 months.
In the event you’re working out of storage in Google Drive and iCloud, each providers provide instruments to see what knowledge is utilizing up storage, and you’ll delete knowledge accordingly.
Finally, the most important concern with decluttering is getting began. I had deal with on my digital media and on-line exercise, however I noticed I let bodily merchandise pile up, and it was a sizeable enterprise to get them organized and accessible. The perfect advice I can provide is to start out sluggish; when you’ve received an enormous picture library or mailbox that wants finding out, begin by doing 20 to 30 photographs at a time, and that can will let you construct momentum.
The identical goes for organizing your folders, on-line accounts, and any digital media. The hot button is to be constant, and whereas I do know that will sound onerous to do now, it turns into routine — if not pleasurable — when you get a deal with on issues.
