Easy digital decluttering hacks to free up space

Learn simple ways to clear out your phone, photos and inbox to boost device performance and reclaim storage space.

Learn simple ways to clear out your phone, photos and inbox to boost device performance and reclaim storage space.

Clearing out your digital clutter makes your devices run faster, keeps your information safer, and gives you more space for the stuff that actually matters. So let's start with your phone. Back it up first, just in case, then go into your storage to assess how much space you're using. If you have an iPhone, it'll give you *** list of recommendations to free up. Storage so you can start with those, and then you can go through your apps and sort them by when you last used them, scroll all the way to the bottom here and then start deleting stuff that you no longer need. Photos likely take up *** big chunk of your storage. Just ask my coworkers. I have 12,534, 44,600. 175. 45,217, 52,294 photos, and 4,0066 videos. That is *** lot. So let's fix that. Using your phone's duplicates feature will remove any photos you have multiples of. You can also try our producer Ali's easy daily decluttering hack. So you're gonna go into your photos, you're gonna click this magnifying box over in the corner and you're just gonna type in whatever today's date is. So you can type that in. Now my phone is showing me every photo I have ever taken on this day, and I clearly see some stuff that I can get rid of. I took *** photo of an I voted sticker like 5 times in *** row. I have like 3 photos I took of my cats this day. OK, I went to *** concert on this day and I made I made my husband take, I think, like 15 photos of me until I could get the actual shot that I wanted. Lee's gone. Do that every day and you'll thank yourself later. What about all those email subscriptions filling up your inbox? Our producer Sarah is showing us Gmail's new feature to get rid of those fast. So you want to get rid of annoying emails? Here's how it works. Over in the top left corner, click on the. Three lines, then click on more. Then you head over to manage subscriptions. It'll show you all the places you have email subscriptions for with the ones you get the most emails from at the very top. I'm going to go through and get rid of the ones I don't want. So you click on unsubscribe and I'll give you *** message that says, Do you want to stop getting messages from all the mailing listings from company? So I'm going to click unsubscribe. Boom, done, easy. Try to make these practices *** habit. Regularly going through your phone keeps things tidy so you're not scrambling to delete stuff when you're out of storage. Reporting in Washington, I'm Amy Lou.

Updated: 11:14 AM CDT Sep 2, 2025

Editorial Standards ⓘ

Easy digital decluttering hacks to free up space

Learn simple ways to clear out your phone, photos and inbox to boost device performance and reclaim storage space.

Updated: 11:14 AM CDT Sep 2, 2025

Editorial Standards ⓘ

When was the last time you cleaned out your inbox or looked at how much storage is left on your phone?The National Consumer Unit pulled together its favorite digital decluttering hacks to help your devices run faster, stay safer and give you back space for the stuff that actually matters.Start with your phoneBefore you do anything, back it up just in case. Then, check your storage. If you are on an iPhone, Apple makes this part easy. You will see a list of recommendations on how to free up space. Start there to make the biggest impact.Next, sort your apps by “last used.” Scroll down, and be honest with yourself — are you really ever going to open that random game you downloaded three years ago? Delete what you do not use and enjoy the extra space.Tackle your camera rollChances are, your photos are taking up more space than anything else. Use your phone’s “Duplicates” feature to merge or delete repeat shots. Also, try this daily decluttering practice:Open your Photos app.Tap the search bar and type in today’s date.Every photo you have ever taken on this date will pop up.From there, it’s like a mini time capsule. You will probably find plenty of screenshots, blurry shots or 15 nearly identical selfies. Delete what you do not need. Do this once a day, and you will thank yourself later.Mass unsubscribe from email listsNewsletters, promo blasts, random sign-ups — all those emails add up fast. Gmail has a new feature that makes it easy to see all your subscriptions in one place and quickly unsubscribe from the ones you do not want.Here is how it works:Tap the three lines in the top left corner.Scroll down to find “Manage subscriptions.”You will see a list of every email list you are subscribed to, with the heaviest senders at the top.From there, just hit “unsubscribe” on the ones you are ready to ditch.Make it a habitThe trick with digital decluttering is not doing it once, it’s keeping up with it. Think of it like tidying up your home — a little bit every day goes a long way. By regularly clearing out your storage, you won't find yourself scrambling to delete stuff when you are out of space.

When was the last time you cleaned out your inbox or looked at how much storage is left on your phone?

The National Consumer Unit pulled together its favorite digital decluttering hacks to help your devices run faster, stay safer and give you back space for the stuff that actually matters.

Start with your phone

Before you do anything, back it up just in case. Then, check your storage. If you are on an iPhone, Apple makes this part easy. You will see a list of recommendations on how to free up space. Start there to make the biggest impact.

Next, sort your apps by “last used.” Scroll down, and be honest with yourself — are you really ever going to open that random game you downloaded three years ago? Delete what you do not use and enjoy the extra space.

Tackle your camera roll

Chances are, your photos are taking up more space than anything else. Use your phone’s “Duplicates” feature to merge or delete repeat shots. Also, try this daily decluttering practice:

Open your Photos app.
Tap the search bar and type in today’s date.
Every photo you have ever taken on this date will pop up.

From there, it’s like a mini time capsule. You will probably find plenty of screenshots, blurry shots or 15 nearly identical selfies. Delete what you do not need. Do this once a day, and you will thank yourself later.

Mass unsubscribe from email lists

Newsletters, promo blasts, random sign-ups — all those emails add up fast. Gmail has a new feature that makes it easy to see all your subscriptions in one place and quickly unsubscribe from the ones you do not want.

Here is how it works:

Tap the three lines in the top left corner.
Scroll down to find “Manage subscriptions.”
You will see a list of every email list you are subscribed to, with the heaviest senders at the top.

From there, just hit “unsubscribe” on the ones you are ready to ditch.

Make it a habit

The trick with digital decluttering is not doing it once, it’s keeping up with it. Think of it like tidying up your home — a little bit every day goes a long way. By regularly clearing out your storage, you won't find yourself scrambling to delete stuff when you are out of space.

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