3 Simple Steps to Declutter Your Android Phone Without Regrets - MakeUseOf

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When you need a break from the reality of our chaotic world, your smartphone can provide a safe haven. It's your way to connect with family and friends, search for answers online, and get work done.

Unfortunately, your smartphone can sometimes be too chaotic to complete any meaningful task with ease. There are rows of notifications to sort, too many apps lying around, files scattered everywhere, and more junk than you can stomach.

This can make using your smartphone frustrating and can be a drain on your productivity. Decluttering can make using your smartphone a blissful experience once again.

What Constitutes Clutter on Your Smartphone?

On your Android smartphone, clutter is everything from sprawling notifications, unused apps, and duplicate files, to pictures you never look at and music you never listen to.

Clutter can hit you in a lot of ways. It can eat up your storage space, drain the life out of your battery, slow down your phone, cause it to heat up, and make your home screen an aesthetic nightmare.

Remember that time when you urgently needed to share a PDF, but it took ages to locate? How about constantly swiping back and forth amidst a messy home screen to locate your Twitter app?

Yes, you guessed right. Clutter!

Decluttering is taking the time to organize the content of your Android smartphone and getting rid of data that has no business being there. This will free up more space on your device, give your apps more breathing room, and increase your productivity when working with your phone.

Here's a simple guide to decluttering your Android smartphone. You need to follow a logical order to ensure that only superfluous items are trashed and not items you'll regret getting rid of. Here's how to go about it.

Step 1: Declutter Your Apps

The first point of call when decluttering your phone should be your apps list. Your apps are typically responsible for a lot of the clutter you'll be dealing with on your Android phone. They take up space and spew a lot of junk.

If you have apps that perform the same function on your phone, consider letting go of some. The excuse we typically give ourselves is that each of those apps can do things the others can not. Settle for one app that can perform the function of two apps you would otherwise install.

Then there's the problem of unused apps. We typically hoard unused apps because we believe that we might need them someday. Look up the app on Play Store, add it to your wish list, and come back for installation any time you feel you need it.

However, if you've already installed a lot of apps that stay unused, Files by Google can help you get rid of apps you rarely use. It will highlight apps you frequently use and those you barely touch.

To do this:

Open the Files by Google app where you should find an option labeled Delete unused apps. Select this.
A list of unused apps and the last time you accessed them should come up. Select those you want to uninstall and tap the uninstall button

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Step 2: Declutter Your Files

It can be annoying to go back and forth when searching for a file on your smartphone, especially as search features on Android phones aren't exactly top-notch. You can avoid the frustration that stems from this by doing a little bit of tidying and trashing.

If you're a fan of minimalist living, you might have heard of Marie Kondo's KonMari Method. If you haven't, it is a method of decluttering that embraces the philosophy that everything you keep should "spark joy" in you. And if it doesn't, you should get rid of it.

In the method, you start with things that are much easier to trash, all the way down to things that are incredibly hard to get rid of.

General Files

On your phone, duplicate files are the easiest to let go of. Once again, Files by Google will help you identify them with an option to delete. To do this:

Open the Files by Google app, scroll down, and locate the option labeled Delete duplicate files. Tap on it.
A side-by-side list of duplicate files and their original copies should come up. Check the checkbox beside every duplicate you want to delete.

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Then go for PDFs and word documents you've probably never opened. Iterate through all your documents; text files, Office documents, abandoned drafts, and get rid of anything that doesn't spark joy in you.

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At this point, you've probably found a file or two, or maybe dozens you're not entirely sure whether to keep or trash. For those kinds of files, Google's Drive cloud service would be happy to take them off your hands, as would Amazon Drive, Dropbox, or Microsoft's OneDrive.

However, fight the temptation to move most of the files you would otherwise delete to the cloud. You'd only be moving your trash to a different room in the same house.

Photos, Music, and Videos

Music files should be the next in line. For this, you can select to keep a few that suit your taste, or you can save yourself the stress and use a music streaming service. YouTube Music, Google Play Music, Amazon Music, Spotify, and SoundCloud are great music streaming services to try out.

The toughest files to deal with are typically photos and videos. This is because of the sentimental value we attach to them. Getting rid of them can sometimes feel like we are letting go of a part of us.

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Unfortunately, for photos and videos, you'll find out that too many of them spark joy. Look out for photos and videos you took in the same location, and get rid of some of them. Google Photos app can also help you hunt down blurry media files for trashing.

For all the media files you're still undecided about, send them to the cloud. Google Photos, Flickr, and Snapfish are popular cloud storage options for media files. But once again, resist the temptation to dump everything in the cloud.

Step 3: Declutter Your Notifications

When dealing with clutter, we often neglect notifications. They're are one of the most invasive and disruptive forms of clutter on your phone. They can cause notification fatigue and send your productivity down the drain. Buzzes and chimes every passing minute. It is everyone's nightmare.

To declutter your notifications, start with your social media apps. Go through each of them and mute noncritical conversations. WhatsApp, Facebook, and Telegram all have the mute feature. If you're not entirely sure how to mute notifications on any social media app, here is a guide on managing notifications on any Android app.

Another frontier for disruptive notifications is your browser. Open your browser app and disable push notifications for websites that are spamming you with notifications. Depending on your preferred browser, you should see an option to disable notifications on the Settings menu.

For Chrome:

Tap the three vertical dots on the top right corner of your browser screen.
Scroll down and tap the Settings option.
Go to Site Settings > Notifications.
Tap the radio button beside Notifications on the next screen to disable all website notifications from Chrome.

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Take Back Your Digital Sanity

Your Android smartphone can be an incredibly useful tool if you have good awareness and control over its contents. Apart from trashing and moving stuff to the cloud, you'll need to develop a decent content management attitude.

Get a decent Android launcher to organize your apps, organize your files in labeled folders, and make a conscious effort to avoid taking in apps or files you're not certain you'll need immediately. Don't let the disorganization in your smartphone rob you of your digital sanity.

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About The Author

Maxwell Timothy (11 Articles Published)

Hi, I'm Max. I'm very psyched about the Metaverse, Smart Home and Online Security. When I'm not writing, I'm probably writing. Loves Game of Thrones, Android OS and Pizza.