How To! with Mike Pesca How To Declutter Your Digital Life
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Aug 19, 2025 Caitlin McGarry, a Senior Editor at Wirecutter and consumer technology expert, joins to help tackle digital clutter. She shares practical strategies to declutter files and organize photos, emphasizing the balance between emotional attachments and digital minimalism. The discussion includes how to establish effective filing systems and manage overflowing inboxes, while also highlighting the importance of transitioning to cloud storage. Caitlin's insights aim to simplify your digital life, making organization feel achievable and less overwhelming.
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Storage Means Little Without Hierarchy
- Carvell points out that both local drives and cloud storage fail without a clear file hierarchy.
- A single big folder of 'stuff' prevents retrieval regardless of where files are stored.
Do Daily Fifteen-Minute Tidies
- Tackle digital clutter in small daily increments rather than one big 'deep clean'.
- Spend 15–20 minutes a day moving files into folders and deleting obvious junk to reduce overwhelm.
Design Your Folder System First
- Plan a folder structure before you start migrating files by imagining a filing cabinet and naming top-level folders.
- Choose a naming system (dates, projects, people) that matches how your brain searches for files.