Declutter your Apps in 15 minutes!

Day 4 of the Digital Declutter Challenge

I picked up my daughter’s iPhone the other day to look for a specific app. I could not believe how many PAGES of apps she had. Pages!  It was 5 full pages of apps on her phone. My immediate thoughts:

• “How is this possible?” 
• “What in the world are all of these apps for?”
• “Do you just spend all day scrolling through the pages of your apps trying to find what you are looking for?” 
• “How are you going to function in the world? I have failed you as a mother!”(We may have a flare for drama over here in this house.)

Now, having a 15 year old is a bit like having an unpredictable wild animal in your home. If I say these thoughts out loud she might bite my head off. Or, she might just ignore me and go back to her hibernation status in her room. I knew I needed to tread lightly.

So after my initial shock, I asked her how she organized all of her apps (nicely…carefully). She replied, “I know where everything is. You’re the crazy one with all of your folders. How do YOU find anything?” Well, there you have it.

Two Types of People

My conclusion from this interaction: There are two types of people in the world- People who organize and categorize all their apps onto one page in tiny little folders with labels. (Normal people, like me.)  The second type of people are those with no organization whatsoever, but they know exactly where to find it (weirdos, like my daughter… I kid, I kid!)  Seriously, I’m sure there’s a middle ground, but from this one interaction I drew a conclusion about the whole world so hear me out.

How to Organize

Like any system of organization, you have to find what works for you.  I like to be able to see all of my apps on one page. They are tiny though, and as I get closer to 40 they keep shrinking on me! To combat this, I leave my MOST USED apps out of folders so I can find them quicker. I have 13 folders and 12 apps total on my page and it all fits on one page.

For my daughter, she organizes chronologically. In her mind, she knows when she downloaded the app. Her most used apps are at the end. It works for her, and she was not interested in changing her system. However, she did agree that if she deleted some of her unused apps it might make it easier to find the apps that she now uses more regularly. It’s a start!

15 Minute Challenge

For the 15 minute challenge during the 7 Day Digital Declutter Challenge, I want you to simply find apps that you do not use anymore and delete them. Similarly, I would also delete apps that you use only once in a while (like airline apps if you don’t travel much.) iPhones will give you an option of “delete app” or “remove from home screen.” If I think I’m going to use that app again in the future, I “remove from home screen.” iPhone helps me streamline this process by automatically putting apps that I haven’t used in a while in the cloud. If there’s a little cloud icon by the app, I know I haven’t refreshed it in a while so it’s on the chopping block.  Like the other 15 minute challenges, you are deleting off the excess as quickly as you can!

Organize By Category

I recommend organizing your apps into folders. I have 13 folders on my phone, and then I have my most used apps separated out from the folders. On my first screen I added the “iPhone widgets” feature which is great. I can instantly see my calendar, the weather, my Spotify list, and the news without having to open any apps. In total, I have two iPhone screens, 13 folders, and about 12 single apps. This helps me get to where I’m going quickly and I feel that I’m using my phone most efficiently.

My Categories

Apple will suggest categories if you start to group things together. To organize your apps into categories, hold your finger down on any app for about a second and choose “Edit Home Screen.” From here, you can delete, categorize, and organize your home screen to your liking. For a more detailed tutorial this is the official one from Apple. I use some of their suggested category headings, but I have added my own too. Here are the categories on my phone currently, and you can feel free to steal these for your own organization:

How do you organize your apps? Are you a one screen iPhone app organizer or do you like to see all of your apps spread out? Let me know how you organize and if there is something really cool that I need to know about. Good luck on Day 4 of the 7 Day Digital Declutter Challenge and let me know how the challenge is going for you so far!

To Read more About the 7 Day Digital Declutter Challenge here are Days 1-3:

Day 1: How to Declutter and Organize Your Digital Photos

Day 2: How To Declutter Your Email

Day 3: How To Declutter Your Contact List

Make sure you are following The Organized Military Life on all the social channels, and head over to The Organized Military Life FaceBook group where I will be running live challenges and dropping in to say hello. Happy Organizing!