How to Spring Clean Your Cell Phone

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Admit it. You're glued to phone. Especially right now. And I am, too, so there's not an ounce of judgement in my tone. When planning content for this year, I wanted to create a series of posts to help you take spring cleaning to another level and think about clearing out clutter beyond just the closets. I've still got you covered with advice for cleaning your closet, though. 🙂 Anyway, I had no idea that a virus would substantially alter life as we know it when charting out the topics to cover. So this post just happens to be pretty timely. Welcome to the first installment of the Dash of Jazz Spring Clean Your Life series. Each week, we'll tackle different things you might not think need spring cleaning but definitely do--from your handbag to your LinkedIn profile, to your finances! But let's start with a quick tutorial on how to spring clean your cell phone, sis.

Sanitize Your Cell Phone

With the recent widespread focus on sanitation and good hygiene habits, cell phone providers have been putting out revised cleaning guidelines. Even if you clean your cell phone regularly, now is as good a time as any to disinfect it. The same goes for your tablet, Apple watch, etc. Here's how to clean your cell phone:

Unplug and power off your device.
Remove the case.
Use a stiff-bristled brush to gently remove any debris from the ear mic and around any buttons/switches.
Wipe down the screen, buttons, and all sides of the device. For this step, you can use an alcohol towelette or a towel/napkin sprayed with an alcohol-based disinfectant.
Wipe down the case and put it back on the phone.

Delete Unused Apps

When evaluating whether to keep or toss an article of clothing from your closet, you typically factor in how much you wear it and the kind of condition it's in. You can apply the same thinking to de-cluttering your smart phone apps. If you haven't used an app in a long time, you probably don't need it on your phone. There are apps that will track app usage for you but we're trying to minimize here, right? Here's how to check out app usage on an iPhone and on an Android device. While you're getting rid of dead weight, leave any group chats that no longer serve you. 🙂

Organize the Remaining Apps

I group my apps based on topics like "house" and "photography" but there are also methods to organize them based on usage or aesthetic. This Business Insider piece breaks it down to a science and organizes over 200 apps on one. single. page.

Organize Your Notes and Photos

Review any notes you've made and check off/delete the completed or irrelevant items in them or even entire notes themselves. Notes are convenient to make and add to on the go but the follow up is key to preventing clutter.
Make use of bullet points and check boxes to organize any lists.
Move old photos to cloud storage to free up memory and make it easier to find those you actually need to refer to and share.

Replace Your Cell Phone Case

If it's scratched, cracked or in any other way shabby, go ahead and replace it. Here are a few cell phone case faves from Amazon:

I hope this helps you spring clean your cell phone easily and keep it at it's best year-round. Let me know if there are any other spring cleaning topics you'd like me to tackle. Thanks for reading!