Decluttering: Kitchen Items & Phone & Computer

Kitchen Items

There are a few sections in this category but I had already decluttered most of them when I was first packing up these boxes. There was a few storage containers I definitely won't be getting rid of and a box of kitchen items (which also had some knick knacks in it) for me to go through.  As this mainly contains items I usually use on a daily basis and so there wasn't too much going, so I was surprisingly pleased with the items I did manage to get rid of.

Phone & Computer

Apps

Last year the phone I had been using for about three years died.  And not in a 'oh by the way I'll be gone soon so you might want to save some stuff' way, but in a turn myself off and never turn back on again way.  I decided to not bother getting a new phone as I wanted to look at my contract in the new year and just brought a cheap second hand one to tie me over.  The thing was, it didn't have a lot of storage or memory and that meant I had to be very selective about which apps I put on.  It gave me an opportunity to really look at what I used regularly and which apps I didn't use at all.  Now that I've changed my contact and have a new phone I only have on it the ones I really use.  If I find I stopped using any of them in the future they will go.

Stored Media

I'm not really a photo person anymore and very rarely took photos with my phone (I'm not even entirely sure right now where i've put my camera).  However, during my course I took a lot of photos of the work I was doing and the landscape I was working in.  All of it was taking up precious storage space, but I wanted to keep a number of the photos as I reminder of what I can do.  So, I've actually used my Facebook account for once and uploaded the photos there.  I can now delete everything off my phone and SD card to free up precious space.  All pictures I don't want to keep have been deleted.

Email Inbox

This area has taken quite a while to do, in fact more than a day, and that’s because I have so much in my email account.  The reason is probably because I just shuffle my emails into their set holder or delete them without really paying attention to what I’m doing or how much time this is taking.  I’ve really taken my time on this one, unsubscribing to emails that I no longer read (still have a few to go in this as and when they pop up) and going through my email folders deleting emails or even the folders that are no longer necessary or useful.  I think this will be an ongoing thing in the future and should, hopefully, now take a lot less time then before.

Subscriptions
I’ve never really had a lot of subscriptions so this wasn’t one I had to do too much work on.  The biggest issue I have is trying to read all the information and magazines these subscriptions produce.  There were two that I pay for myself, which are more memberships rather then subscriptions, to the RSPB and the Bat Conservation Trust.  I am keeping these but have asked both of them to make me as paper free as possible with only emails instead of the usual magazines.  Of the two that were gifts I am keeping the subscription to BTO (again paperless and email based) and have stopped the BBC Wildlife magazine subscription, not because it was bad but because I just wasn’t finding it easy to find the time to read it.  It was basically a waste of a gift and that seemed a shame.  I don’t have any other subscriptions so that was it.