The Steps To Declutter Photos on Your Phone
I’m passionate about improving your wellbeing - just like physical clutter, digital clutter adds a whole new level of stress and anxiety to our lives. Digital decluttering puts you back in control of your device, and renders it back to being a supportive tool. If you’re overwhelmed by the thousands of photos taking up space on your phone, and don’t know where to start, I’ve written this post just for you! Here are my steps to get started…
Commit - how much time do you want to allocate every day to getting it done? Have a limit of 30 minutes - otherwise your neck and back won’t forgive you!
Set your vision for using and managing these photos: how do you see yourself using these images in the future? How many photos is manageable for you? Fast forward to the age of 80… will you be showing your grandchildren and family friends photos in your thousands on a laptop? Or through carefully curated photo albums sitting beautifully on the shelf?
Be mindful of adding to your camera roll as you commit to the process of decluttering photographs. When you’re tempted to take a photograph, ask yourself: is this necessary to be ‘captured’ right now? Or is this an opportunity to be present? An opportunity to have faith in myself that I will remember this without the need for technological intervention.
If you are going to take a photograph to capture the moment, limit yourself to an amount you’re happy with. Start with 5, move to 3 and then just take ONE. Be happy with that: even if the eyes of the people you’re capturing are closed, even if the landscape is blurry. Is that a big move forward? You bet! But your future photo curating self will thank you big time!
Before you begin going through your photos, take a note of your starting amount - the ‘before’. Consider keeping a progress list, where you write down how many photos you say goodbye to on each occasion. This serves as a good motivator. It’s really difficult to feel the progress you’re making with digital photos, as it takes a long time to free up digital space compared to physical space. Cleaning out your camera roll doesn’t always provide the same satisfaction as clearing out a cupboard don’t it?!…
Be curious, not furious! Don’t let your starting number of photos derail you from making a commitment to doing something about it. If you’re furious with yourself that you’ve taken so many photos up until this point, this can stall you in your tracks. Declutter with a positive mindset, rather than berate yourself for your lack of organisation in the past. Be kind to yourself and you will move forward.
Schedule when you’re going to do this - on the commute? A set time every day? Perhaps you can set a reminder on your phone to prompt you into your camera roll decluttering action.
Start with screenshots - you can use the ‘screenshots’ folder to support you with this step, without getting distracted by the rest of the content in your camera roll. Go into ‘photos’, scroll down past your albums and you will find ‘screenshots’. Another good starting point using this feature is to look at ‘selfies’ and ‘live photos’. These folders within the mass on photos are a good starting point because they allow you to take focused action within one photo area.
Wave 1: Start easy and get rid of blurry images. Look back through your photos (most recent first) with an eye for error. Say goodbye to poor photos that are blurry, bad quality or are now redundant. By just focusing on this technique, you may surprise yourself when you’re able to discard a lot of ‘junk’ photos in a relatively short amount of time.
Wave 2: focus on duplicates. Open the Photos app on your iPhone. Tap the icon labeled ‘Albums’ at the bottom of your screen. Scroll down to the section titled ‘Utilities,’ then select ‘Duplicates. When you’re faced with multiple images of the same thing, you may be able to select 1 or 2 that really bring you joy, therefore reducing your overall amount of photos in your camera roll.
Wave 3: lead with joy, mark any of your favourite photos with a heart. Once you have said goodbye to the blurry poor quality images and the duplicates, now you’ve paved the way to find the joy! When you mark your favourite images with a heart, which you will find underneath the image.
As you establish a photo criteria for what you want to keep by choosing your favourites, go through the rest asking if the photo sparks joy. Does it highlight your life story? Does it serve a purpose? Is it worthy enough to go into an album one day?
Next steps: still struggling to make good progress and hold yourself accountable? There are apps to help you such as GetSorted, or professionals like me to keep you accountable to achieving your camera roll decluttering goals. I’ve designed a course to help you achieve this. You can find information about my course here.
I hope the above steps can help you in your dedication to reduce the photos you’ve accumulated. A world of more digital storage, less money spent on storage, more headspace and less reliance on capturing the moment with a photo awaits you. When you deal with the excess successfully in this way, it has the power to change your photo-taking habits moving forward. Less means so much more.
Scroll down past your albums and you will find your screenshots folder.
You can mark your favourites with a heart.