Do you have unused software and apps cluttering up your devices? If you do, you’re in the right place! In week 36 of the 52-Week Decluttering Challenge, we continue with digital decluttering. This week, we’ll simplify our lives by decluttering apps and software.

Are you ready for week 36? Let’s get decluttering!

This post was originally published in September 2021 and republished in October 2024.

What is the 52-Week Decluttering Challenge?

In this year-long journey, we’re tackling one task at a time with the goal of cleaning up and organizing our homes. If you’ve just joined us, no worries. You can jump right in with this week’s challenge. Just check out the first two posts in the series to download your free checklists.

• 52-Week Decluttering Challenge
• Week 1 – Easy Decluttering Checklist

You can get easy access to all previous weekly posts on the main Decluttering page.

Week 36 – Decluttering unused software and apps

In an increasingly digital world, it’s hard for many people to imagine a time when we didn’t have to worry about storage capacity. But I remember those days well. My first PC had an 80 MB hard drive. Yes that’s 80 megabytes! My current computer has a 1TB hard drive. My iPad has 128 GB. And, my iPhone has 64 GB—that’s almost 1,000 times the storage of that first PC on my phone alone.

When I got that PC, I could never imagine that 30 years later, I’d hold 1,000 times the storage capacity in the palm of my hand. In those days, I used to think very carefully before saving anything and I installed only necessary software.

As storage capability exploded, it became much easier to casually download software and forget about it. That’s why regular decluttering is important.

This week’s decluttering and organizing tips

Before we get to what I got rid of, here are my tips and learnings from week 36.

• If you have iPhone or iPad apps you don’t use but you don’t want to lose your history and progress, you can offload them. I’m a former Candy Crush addict but I haven’t played in over a year. In case I ever decided to pick it up again, I offloaded it so my progress will be there. You can do this in Settings / General / iPad (or iPhone) Storage. Select the app and then select Offload App.
• Before downloading an app, think about whether you’ll use it. I avoid downloading apps if there’s a mobile website I can access with my browser that has similar functionality.
• Save time by organizing apps into folders to make it easier to find things. I cleaned up and organized my iPad apps so now they fit on two pages. The apps I use daily are all on the home screen, so I don’t have to swipe!

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What I got rid of

Overall, my devices weren’t too bad. I got a new iPad last year and I only downloaded apps I use. I find I use my PC less these days, so I didn’t have a lot of software installed that I don’t use.

In total I got rid of 22 items:

• 5 software applications on my PC, totaling 1,408 MB
• 17 apps from my iPad.

My phone is a work phone, so I don’t download many personal apps on it. I didn’t find any apps to get rid of.

2024 Update

It has been three years so I’m rebooting the 52-Week Decluttering Challenge to see how much I can get rid of in 2024.

We got a new laptop earlier this year, so there was no software to clean up on it. I’ve also done a decent job of not downloading unnecessary apps on my iPhone and iPad. In total, I removed 9 apps from my devices—most of them were travel-related apps that I installed during my recent trip to Ireland.

So that’s week 36 done. Next week, we’ll move on to decluttering and organizing our digital files. I’m sure there’s a big opportunity there!

If you have friends or family members who could benefit from a little less clutter in their lives, please share this post and spread the word!

Do you have tips for digital decluttering and keeping your devices clutter free? Tell us your ideas below.