Computer Clean Up

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I don't know about you but it seems like I get a notification about my computer/phone storage all the freaking time. As much of a pain as it can be, cleaning up your computer and freeing up storage on the start up disk is so important. During my freshman year my computer crashed and I lost everything on it... a week before exams. Thankfully I was able to send it to a data recovery center and they recovered it all, but that did come at a hefty price. After that debacle I really learned my lesson about managing storage and backing everything up. So, here are a few of my tips that will help you effectively manage storage.

Get a hard drive // I think that this is the most important thing that you can do because if your computer was to crash all of your photos and files would be recoverable. Also, once you back up your computer, you can delete things as they are saved on the hard drive.

Use Google Drive // Google docs are amazing, period. We have been using google drive since my freshman year at school, but it wasn't until my junior year that I abandoned word, PowerPoint, and excel completely. Not only is it great to have everything available from any computer, but you can have your friends make edits on the document and share it with teachers to submit it.

Clear Your History // I never knew that your computer stores all of your internet history and that it took up a ton of storage until about a year ago when I was looking at the break down of my storage usage. This simple task can quickly clear up lots of space, especially if you were like me and rarely ever cleared your history.

Delete/Unsubscribe From Emails // Managing your email inbox can be quite the challenge, so I suggest taking this step gradually. Recently I have been unsubscribing from emails every time I get one from somewhere unnecessary. Additionally, I delete all of my emails once I have read/responded to them or if they are junk.

Organize iPhoto // One of the best things that I have ever done on my computer is organize my photos. I have an album for each year of high school, summers, big vacations, and blog pictures. This helps you quickly access images, and manage the photos. I try to only keep my favorite images on my computer as pictures take up a ton of storage. Also, make sure to delete duplicates that may be in random folders on your desktop, along with lengthy videos.

Empty Trash & Power Down // Nothing is gone until you empty the trash on your desktop.

I hope this post was helpful and gave you a few new tips for clearing up storage before the new school year! On a side note, if anyone has nay idea what "other" is on a mac storage please let me know because I have 55 GB of it and have spent over a year trying to figure out what it is. Has anyone else had this problem?

xoxo,

Catherine

Preppy by the Sea