While moves are frequently touted as a moment to rethink how your organize your possessions, you should also use moves to refresh your digital organization. In today’s world where practically unlimited cloud storage is just a few dollars a month, it may be tempting to allow your digital filing system to simply expand ad infinitum. However, much like physical storage, the cost of digital storage adds up in the long term. Also simply pushing everything to the cloud makes things much harder to find later on. Use this move to refresh your digital organization with the following tips:
- The Purge. Everybody has documents and files that they have downloaded from the internet that sit in their download folder or on their desktop without reason. Now is a good time to go back through your files and look for duplicate or unnecessary files and delete them. You probably won’t miss that screen shot of your online meeting from months ago.
- Hide the Mess. If there are files that you do not know what to do with that clog your desktop or Documents folder, simply create a miscellaneous folder for them and shove them all in. When you start your computer at your new residence, it will feel great having a clean desktop.
- Time Stamp. For every move, I then put all of my files in a folder with the year range that I lived in that residence and put it in the cloud. As I try to find files from my past, I frequently struggle to remember the exact date or the name of the file but I remember where I was living when I was working on that document and that helps me locate it more easily.
During your move, you will likely sort your physical possessions into thing you want to keep or discard. The same should be true for your digital possessions. The same is also true for your obsolete technology. Don’t continue hauling around a broken monitor or a 2nd generation iPhone. Use your time organizing during this move to donate those old devices.
Pick Pack Move 