Ask HN: Approaches to decluttering a disorganised digital hoard? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Approaches to decluttering a disorganised digital hoard?

2 pointsphs318u7 comments

My partner has ADHD and recently started on medication to help her focus. She wants to declutter her “digital hoard”. Multiple mailboxes with 24K unread messages (and many more read). Multiple drives, folders, online storage, across which she had loads of similar (sometimes duplicate) content, not grouped by theme, subject or project. Myriad notes across paper, phone, emails and other apps. I’ve tried to help her by at least syncing her iPhone and MacBook. Shown her how to begin the process of unsubscribing and deleting big chunks of her inbox. But I’m at a loss of how to even begin with the rest. I have my own techniques which I’ve evolved over years drawing on things like GTD, zero inbox etc. Has anyone else helped someone start this long road and how did you do it? Any advice gratefully appreciated!

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In effect, start fresh. Archive all mail and empty the mailboxes. Emails are files. Now, take all unsorted files and move them to a big external drive (with a backup plan).

I read that many young people have no concept of a folder or directory. They search. I search. You can keep the old drives as emergency backups.

Anything in frequent use can go to or stay in the customary home tree.

This is how I clean my dresser drawer.

1. I really need this. 2. It goes in a box. Repeat.

The worst deal for me is photos. After infinite years[0], Apple has really ludicrous image search. There should be free or cheap Image Categorization on desktops, safe from Google and others. and not locked in some file tree where leaf nodes are dates, or database. (Rant deleted)

Sorting and finding would be infinitely easier, like those files and emails above.

I am sorting books, because, like a bookshelf, I prefer to go somewhere and browse rather than search. Collections are pretty static and 1:1, so tags, which allow multiple values per file, are not really needed, but photos tend to be re-grouped from time to time and tags would be fine. If automated.

In a bit of irony, I am replacing purchased tree books with digital, preparing for a move. The books were perfectly organized but very heavy. My book directory re-org starts with them, because they were/are priority, worthy of shelf space, earned just before the previous move.

[0] It only FEELS like infinity.

Delete it all. Helping her declutter it is validating the hoarding. She needs to make that step to realize that the hoarding accomplishes nothing and there is no consequence to not hoarding.

This is good advice in general when it comes to decluttering. I'm one who has a hard time getting rid of stuff but I've yet to deal with any real problems because I got rid of it. The bottom line is that you can replace or ignore most clutter and no, most likely, you won't fix broken stuff or use clothing that does not fit and have ignored for years.

I know of a guy that had a bunch of boxes in the garage that sat unopened for a very long time after a move. He got all of them and sent them to the dump without opening them. He was better for it, got rid of a mess and never missed it.

The best thing you can do is hit delete.

There is a big problem these days with viewing digital hoarding as distinct from normal hoarding because the hoarder's home is not cluttered, only their computer, but the effect is the same and there is no difference when it comes to the hoarder.

Digital Hoarding is a symptom not a disease. But even in disease if symptom is problematic then we have problem

What does she hoard? Non sense tiktok videos, if these are research paper. It's not only smart it's awesomely genius to hoard on digital intellectual. The mind of genius

Don't ask if it's wrong, ask how is it wrong

> It's not only smart it's awesomely genius to hoard on digital intellectual. The mind of genius

Its not. You will never ever ever read the things you collect, or even search through it. And for that 0.000001% chance you do need one specific needle from that haystack and you can even remember having that needle, you can use the internet to find it. Because chances are you arent going to find it in the terabytes of shit you hoarded.

You're not a dragon, so don't hoard shit.

That's exactly how car mechanics workspace is like. It's a mess but they only use a tool every year , but they hoard them all haha

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