Clean Your Virtual Desktop Day: A Guide

Staying organized can keep some of us quite content with the world around us. Feeling serene in our spaces just by putting away a few loose clothes or taking a Swiffer to our now exposed hardwood floor. Many take comfort in clarity, as well as enjoy that “everything in its place” feeling. As our society has a stronger hand in technology and our lives appear to matter more in the online space, we develop a new habit of cleaning. Taking a Swiffer to a computer desktop without damaging the circuit board. A few mouse clicks later, and we’re feeling more peaceful.

It’s early morning and the first thing you do, after you hit the snooze button one more time, is start up your computer. It lights up your face and dilates your pupils as the magical noise from the heavens signals its awakening. This is the moment when we feel a bit of heartache, seeing 30+ photos from our cousin’s wedding lined up on the desktop screen aside the “Important Documents” folder and “Resumes” folder, where you felt too worried to delete “Resume version 4” because maybe the font looked better. Not only is your screen flooded with folders and images, but the amount of screenshots you take in a day could be illegal. A funny scene you saw in a show to send your girlfriend or even a typo you found at work that made you giggle. Our desktops are begging for a tidy up and sort through. 

Did you know the 3rd Monday in October is Clean Your Virtual Desktop Day? We didn’t either, but we’ve joined in to participate with those who are clearing things off their work and home computers. Here are a few easy ways to do it:

Begin by deleting the files you know will never be looked at again. The same thing you tell yourself when you’re tossing a t-shirt from high school, “I won’t even miss it when it’s gone.” Then you sort by category, maybe even make a “Screenshots” folder for those moments you would care enough to look back on. Once you have deleted and sorted into folders, it’s all smooth sailing from there. Choosing a sorting method is a bonus: color, title, importance? And the most magical of all, the trash can. Empty that can of all that you have sent to it, listen for the incredibly satisfying sound as you right-click and delete. Your desktop is now clean and breathing, taking in the open space around its icons and feeling much more at peace than before. Change the background if you so desire; you’ll be able to see its hardwood floors now. 

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