Day 28 – 30 Day House Cleaning Challenge: Email and Phone cleanup

Email and Phone Cleanup


It’s Day 28 of the “30 Day House Cleaning Challenge” and you have almost reached the end of your journey.

It’s not been a piece of cake, I know. But by breaking down all your house cleaning tasks into small manageable bits, you have finally managed to restore order and cleanliness to your house. And it feels awesome, right?

As we wind down with this series, there are only a few minor things that are left to be done that often get ignored or put off. One of them is cleaning up your electronic data!

I highly recommend doing this on a regular basis – for example, every time that you check your mail, or a daily /weekly cleanup in case of phone data. But, there will be days when you will slacken and miss doing stuff. And all that you miss out, gets cleared out today.

Now, if you already have a system in place that takes care of this, today’s tasks may not be relevant to you. So, you can either catch up on anything you’ve missed or just take a break! It’s really okay to do that sometimes.

Day 28: Email and Phone cleanup and backup

Email and Phone CleanupMost people seldom bother to clear up their email inboxes or phone data unless they reach the maximum limit/capacity. And once you reach that stage, it’s just too overwhelming.

We all receive tons of emails everyday, and often most of this is spam. If you don’t take care of these emails on a regular basis, they are just going to multiply in your inbox and overwhelm you. Now I know this is not really related to “House Cleaning,” but it needs to be done.

Spend today’s day sorting and cleaning out your inbox and phone data. And don’t forget to backup any important data to your computer/laptop or any external drive!

Important Note:

Keep in mind that the time it takes you to complete the tasks, and the order in which you do them, depends entirely on you. It depends on your skill, your working style, the time that you can afford to put in each day, the size of your rooms and your cleanliness standards.
So, whatever you do, don’t get overwhelmed and work at your own pace. It doesn’t matter if you take a bit longer to complete the challenge.
Do whatever works for you – skip certain tasks, add others. But, just clean something!
Also be sure to check the notes at the end, for some useful tips to help you stay on track and save time cleaning.

Today’s Cleaning Plan

Daily Cleaning Tasks: Keep that daily routine going and use a checklist to stay on track!!

Weekly Cleaning Tasks: Surface clean the Extra Room as you usually do.

Monthly Deep Cleaning tasks

  • Clear out your Inbox –
    Clear out all spam and promotional messages from your inbox, if you haven’t done so on a regular basis.
    This is also a good time to block any promotional emails or unsubscribe to email lists that you no longer wish to be on. (Not mine, I hope! )
    Backup any old stuff onto your laptop or external hard drive and organize them into folders in a way that you can easily find them later.

    If you have more than one email address, you can clear them all out today or carry some to another day. Also, remember to take frequent breaks to give your eyes and mind a rest!

  • Clean up your phone
    Before you begin, backup all your data and wipe down the phone and the cover/case to physically clean it. Wipe any dust, streaks and fingerprints off using a clean micro-fiber cloth.
    Clear out videos, photos, audio files etc. that you no longer need – from your gallery as well as WhatsApp media files and the Downloads folder. Delete any old apps that you no longer use. Clear out your cache.

    And again, remember to take frequent breaks to give your eyes and mind a rest!

  • Wash bed linen: Wash any remainder bed linen that you were unable to deal with last week. Once it is all washed and dry, fold all the linen neatly and put away in the linen cupboard.

Email and Phone cleanup Download your Day 28 Checklist here

Tips to remember during the 30 Day House Cleaning Challenge

    1. Before you begin, gather all the necessary tools and keep them ready. You could get yourself a cleaning caddy or just use a basket or box.
    2. Decide on a specific amount of time that you can/will spend cleaning and set a timer. Work as quickly as you can within this time and don’t get distracted. (Except if it’s an emergency of some kind!)
    3. Start cleaning from the top of the room and work your way down. This will prevent dust falling on surfaces that you have already cleaned.
    4. Work from one side of the room to the other side, in a systematic matter, so that you don’t miss any spots.
    5. When the timer goes off, stop working! You can catch up with what you have missed during your next cleaning session.
    6. Use checklists to track your progress and to ensure that you don’t miss out anything. Checklists are especially useful in instances where you cannot complete a task and need to reschedule it.



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