Cleaning Up Digital Clutter and Unneeded Data

Description

Digital Clutter is unused and unneeded digital files, emails, web pages, and applications.  

It is important to address digital clutter for many reasons: 

• Improve productivity and efficiency 

• Reduce stress and cognitive overload 

• Reduce the risk to data loss and security breaches 

• Reduce the cost to store unneeded data 

• Exceeding storage limits incurs additional costs 

• Environment impact (storing unneeded data uses energy) 

General Best Practices 

Disclaimer:  Users should follow established records retention schedules for one’s unit or office. The following are established retention policies and guidelines that should be consulted before taking actions to remedy digital clutter:

• 93.002: Records Management and Archiving 
• University Compliance: Reminder about Paper and Electronic Records 
• Guidelines for Electronic Mail Retention, Back-up, & Archiving 

Overall Best Practices:

• Identify areas where the individual or department would like to reduce or limit digital clutter. 

  • Areas may include email (Microsoft Exchange), SharePoint, or OneDrive.

  • Sort content by last updated, file size, or last viewed to determine area of focus. 

• Develop a strategy for organization. 

  • Better use of folders, use of email rules/archiving, and/or periodic review of item usage. 

  • Create a naming system for folders that are clear and distinct. 

• Set goals and deadlines for cleanup. 

  • Include reminders, set aside dedicated time in schedules, and have conversations with peers/department to make decisions on items to retain. 

• Use resource lists for Exchange, OneDrive, and SharePoint (below) to learn more.

Note: These best practices can also be generally applied to Network File Storage (Personal and Shared). 

Exchange (Email): 

Storage Usage Visibility

To access your Exchange mailbox usage in Outlook:

1. Go to Outlook on the web.
2. Click the Settings icon (gear) in the top-right corner.
3. Select Account > Storage.
4. You’ll see a breakdown of your mailbox folders and how much space each one uses.
   

Identifying Unused Content

You can identify large, and unused emails by sorting the folders in your inbox.

1. Open the folder you want to review (e.g., Inbox, Sent Items)
2. Press the ↑↓ button to sort your folder
3. Sort by size to see your largest emails at the top of your folder.
4. Review and delete emails that are no longer needed.

Tips and Best Practices

• Archiving Emails – Archived items remain easy to find from the search box or by navigating to the Archive folder.   
• Inbox Rules – Use inbox rules to automatically perform specific actions (such as marking as important, moving to folders or deleting) based on criteria set by the user.   
• Conversation Clean Up – Users can reduce the number of messages in mail folders by eliminating messages that are completely contained within a reply.   
• Regularly empty your Deleted Items and Junk Email folders.

OneDrive:

• Create folders – Users can organize data in folders for easier access by topic or project.  
• Delete Files or Folders – Users can delete files or entire folders.  
• Sort, Rename, or Move Files – Users can sort files by age or size.  

Storage Usage Visibility

To view your OneDrive storage usage:

1. Go to OneDrive on the web.
2. Look at the bottom-left corner for your total storage usage.

Identifying Unused Content

1. Click the blue storage usage link to view your largest files and folders.
2. Folders with an arrow icon are synced with SharePoint and should be avoided.
   1. Deleting items in synced folders will also remove them from the source location.
      
3. Once you select a folder to clean up, sort the contents by “Last Modified” to find files that haven’t been updated in a long time.
   
4. Prioritize deleting older, unused files.

Bulk Deletion Process

To delete files in bulk from OneDrive:

• Navigate to the folder containing files you want to delete.
• Use the checkboxes to select multiple files.
• Click Delete.
• Go to the Recycle Bin to restore or permanently delete files.

SharePoint:

• Delete Files or Folders – Users can delete unneeded or obsolete files from the document library. 
• Delete Old/Unneeded Versions – Users can delete prior versions of documents that have reached their final version status.   

Outcome: Users will have actionable steps and plans for better storing of needed items and will reduce digital clutter in their work spaces.

Have a success story to share? Please considering submitting the Digital Clutter Success Stories form to share your story, insights, and feedback.  

Get help from OIT

• Visit the following pages to create a ticket

  • File Storing and Sharing: Microsoft OneDrive

  • Email: Catmail and Microsoft Outlook (Exchange)

  • Share Digital Workspaces: Microsoft Groups (SharePoint)

• Visit the Technology Resources and Training page for an OIT training