Your electronic devices are just like your clothes, furniture, and all other appliances: they tend to pile up over time and become useless.
You might find that you have stacks of wires, manual guides, iPads, phones, computers, monitors, TVs, all splattered across your home, but no one is using it, or caring to use it.
So what happens when you get a pile of your items in your home that you no longer use? You declutter it and get rid of it. You do it with your clothes, so why not do it with your electronic devices?
If you are a little lost on where to start, here is how you can declutter the electronic devices in your home.
Steps To Declutter Electronic Devices In Your Home
Start by Searching your Home
You can’t start decluttering until you’ve located everything in your home first. Take the time out to go through your home and collect all your electronic devices. Spread them out onto your floor and separate them into groups, such as wires, plug-ins, gadgets, phones, computers, monitors, TVs, and so forth. Separating them will help with what comes next.
Break Down the Essentials
It is here that you can decide what you want to keep and what you want to get rid of. There is a simple way to do this: scan all your electronic devices and items, and put them into three categories: Keep, Lose, Maybe.
Think hard about what you want to keep and what you want to throw out. The rest you throw into the ‘Maybe’ pile, which you can leave for now. This box can be saved for later when you’re made your mind up and are sure you don’t need or want, those devices.
Now, we get to the tricky part of decluttering – the organization of your remaining items and the removal of others.
Organise Your Storage
Rather than merely throwing together all your devices or wires into one draw together, categorisation is key here. Separate your items into certain sections, like cameras, computers, cables and so forth, and put them into your drawers or cabinets. When it comes to your devices – cameras, phones, laptops – keep them together with the manuals and keep them in a safe place.
When it comes to wires, nothing is more annoying than having them tangled. It can be a headache to separate. So the trick here is to wrap them up and tie them together, so they are stuck with themselves (think of how you get Apple wires, and they’re neatly tied together).
After that, make sure you label all your wires and cables as soon as you get them. It means you won’t be left with a bunch of unidentifiable cords for years to come.
Remove Data From Your Devices Immediately
While disposing of wires, cords and other electronic items might not be a big concern, disposing of your electronic devices, namely phones, computers, pads and laptops, is a concern for many people.
That reason is simple: we are worried about losing the data stored on there, or private information getting into the wrong hands. You want to make sure that nothing is left on your computer and that you’re safe in the knowledge that disposing or handing off your electronic devices will ensure that your data is secure.
To do so, you can either download specialized software that will really and truly wipe your drive clean or take it to an electronic recycling company in Vancouver that offers data destruction, ensuring that nothing is left over when you hand off your devices. At the same time, you’ll be handing your device to a reliable company that is committed to recycling.
Recycling Your Electronic Devices
While these old gadgets might seem worthless to you, but you may be surprised at how useful and valuable they are to some people, and indeed, to many businesses. It is why we implore you not to throw away your devices, but to look for electronic recycling companies that offer complete recycling services.
Not only will they break down your devices and hand off the parts to other businesses to be reused, but they also give away devices to schools and programs where people need them. Electronic recycling in Vancouver is a fantastic way to reuse your old devices and help the environment at the same time.
Taking these steps will help rid your home of all the unwanted electronic devices you have, as well as doing it safely and securely.
The Electronic Recycling Association (ERA) is a non-profit organization founded in 2004, who’s goal is to reduce e-waste by reusing unwanted computers and related electronic equipment. We create an opportunity for the secondary use of IT equipment by low income, high needs Canadian families and charitable organizations. ERA is represented in most major cities all across Canada such as Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Montreal, and Toronto. We also offer convenient pick-up locations virtually anywhere in Canada.