Do you have any idea what is on your computer? We’re talking programs, temp files, support files, toolbars, updates, coupon printer software, registrations, enhancements and even downloads you used once a long time ago. Yeah, us either. Let’s be honest, most of us don’t know even know what half of those are.
You’re not alone.
There are so many files on your computer (likely in the folders you pass over all the time) that are sitting on your hard drive, taking up room and even running in the background. This slows everything down and takes up room.
We’re purging all month and the computer isn’t exempt. If it’s not helping us, it’s hindering us so GET RID OF IT!
YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE A COMPUTER GENIUS
There are so many ways you can get rid of the unnecessary files that take up memory and they are easy. All you have to know is if you have a Mac or a PC. If that question even has you wrinkling your forehead, an apple = Mac. Everything else is a PC. There, that was easy.
We’ll provide multiple SIMPLE ways to clean your hard drive. All resources will be summarized at the end with a list of links (in case you missed them the first time through).
DELETING FILES MANUALLY
A very simple way, and something that should be done on a regular basis, is disk cleanup. It’s already on your computer and it is a simple process. But no matter how simple someone says a task is, there are always questions. We’re famous for having a question that is NEVER found on a list of FAQs. WikiHow walks you through the disk cleanup step-by-step for a PC with images included. Bless their hearts for what they’ve done. Then, there’s the hard drive cleaning and physical cleaning of your PC. Don’t be intimidated by the wording if you’re not the computer savvy type. Just follow the steps and you’ll be just fine. “Shhhh shhhh shhh shhh, there-there, it’s okaaaay”. Hey, it calms my 5-year old son; I figured it would calm you, too.
FILES TO REMOVE AND FILES TO KEEP
Unless you are some computer genius or you built your own, there’s no way to know every little thing about all the programs and files you have on your computer. Some support programs you use on a daily basis while others are parts of a program you may have deleted a long time ago. It’s just taking up space. We’ve run across a FREE program for PC called Should I Remove It? It tells you exactly that. This is like a treasure hunt. Or better yet, a way of reflecting on what you’ve been doing on your computer. Sometimes our downloads get tricky and install a bunch of crap on our computer that we don’t want.
SOFTWARE FOR FILE CLEANUP AND ORGANIZATION
Talk about simple. There’s software you can download for a very reasonable price (none over $30) and even FREE that will constantly run on your computer and organize as you go. When you’re looking for a file, you don’t have to try and remember where you saved it, you just go to the folder you know it should be in and BOOM, it’s there. Think of these programs as a super-assistant. Everything you do on your computer just magically ends up in the right place without any effort on your part (after setup).
If you have a Mac: Hazel is “Automated organization for your Mac”.
- Hazel allows you to set up rules (tell it what to do), make comments on your files, color-code your files and tell her to archive in a way that works best for your brain. She’s quite a lady, that Hazel. The Hazel software is $28, which is a one-time fee, and it does all the work for you. As far as we know, Hazel is the be-all, end-all for Mac. Nobody seems to want to take the ol’ broad on.
If you have a PC: Belvedere, FileJuggler and DropIt are options.
- Belvedere allows you to set rules so your files go where you want them but the maximum amount of rules, at last check, was six. If you use the rules wisely, you can organize the rest on your own. Just find your trouble spots (after the disk cleanup) and assign rules to those. Belvedere is FREE.
- FileJuggler works in a similar way as Belvedere and is being compared to Hazel for Mac (refer to the paragraph right above this one). The FileJuggler software is $25 but they do offer a 30 day free trial so you can test it out.
- DropIt does claim to have a lot of features and is simple to download. DropIt is also FREE (they do ask for a donation if you feel so inclined – not mandatory). You can customize the options within the software to show you what it’s doing by showing you a progress bar or you can disable it knowing that it’s doing work in the background and you don’t have to deal with it.
CLEANING OUT YOUR EMAIL
This is a whole new project, wouldn’t you agree? Patti walks you through email organization and purging HERE. It’s less of a task than you might think and it’s totally necessary.
FINDING A PLACE FOR PHOTOS AND IMAGES
Photos take up a ton of room on your hard drive. Especially with all the selfies we take in one day. What? Don’t tell me you don’t flip that phone camera around to snap a shot of yourself because you think you owe it to the world. Is that just me? Whoops.
If you sync your phone with your computer, your images have to go somewhere. For iPhone users, you can put those photos on iCloud. I have yet to talk with someone who has plenty of room on iCloud for their images without paying extra. I upgraded one time and refuse to do it again.
If you upload photos from your camera on to your computer, you can literally see your hard drive shrink in memory. I was using DropBox but, again, I was having to continuously upgrade to make enough room for everything. It’s expensive!
Our solution: External hard drive and/or flash drives. It may seem old school for some but we can’t justify spending $20 or more to hold photos we will need access to maybe once – in about 10 years. While it’s not the case for all our photos, it’s the case for most of them.
We’ve purchased an external hard drive which is (in simple terms), a piece of equipment you plug into your computer. Just drag the images over to the folder created by the hard drive. It’s like packing your images in a box and taking it to storage – just digitally.
Viola, you’ve freed space on your computer. You can do the same with flash drives.
Once you’ve completed your necessary steps for cleaning, you can sit back knowing that you’ve eliminated the crap on your computer and you’re ready to add more to it!
Summary of links:
Every day, the first thing I look at when I log on to my computer is my home page. I have been using iGoogle for a really long time. It was so simple because I could add apps to the page that had all my blog feeds, bookmarks, entertainment news, regular news and even quick reference stories. It’s my lifeline.
Last year, Google announced that iGoogle would be going away on November 1, 2013. That seemed like forever so I didn’t think much about it. My response is typically “I’ll get to it after this…”.
Well, this Friday is November 1, 2013. Turns out, forever eventually gets here.
Naturally, I’m figuring something out very last minute. True to form, I finally try something that has been talked about for a while now, it’s easy to set up and I stay up late customizing it. That’s how I roll. The thing that has been talked about is called NetVibes.
Pre-planning just isn’t my thing. There’s no adrenaline or stress. That’s no fun.
I have just finished adding my favorite feeds (and, eh hem, entertainment news sites) to my home page.
It’s All Customizable
You can choose all your apps (feeds, information, to do lists, etc), the color of your background, the color of your header, the theme, the setup and the color of each of your app title bars. You can ALSO change the layout and it’s all drag and drop. So. Easy.
Take a Peek at My Apps
Choosing what works best for you is essential. I wouldn’t typically share what I have on my page because it doesn’t really benefit you. However, being a very visual person and someone who needs to see the “big picture” before doing anything, I thought I’d share a little peek at my home page so you can determine whether or not this is a good fit for you.
I have now set my personal NetVibes account to be my home page (see instructions below if you don’t know how to do this). Once I get used to having it, I’ll probably move things around and either add or delete apps. I can already think of things I’ll need like recipes and beauty tips. Hey, don’t judge. I am a total know-it-all. I don’t like being left out of the loop.
It’s Free
No explanation needed. Sign up for the personal account…unless you’d like to do more.
What are you using that makes online life easier?
Instructions on how to set any website as your home page:
Go to the website of your choice. May I recommend organizedCHAOSonline or our feed on Bloglovin? Oh, look at that…I just did.
Once you are currently on the site you’d like to have pop up every time you open your browser (Firefox, Chrome, Safari), go to the tab at the top of your page. It’s typically on the top left. You’ll see a drop down menu. Here’s what you do next:
- Click OPTIONS
- You’ll see another OPTIONS. Click that.
- You have now clicked OPTIONS and then OPTIONS
- Under the GENERAL tab, you’ll see a section labeled STARTUP
- Just look for “Set my home page as” and a place to enter the web address (URL)
- Enter the web address and click SAVE
- Just like that, you did it.
This is what it looks like in Firefox
As always, if you have any questions, just comment below and we’ll do our best to help you. Being confused is the worst! No question is a dumb question. At least that’s what we tell ourselves because we’re the ones usually asking those questions. Also we are strongly recommend one of the our parner from India, they supply medical products to USA at low prices, there is website BuyMD.org
We all know ‘ctrl + C’ for ‘copy’ and ‘ctrl + V’ for ‘paste’ but what other shortcuts will save us time as we’re maneuvering through our 10 billion windows that include social media, blogs, work and a little research? Seriously, at any one time, I’ve got at least 10 tabs open. It’s so ridiculous.
Search your entire computer (files and all)
Find words, phrases and, really, anything else within the page you are currently using. Just hit the command and fill in the blank box that pops up.
Make a mistake? Click the command and BOOM. Never happened.
Walking away from your computer or in a public place? This quick command will lock your screen instantly.
With multiple tabs open, you’re likely referencing a couple at a time. Instead of clicking each one, you can click the alt + tab command and quickly toggle between screens to open the one you want in just one swift move.
Whoops! You closed a window and don’t have the link or URL? Click the above command and, like magic, an open tab will recall what you just closed and open it again.
You can freeze what you’re seeing on the screen…like ALL of it or you can just take a snapshot of the window you’re viewing. It’s much better than capturing all the personal deets of your desktop, right?
A lot of times, you can be reading a story or news source that contains an active link and want to know more. You probably right click your mouse and ‘open in new tab’. The problem is that the new tab pops open and you need to go back to the original story you were reading. By pushing ‘ctrl’ before ‘open in new tab’ the new tab will open but will be running in the background. You can reference it later. As in, when you’re ready.
Want to know more? Was the ‘ctrl + C’ news to you? We found 100 more keyboard shortcuts that can be useful. Find them HERE.
Isn’t life funny? Back in the old days people wrote letters and sent them in the mail to keep in touch. Whaaat? Then the digital world happened and we were able to send cards online and our letters were replaced with email. With technology growing and our lives becoming more fast-paced, we were opting for quicker communication tools. For the most part, it worked. The only downside was that although the thought was still there, that personal touch became lost in the process.
Now that the generic online card sending novelty has worn off a bit, people are seeking out ways to combine the past and the present by using services that allow efficiency but still provide the personalization options.
Below is an excerpt from our eBook that gives you a few resources for sending personalized cards and invitations online…
Personalized Cards
Even with the convenience of our digital world, there’s still nothing like receiving a personally written card in the mail, but quite honestly, most of us don’t have the time. We’ve found a happy medium that we love. We use SendOutCards. This company lets you create cards online and even upload your own handwriting. It’s the coolest thing! We make cards online and then SendOutCards prints the cards and sends the hard copy to our chosen recipient. You can also choose gifts, candles, gift cards and more to be sent with your card, and they take care of it all for you. The reason we’re such big fans is that SendOutCards also doubles as a customer management system. When you send the card, your customer’s name address, birthday, anniversary, etc is saved in the built in address book. You are given the option to have reminders sent to you in advance of the occasions you’ve stored with your customer or friends’ contact information so that you can get a card created and sent. It works like a charm and it’s all self-contained!
Paperless Post is another site we use. At one time, it was 100% digital cards and invitations. The digital card would be emailed and upon opening it, the message would be displayed in really creative ways. Now, Paperless Post is offering actual paper cards. Sure, it goes against their name “Paperless” but it’s another great option to connect.
Invitations and Guest Tracking
You can also use Paperless Post for invitations and even to sell tickets for a larger than personal event. These invitations aren’t free but there are a couple of options that are free.
evite. It’s a long-time email/digital invitation website. You can send email invitations for anything from a small birthday party to an annual business event. Your “Yes,” “No,” and “Maybe” guests will be tracked, comments can be made, and reminders can be sent out. It’s a very simple site to use.
Equally as simple is Punchbowl which offers party invites (via email) as well as digital cards. Punchbowl partners with some bigger companies, so this site tends to lean toward a blog type of resource listing the top invites, trends and tips as well as offering email invitations and digital cards (for a fee).
For more tips and tricks, resources and how-to’s to for becoming efficient and learning ways to simplify your small business, download Take Your Business Online
If you have any questions, just comment below. We respond to ALL comments!
We were so excited, and so spent, after completing our new book, “How to Get Your Business Online” that we posted it on Pinterest, our website, Instagram, etc, but totally forgot to introduce it to you. Duh! We’ve spent months pouring our blood, sweat and tears into this resource guide for you, the small business owner. Drawing from the mistakes we’ve made in the past starting our own businesses, we’ve compiled a ton of detailed instructions and resources to help you get your small business up and running including tips to get your business seen online.
Editing, editing editing…
The more we edited, the more content we added. Our goal was to have “How to Take Your Business Online” be the only resource you’ll need to get your business up and running. While writing this guide, our focus was on providing solutions to obstacles that may be preventing your business from having an online presence.
After months and months of development, we finally completed what we think is a totally kick-ass business start up guide. By the time “How to Take Your Business Online” was finished, our little guide had turned into sixteen chapters!
Formatting, formatting, formatting
Our book is written in layman’s terms, not techie language. It’s written for the normal, everyday, limited computer-skilled business person. Even if you spend very little time on the computer, with the help of this guide, you can still get your business online, set up and be active on Pinterest, Twitter, and Facebook, and learn how to market your business, completely on your own, all for zero dollars!
We are so proud to present…
How To Take Your Business Online
a simple guide written in layman’s terms
Featuring…
- Step by step instruction on how to get your business started TODAY on a $0 budget!
- Sixteen chapters of simple, easy to follow explanations with lots of visuals
- Packed full of downloads, printables, and resources!
The entire book is beautifully formatted for printing, including cover and section dividers. Print your pages and put them in a 3-ring binder to keep at your desk. You’ll find you’ll refer to the hundreds of resources provided in this book over and over again.
The Online Business Start-up System eBook includes everything you’ll need to take your business online.
Get it TODAY! We promise you won’t be disappointed!
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For more details and a look at some sample pages, visit the eBook section on our website
HERE.
If you have business start-up questions, please ask them in the comment section below. We love questions, and we love hearing from you. We reply to ALL comments.
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Thanks for reading our blog. We just love ya!
