3-Day Digital Declutter Guide | Professional Organizer Explains with Tara Bremer

Summary

Frugal Friends Podcast: 3-Day Digital Declutter Guide | Professional Organizer Explains with Tara Bremmer

Release Date: June 27, 2025

In this enlightening episode of the Frugal Friends Podcast, hosts Jen Smith and Jill Sirianni delve into the often-overlooked realm of digital clutter. Joined by professional organizer Tara Bremmer, the trio explores practical strategies to streamline your digital life, ultimately fostering financial control and mental well-being through effective decluttering.

---

1. Introduction to Digital Decluttering

Jen and Jill kick off the episode by highlighting their personal struggles with digital clutter. Jen humorously shares her chaotic home screen as a testament to the pervasive nature of digital disorganization.

Jen: "You should see the home screen I have. Well, yeah, you have. Hopefully by the time this releases it won't be. But it is a hot mess right now."
Timestamp: [03:05]

---

2. The Impact of Digital Clutter

The discussion underscores how digital clutter can be as financially and mentally burdensome as physical disorganization. Jen points out the hidden costs, such as time wasted searching for information and unnecessary subscriptions draining budgets.

Jen: "What are some of the actual costs of some of this digital clutter?"
Timestamp: [12:43]

Jill: "But I think also the cost is time not being able to find what you need."
Timestamp: [13:47]

---

3. Tara Bremmer’s Expertise and Insights

Tara Bremmer, CEO of House Peace, brings her extensive background in psychology and counseling to the discussion, emphasizing the psychological aspects of decluttering. Her approach integrates mental well-being with organizational strategies, making her insights invaluable for listeners.

Jen: "She holds a BA in Psychology from Purdue and she also has a master's in Counseling from Moravian Theological Seminary."
Timestamp: [05:20]

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4. Strategies for Digital Decluttering

a. Email Decluttering

Tara emphasizes the importance of tackling the most stressful aspects of digital clutter first—emails. She suggests unsubscribing from unnecessary newsletters and using filters to manage incoming messages.

Jill: "I think that just doing mass deletions like that ... And that will be probably hundreds. And I will do that with Amazon."
Timestamp: [18:19]

Jen: "I have my 20,000 emails, I've got my 20,000 probably pictures."
Timestamp: [14:28]

b. Photo Decluttering

Photos often accumulate unnoticed, creating significant digital clutter. Tara recommends using apps like Tidy Gallery, which gamify the deletion process, making it both efficient and enjoyable.

Jill: "It's swipe left to delete, swipe right to keep like a, like a dating app. It's Tinder for your pictures."
Timestamp: [26:21]

Jen: "It's so perfect. It's boundaries, it's fun, it's productive."
Timestamp: [49:10]

c. Organizing Devices

Streamlining the apps on your phone and organizing desktop folders are critical steps. Tara advocates for limiting the number of visible folders to reduce overwhelm and enhance accessibility.

Jill: "I like to keep just the apps I use all the time on the front page... everything is in folders."
Timestamp: [32:44]

Jen: "What's the three folders on your desktop, like on your home?"
Timestamp: [36:05]

Jill: "My three folders are House Peace, My Business, Family, and House Therapy."
Timestamp: [36:10]

d. Privacy Measures

Implementing privacy screens on devices can minimize distractions and protect personal information, aligning with the principles of digital minimalism.

Jen: "How do you like your screen, like, privacy screen on your phone."
Timestamp: [30:37]

Jill: "This is like my greatest life hack for, like, kids or public transportation."
Timestamp: [31:21]

---

5. Maintenance Routines for Long-Term Success

Tara advises establishing personal rules and regular maintenance schedules to sustain the benefits of decluttering. Writing down these rules ensures they remain top of mind and are consistently followed.

Jill: "If you establish some rules for yourself, that can be really helpful... write them down."
Timestamp: [37:13]

---

6. Gamifying the Decluttering Process

To make decluttering less daunting, Tara introduces the concept of "Eat and Delete"—a fun, social activity where participants delete digital clutter while enjoying a meal together. This method fosters community and makes the process enjoyable.

Jill: "Sometimes I need to do... called Eat and Delete... we'd all bring our phones out... there's a prize for whoever deletes the most photos and video."
Timestamp: [28:00]

Jen: "It's boundaries, it's fun, it's productive."
Timestamp: [49:10]

---

7. Additional Tips and Tools

Beyond the primary strategies, Tara recommends exploring other apps and resources to aid in digital decluttering. She highlights the importance of customization based on individual needs and preferences.

Jill: "There are some other ones... you could just do a little search. Photo decluttering."
Timestamp: [38:14]

---

8. Conclusion and Key Takeaways

The episode wraps up with hosts and Tara reiterating the importance of digital decluttering in achieving financial control and reducing stress. They emphasize the lasting benefits of maintaining an organized digital space through regular routines and enjoyable methods.

Jen: "If you have a bill that you did not enjoy paying and you just want to call and commiserate with us, we are here for that."
Timestamp: [42:25]

Jill: "It's easy to do it by category sometimes."
Timestamp: [12:41]

Key Takeaways:

• Prioritize Stressors: Start decluttering with the digital aspects that cause the most stress, such as email.
• Use the Right Tools: Leverage apps like Tidy Gallery to make the process efficient and enjoyable.
• Establish Rules: Create personal guidelines to maintain digital organization long-term.
• Make It Social: Engage friends or family in gamified decluttering activities to add fun and accountability.
• Regular Maintenance: Schedule periodic check-ins to keep digital spaces tidy and manageable.

---

Notable Quotes:

• Jill: "I have to mark it unread and that way it will stay at the forefront of my attention."
  Timestamp: [19:22]

• Jen: "It's like a birthday memory... it's okay to keep what truly matters."
  Timestamp: [09:18]

• Jill: "Once we start getting to about 2 or 3,000 photos on my phone, I'm gonna quickly call and then I'm gonna upload the keeps the curated to Amazon photos and then delete them off my phone."
  Timestamp: [37:13]

---

This episode serves as a comprehensive guide for anyone looking to regain control over their digital lives. By implementing the strategies discussed, listeners can reduce financial waste, alleviate stress, and create a more organized and peaceful digital environment.

Transcript

[Host 1]

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[Jen]

Walt Disney World Resort 3 Day Digital Declutter Guide with professional organizer Tara Bremmer.

[Jill]

Welcome to the Frugal Friends Podcast where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity and live a richer life. Here are your hosts, Jen and Jill.

[Jen]

Welcome to the Frugal Friends Podcast. My name is Jen. My name is Jill and today we are Talking about digital decluttering, we have a ton of episodes on decluttering physical items, even just kitchen items or food items. But something I have personally been struggling with so much is my digital clutter. You should see the home screen I have. Well, yeah, you have.

[Jill]

Yeah.

[Jen]

Hopefully by the time this releases it won't be. But it is a hot mess right now. There's maybe like two open spots for more screenshots of things.

[Host 1]

Yeah. So if that's like you, this episode will be super helpful. You will learn why digital declutter can be almost as detrimental to our finances as physical clutter. We are going to talk about the top categories to declutter on your phone and how and the streamlined processes that you can implement that you only have to do this type of declutter once.

[Jen]

But first, this episode is brought to you by our Spending Planner. So it is our budget spreadsheet that is mobile optimized that if your beyond a paper budget but you are not yet at the place of using an app if you still are in a place where you need to manually input your transactions. We've created a mobile optimized budget spreadsheet called the Budget Plan, called the Spending Planner. And we will put a link to that in the description below as well as maybe a little discount so you can check it out and see if it's right for you in this time of your life. So it's beautiful and we really like it. So let's talk about digital decluttering. We're going to learn from one of the best. I met Tara at a conference for moms a couple months ago and she was so wonderful. I noticed sitting next to her that on her phone she had a screen guard on it. So like I couldn't see what was on her phone.

[Host 1]

Couldn't pee better. You were trying and it didn't work right.

[Jen]

And so I realized that she was the person to talk about digital things with, but she does all things decluttering. She's the CEO of House Peace and they have been bringing peace into homes around the country since 2013. She holds a BA in Psychology from Purdue and she also has a master's in Counseling from Moravian Theological Seminary. So she pulls all of that into how she declutters and creates House Peace. And I hope that this three day guide really does help you as much as I think it's going to help me.

[Host 1]

Let's get into it.

[Jen]

Tara, welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. We are delighted to have you.

[Jill]

Hi. I'm so excited to be Here, too.

[Host 1]

This is a fun conversation. We typically talk about decluttering our physical spaces, and we. We know that there's a lot of psychological impact of physical clutter around us and the ways that. That can impact our stress, our mental health, our emotional and relational health. But I'm curious to hear from you how you see digital clutter impacting our minds, our emotions.

[Jill]

Yeah, I do think a lot about digital decluttering. I actually even teach a class sometimes called iPhone Peace, where we go and scroll through pictures and delete things and, like, optimize our phones to work a little bit harder for us. But I. I do see people having very cluttered phones and their phones actually stress me out. You know, like when there's a thousand notifications on, you know, the screen, all the. The red badges, I'm like, super triggered by the red badges. So when I see someone's phone and they've got a bunch of those, I'm like, can you. Can I. Will you let me just deal with this?

[Jen]

I turned off the badges because I will tell you, I have 20,000 unread emails in my personal inbox. So I just don't want to see the backs.

[Host 1]

So I never email Jen. If you want to get a hold of Jen, do not email her.

[Jen]

My business email inbox, I'm on top of. I have no unread emails in there. But that comes at the expense of all of my personal things.

[Jill]

I mean, right? And we have to choose the things that we're going to pay attention to. So, yeah, why pay attention to those red badges if we don't have to? So, yeah, mine are all turned off except for certain apps. Messages, obviously. Phone several others. But, like, that's clutter to me. If we, if we need to, if we're getting informed about things that we don't need to care about, that's just mental clutter for sure. And I. I'm particularly passionate about photos and videos and that kind of clutter because we can't. We can't see it, right? We can't see a pile of photos in the way that we see a pile of laundry or whatever. So it's easy to forget about it. But then all of a sudden, we're taking like 10 of the same pictures and then we never go back and delete. And that's fine. Like, the search functions have gotten really good on, on phones and even in Amazon photos, you know, you could search for an orange hat, and that is helpful. But I look at it from a little bit of a different perspective. Which is like, after I'm gone and this is my kid's life, I would like it to be a curation of what really mattered to us as a family, what things that we did. It doesn't need to be the picture of my meal that I had last month. That was pretty. It just. I mean, I guess you can. Everybody's got their own preferences. But I like when you've got 20,000 pictures on your phone. I. I think that that is unmanageable.

[Host 1]

Yeah.

[Jill]

I don't know how many pictures you all have on your phones.

[Host 1]

I couldn't even tell you because I paid for a ton of storage. But I can resonate with what you're saying, first of all, in how I take pictures. I don't know if this is a generational thing, if it's one of those things that they're going to make fun of millennials for, but when I take a picture, I will take, like. And so then I've got, and maybe more than that, a bunch of essentially duplicates that I think I'm gonna go back and pick my favorite one. I rarely do. And then interspersed with that is, like, a picture of where I parked, a screenshot of a recipe, a screenshot of a flight that I booked that I haven't gotten the confirmation email for yet. So I wanna make sure that I still have the number saved somewhere. And, like, you see, you're scrolling through and it's like, oh, yeah, that's a cute memory. And then there's my park spot, apparently from a month ago.

[Jill]

And maybe some. I would say few people might find value in that. Like, looking back, like, oh, right, I am going through perimenopause and I was having to screenshot all these things or whatever to. To help me remember, but to me, that's just. It's unnecessary and it just gets in the way. Like, I. I'll equate it to, like, I have memory boxes for each of my kids and it's primarily schoolwork. So I don't know how much schoolwork y' all save for your kids, but, you know, you got the handprint stuff, you've got the fill in the blank. My mom is 48 years old and she's 2 foot tall, or, you know, whatever. Those are all so cute. I love that one. Like, my typical client in my job, like my. In home organizing business, they keep so much of this. It's so much too much. And so not that there's anything wrong with any of it, it's just how. How's A kid, how's a person going to make sense of their childhood? Do they even care? So I like to do these little memory boxes. They're 12 by 12 or from hobby Lobby. And my goal is to graduate the kids with three of those boxes. And it's got handwriting samples, it's got self portraits, it's got, you know, a few boy Scout things or whatever. And, and it just becomes so deeply meaningful. Each of the, each of the thing, it's such a curation that it's a little more precious. So what I like to do, say with screenshots. Do y' all. Are y' all both iPhone users? I like to, and I'm sure Android is similar, but I like to open my camera roll and go to media types and click on screenshots. And that so much of this are it's reminders is basically what it is. And if those reminders are done, then I'm going to select, select them and delete. Just delete fully. Obviously if it's a recipe or something, maybe I'll go ahead and print it out because I'm not going to follow a recipe on my phone. It's just, I'm not going to remember it, whatever. So I do like doing some wholesale kind of deleting even for example, like I take a lot of time lapse videos and some of them are for work, most of them are for work and I don't need to keep all those. So at some point I'll delete all those or you know, most of them. But it's easier to do it by category sometimes.

[Host 1]

Yeah, that's a great tip.

[Jen]

What are some of the actual costs of some of this digital clutter?

[Jill]

Well, when it comes to pictures and stuff. Well, just your iPhone, if you're paying $10 a month, I'm paying 99 cents a month, I think for extra storage. And part of that is because of my work taking before and after pictures of people's stuff. And also it counts for my whole family, I think, or maybe just me and my kids. So I don't mind paying for that a little bit. But yes, once we start getting subscriptions then that, that is a cost. I mean a dollar a month is nothing. But I think also the cost is time not being able to find what you need. And like, I don't know, I, we, we carry apps that we don't use anymore. Maybe you have subscriptions you don't use anymore and we've forgotten, have y' all, I'm sure, I'm sure you guys have talked about this, like going to your subscriptions and like looking in your settings. Do y' all ever talk about that on the show? Yes.

[Jen]

And it's not something that I think about often with apps is that you actually have to go into the App store for those subscriptions. It's not always something you can do online. And so I often forget about that. And that's why I feel like this episode is mostly for me, because I've got my 20,000 emails, I've got my 20,000 probably pictures. Also, every time I open up my laptop, I get a notification that my icloud storage has maxed out and that I need to pay for more. And I just don't. And so ultimately, I need you to help me.

[Jill]

Let's go. Let's just talk about you, okay? This is you and me, baby. You tell me exactly what you want and we're gonna figure it out together.

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[Jill]

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[Jen]

Okay, if I was going to take three days and like totally digitally declutter my life, what how would you suggest that I go about this?

[Jill]

Well, first I would take the thing that makes you the maddest or the most stressed. So Is it the 20,000 emails? Is it the 20,000 photos? Is it what it like for you? What do you want to declutter first? What makes you the most irritated?

[Jen]

Probably the emails because I do have to check those periodically. My photos, I'm not in as much.

[Jill]

Okay.

[Host 1]

And she misses out on stuff like there's invites to things and she's like, I would have gone to that. I didn't check my email. So that's, that's the cost.

[Jen]

Or I did and I just didn't see it.

[Host 1]

So.

[Jen]

Yeah.

[Jill]

Yeah. Okay. So I think that you firstly need to go unsubscribe from some stuff probably. Right. Do you get newsletters you don't read?

[Jen]

I definitely do. I also have unrolled me but I don't feel like it gets everything for some reason. Yeah. So yes. Unsubscribing. Is there a bulk way to do any of this?

[Jill]

Well, what I to unsubscribe other than unroll me, I'm not aware of it. But what I'll do is when I check my email every day, when I get it, I just do it as I go like that. I don't. To me that's a maintenance thing because we do end up on people's mailing lists or whatever. So I think that just doing that as you go is good. What I would rather do, like if you were sitting down and doing stuff for a While is come like do a search term. So like I'm going to do this in two days. My kids last day of school is tomorrow. I'm going to put in Helena High School in the search and every email that comes up that has Helena High School in it, I'm going to check all delete. I don't need them anymore. So I like doing mass deletions like that. And that will be probably hundreds. And I will do that with Amazon. Actually I have all of my Amazon emails filtered out. Do you guys filter out any of your emails?

[Jen]

I do that sometimes, but not on like a consistent like bulk basis for like a particular retailer.

[Jill]

I would. If you shop a lot on Amazon or really wherever you shop a lot and you get your receipts or whatever, you don't really need to look at those unless you have a problem. So there's, if you use Gmail, there's a function and of course it's going to be true for any email service. You can have things skip the inbox and go to its own mysterious folder somewhere. So like I never see an email from Amazon and that's fine by me. If there's ever a problem, they're there and I can just search Amazon and find it or I can get in the app and whatever I need to know is just right there as far as purchase history or whatever. But that way you're just automatically. Our mental load is so big and if we cannot pay attention to certain things, that will only serve us well, you know, I don't need to pay attention to Amazon emails. So you can also do the bulk delete that way too. I'm typically trying to get to inbox zero every Friday, but what that means for me is not truly inbox zero, it's zero unread. So if there's something important that has come through my email and I know I want to come back to it, I have to mark it unread and that way it will stay at the forefront of my attention. But at the end of the school year I will probably get my inbox down to like a hundred or something.

[Jen]

Ooh, yeah, I keep my work inbox at 50. Okay, so I'm good about that. But yeah, it's just something about my personal. I don't value my personal life as much as my work life, seemingly.

[Jill]

What's your enneagram? Type 8.

[Jen]

Okay, so I don't know what that means. Okay, so email. And so to filter out emails, correct me if I'm wrong, it is. You'll take the email and then you'll like, select filter messages like this and then something.

[Jill]

Yes. I haven't done it in a little while, but yes, something like that. Or it'll say filter anything from Amazon. There's all kinds of different things you can select.

[Jen]

Yeah. And then I create like a folder or something that just shows on the side and then they go in there. I joined the SNL Lottery to get tickets to Saturday Night Live, and I didn't want to miss that. And so I created a filter for anything that says like SNL or Saturday Night Live to go into this special folder. So I would know, like, if I see an unread there that I got an email. And I didn't get an email because it's very hard to get the SNL Lottery. But that was one thing that was.

[Jill]

Important enough for me, obviously. Oh, my gosh.

[Host 1]

Yeah, it's so helpful, I think, just to know about the different tools and resources that exist. I think that's always part of the barrier of just. I didn't know I could use that functionality, click that button, use filters in this way and how much more approachable it then becomes to maintain. But of course, we're kind of talking about this initial declutter, which is usually the biggest effort up front.

[Jill]

Right.

[Host 1]

Then we can talk, then we can strategies. But you've described kind of starting with the thing we hate the most, then refining, filtering, unsubscribing. Are there any other big steps in this kind of overhaul of a digital clutter?

[Jill]

Well, this is related to email. Again, I'll tell you a story. I had a client in home organizing, not digital decluttering. She deleted every email in her inbox. She didn't care. She was like, select everything. Goodbye. And the reason I know the way I found out about it, she actually wasn't my client. She. She was one of my other organizers. Clients. And I, I texted my organizer. I was like, hey, so and so hasn't paid their invoice. Do you know if she mailed the check or why? You know, what's going on? And she was like, did you email her the invoice? Yeah. And she said, well, she decided to delete her whole inbox. And she figured that if anybody really needed something, they would reach out. And I was like, and here it is. I did. I needed to get paid. We needed to get paid. So, you know, if that's appealing to you, if you feel like you can handle that, do it. I don't know. Who cares? I mean, I care a little bit for like, Litigious reasons because I'm a business owner and like I want to have documentation for things, but maybe in the personal email, maybe it doesn't matter as much.

[Host 1]

Well, yeah, I mean it sounds like I'm thinking about my own circumstances and I agree there have been times where I've needed to look back of oh, I need that document. I know it's in my email somewhere and I'm so glad that I found it. But part of that is because I never had a system set up in the first place where I put that important document. I kind of just said, well it's in my email. If I ever need to find it, it's there. But then that's what keeps me from being able to do a full clear out. So I'm curious, do you have any tips on as you're decluttering, how to set up those good organization pieces that would then allow us for some of this maintenance?

[Jill]

Yeah, I mean I think definitely putting labels on thing on emails. I have some emails labeled adoption. My daughter came home from China in 2013 and so we've got some pretty precious emails related to her adoption. And so those are labeled adoption. They're in their own folder. Those are never going to get deleted even if the word Amazon was in there, which it's not. But so I think start with the mass unsubscribing with keywords like high school, Amazon, whatever and then you're going to keep your inbox is going to go down, down, down, down, down and you're going to get into some of the finer ones where you can start unsubscribing more and then making those, those rules, those filter rules to get stuff out of the regular inbox and saved set aside.

[Jen]

Okay, so if emails are day one, pictures are probably day two. What I know you mentioned some tips already with someone with 20,000 pictures. What are the steps we do to get down to just the curated essentials?

[Jill]

I prefer to use an app that slightly gamifies deleting pictures. The one that I prefer is very simple. It's called Tidy Gallery. It's free for seven days or something and then after that it's like $2 a month. I pay for it because it's so helpful. So it's swipe left to delete, swipe right to keep like a, like a dating app. It's Tinder for your pictures. Goodbye.

[Host 1]

So for all of our married folks, this is how you can live vicariously.

[Jen]

That is the last way I want live vicariously for single you at Least.

[Host 1]

Can understand swiping right and left.

[Jen]

Yeah. There are so many other things I would rather live vicariously.

[Host 1]

I know it sounds miserable.

[Jill]

Yeah. We should think of that list, Jen. So, yeah, I. I like that. And it'll also tell you how much you've decluttered. I'm going to just pull it up and show y' all how much you've decluttered since day one. So since day one, I have decluttered 368 gigabytes.

[Jen]

Ooh.

[Jill]

And like, today, it's drinking.

[Host 1]

It tells you, good job.

[Jill]

Keep it clean. I know. That's what I say to people who.

[Host 1]

Come on our podcast.

[Jill]

So I took some screenshots of something from Facebook to send to my husband. I can delete that. I took some mushrooms to. You know, I didn't take mushrooms. I took a picture of mushrooms to.

[Host 1]

I heard what I heard.

[Jen]

There's the clip.

[Jill]

I said what I said. Yeah. To identify them from a friend's flower pot. So goodbye. I also texted my children some things. I want to keep that because that's funny. I'm going to swipe right. Then who knows what this is? Swipe left. So then I'm going to X all that out, and it'll say, do you want to let me delete? And I'm like, yes, I do. And it tells me, good job. You cleaned 5.2 megabytes. There's other similar apps. This is just the one that I like. It's just very clean and simple. So I. That's great. And you can get through a couple thousand photos in an hour, like, if you wanted to. I think moving forward, it's easy to, like, pull it up once a month or when you're in a doctor's office or have a habit or like on a plane, if you don't have Internet, that. That's, like, something you don't need the Internet for. You can just keep maintaining. So I think to get through 20,000 pictures, it sounds impossible, but it's really not. Like, I also sometimes host a free zoom. Maybe I need to do one with you guys. This would be fun. Called Eat and Delete. Sometimes it used to be we would meet at a restaurant that was, I guess, pre Covid. And so it would be with local people. And we'd all bring our phones. And the rules of the game are we're eating, we're having fun, we're talking, but we're deleting pictures the whole time. So everybody's got their phones out. We've all got permission to have phones out at the dinner table. And. And we. And there's a prize for whoever deletes the most photos and video. And you can only share a cute or funny or interesting picture twice.

[Host 1]

Oh, that's a good. That. That came up for me. I was like, how often are we getting distracted?

[Jill]

Look at my chocolate. Yeah, so, like, if you saw something really worthwhile sharing and you're like, hey, I'm. And then, like, that's your. That's your one. When you. When you show your neighbor.

[Host 1]

I love this. We love gamifying things. We love making it fun.

[Jen]

Great. Like, gathering for friends. Like, absolutely. Should be done in person more just between, like, friend groups. What a great idea.

[Host 1]

Okay. Okay. So if that's day two, what's day three? I've got a couple of ideas, but you tell me based off of your experience, are we talking, like, are we clearing up apps? Are we figuring out all of our digital folders? Like, what do you think day three is?

[Jill]

Day three, I would say, is streamlining and minimizing. There's a book by Cal Newport called Digital Minimalism, and not all of us are digital minimalists, but I strive to be. That's why my screen is black.

[Jen]

You have. Okay. When we met, I noticed that you had this screen. Well, I didn't notice. Somebody pointed it out and asked, like, how you like your screen, like, privacy screen on your phone. And I didn't know those existed. But it's so that people next to you can't, like, look over and see what's on your screen.

[Jill]

Right. This is, like, my greatest life hack for, like, kids or public transportation. So here you could see this. And if I turn it a little bit, you can't see it anymore. So no one can look over my shoulder. I'm always shocked, like, if I'm in New York City on the subway, I'm like, how do you guys. I'm reading your text. I'm doing it. I'm looking over there.

[Host 1]

I'm a little nosy Nancy, too, but.

[Jill]

Like, my phone is mine, and I know a lot of people, including myself. When our kids are little, we pass them the phone and let them play stuff. And so it's kind of a bad habit. I talk about really personal things on my phone, like, with clients. Like, people are texting pictures of their most embarrassing spaces in their homes. Or, you know, I've got people talking about marital problems, and, you know, just.

[Host 1]

It's.

[Jill]

It's not for anybody. It's for me. So, yeah, I have a privacy screen and they just. I just found out about the matte screens. Like, this one's matte is. So it's. You don't see all the. As much of like, fingerprints and stuff on it. So, like, even my, my background, like, I don't have a pretty picture. It's just clean and simple. I believe it is Cal Newport who says, and you know, when we make things so pretty and lovely, we're adding to the addiction problem. Like, oh, when I look at my phone, I see this picture I love. And now, now I'm having some kind of feelings about my phone. You know, I'm not.

[Jen]

I do that. I have our family's Easter picture on my phone.

[Jill]

I mean, do what you want to do. Like, if it's not a problem for you, then just keep it.

[Jen]

I think it is a problem, though.

[Jill]

I like to keep just the apps I use all the time on the front page. So you'll see. I've got like a budgeting app, thanks to Jen, who suggested that to me. Instagram, New York Times, games, My Aura Ring, Marco Polo. After that, everything is in folders. So I've got folders for travel, for food stores, photography, things like that house piece, stuff like QuickBooks. And that way I can quickly find what I need. And it's just on two pages, I think. Yeah. And then there's the. What do you call that thing? The app library, which you can't really get rid of. But yes, I say delete apps that you don't use. Who was I talking to the other day? Probably my brother. One of my brothers is a cybersecurity guy. Forensic stuff. And, and he pointed out that there's experts out there who are like, get. You're offering so much to these app developers for free. And if you are not using the app that much, then what is the point? Like, I, I literally had dominoes on here. I'm like, like, how often do I get domino's? Twice a year. Like, I don't need that app on there. I can get on safari. I can call. God forbid I call and order a pizza. But, like, especially with Google, he's, He's, you know, all the tech people have a chip on their shoulder about Google, which I also do by osmosis, but. But yet I use it. But, like, why do we have Google Slides on my phone? I don't need that. That's. That's just more access to things that it doesn't need to happen. So from a privacy standpoint, delete all that and it makes your phone cleaner. So, yeah, definitely categorizing things.

[Jen]

Nice. Anything other than apps. Like, what about my laptop? What should I be doing on my laptop?

[Jill]

Yeah, I have been very much focused on the phone here, but that's good.

[Jen]

I think that's where we spend most of our time on technology.

[Jill]

Yeah, I think with, with your computer, like, what, what do you find is cluttery about your computer?

[Jen]

My entire desktop is filled with things. Like, if I like the icons, like, I can show Jill right now, I'll just like, show her. Like. Yeah, there is not an open space left for something on my.

[Jill]

Okay, I'm going to take a screenshot of my screen and I'm going to text it to you right now, Jen.

[Jen]

Okay, well, I won't be able to see it because we're using my phone as a second camera shoot.

[Jill]

Okay, got it. Well, I'm still sending it to you anyway. So I like to do folders. There are a few standalone items on my desktop, a couple screenshots that, like, now I'm looking at it, I'm like, oh, yeah, I can delete that. So I'm dragging it to the trash right this very second. I, oh, this is how I do my phone. Like, I've got a screenshot of an email and I really need to take care of this issue. So I'm gonna leave that on there because my goal is to just have the three folders and that's it.

[Jen]

Three folders on your desktop, like on your home?

[Jill]

Correct.

[Jen]

Ooh.

[Host 1]

But like, I think I have that. I, I, what would the three folders be?

[Jill]

My, my three folders are House piece, My business, family, and House therapy, which is my TV show pitch that I'm working on. So I like to keep all those documents right there. So, like, obviously within family, I've got, you know, a folder for our Airbnb that I run and family paper, documents, family photos, et cetera. So there's folders within folders. I just don't need all that on the forefront. These are things I can dig for because it takes half a second, you know.

[Host 1]

Yeah. Setting up a good system that makes sense to you is so important. And I think that this is leading into some of those maintenance pieces. Like, once somebody has gone through this kind of three day digital declutter, what would you say are the most important habits, routines, processes in order to make this sustainable long term?

[Jill]

I think if you establish some rules for yourself, that can be really helpful. So, for example, my rule on the desktop is three folder icons. That's the goal. And it's okay if it's not perfect all the time, but I'm not going to have a screen full. That's just my rule. And my rule is once I start getting to about 2 or 3,000 photos on my phone, I'm gonna quickly call and then I'm gonna upload the keeps the curated to Amazon photos and then delete them off my phone. And just whatever your rules are, write them down. We're all forgetful people. We are humans and we can't keep everything the forefront of our brain. So write down what your little rules are, stick it on the computer, and then you're reminded of what you've decided for yourself. As far as maintaining.

[Jen]

Are there any other apps that gamify organization or help with organization? Kind of like Tidy Gallery?

[Jill]

There are some other ones, and I don't know what they're called. There was one that was recommended by a digital photo organizer. She loved it, but I didn't. It had too many categories. It wasn't keep and go. It was like, keep, keep for a something else. And I was like, no, no, no, no. I didn't want to. I'm too efficient for that. Like, that just felt like a waste of time. But it's easy to find. You could just do a little search. Photo decluttering.

[Host 1]

Do you know what I make as a rule for myself that I keep in every episode of this podcast and.

[Jen]

That we are usually six months behind on, but we do always get to every single one.

[Host 1]

Oh, the bill of the week.

[Jill]

That's right. It's time for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name is William. Maybe you paid off your mortgage, maybe your car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill and duck bills. Buffalo Bills, Bill Clinton. This is the bill of the week.

[Jen]

Tara. Every week we yell at our guests and our listeners to share with us their bill for the week. And we would love to hear yours.

[Jill]

Well, I'm gonna go with the first thing that comes to my mind, which is I had to pay about $4,000 in dollars, actual money, to. To have some land worked on. And it hurt me. It hurt me very much to send that money, but it required grading the land, bringing in topsoil, bringing in seed, bringing in hay. It was like a whole thing. I. That's just what it costs. And it made me sad. So that's. That's my bill of the week.

[Host 1]

Sometimes bills of the week make us sad. Sometimes it's money we didn't want to pay. But did you have the money? Were you, Were you able to spend that money?

[Jen]

Don't tell us you stole it.

[Jill]

No, I didn't steal it. And I didn't have to take from retirement. We had the money, but it just hurt my stomach.

[Jen]

Yeah. And it was needed to do windows and that was obnoxious.

[Jill]

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Because it's not.

[Host 1]

We just had to do a roof and that was not fun either.

[Jill]

Yeah, it's not like it's sexy or fun like, you know, a makeover. I don't know.

[Host 1]

But they tell us that owning things is so cool. But they don't tell us that owning things means you gotta spend $4,000 to grade your land.

[Jen]

Yeah, it's cool, but it's. It's also not the American dream, so.

[Host 1]

Well, how does it look? Does it look good? Does it look graded?

[Jill]

It's sprouting up. The grass is sprouting up. But we've had a lot of rain here in Alabama, so there's some spots that have to be redone. He's like, I won't charge you for the labor, but I have to charge you materials and the rental of the thing. And I'm like, like, okay, that's fine. But it'll look good. I mean, it's an Airbnb. It's, you know, it's a lovely place to host and whatever. So ultimately it will be worth it. But it just, it just hurts and.

[Jen]

You don't even really get to enjoy it on a day to day basis. That was. Our windows were in our rental, so I don't get to see those.

[Jill]

Yeah, that's annoying.

[Jen]

Yeah.

[Host 1]

Yeah. Oh, well, if you're listening, if you have a bill that you did not enjoy paying and you just want to call and commiserate with us, we are here for that. If you've got a bill that you actually loved paying and you didn't have to steal the money, you know what to do. Frugalfriendspodcast.com Bill. Leave it for us. We can't wait.

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[Tara Bremmer]

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[Host 1]

And now it's time for the Lion Hangaround.

[Jen]

All right, into our next segment of the show where we will all answer this super vulnerable question very fast.

[Host 1]

Not that fast. It doesn't have to be that fast.

[Jen]

What is the most used app on your phone?

[Jill]

Instagram.

[Jen]

Same.

[Host 1]

She did answer it very fast. Wow, you guys, I was so surprised by this. I get a notification. It's one that I do allow myself to keep because it helps keep me in check every Sunday of my screen time, like how much time I spent on the phone that week on average. And just recently I finally decided, okay, I'm gonna take the plunge. I'm gonna rip the band aid off and find out where am I spending this time on my phone. And I was assuming it Was gonna be social media because I am on it a lot, especially for frugal friends. It was the messenger app, which was really shocking to me. Like, I said, Facebook Messenger. No, texting. Is that. That's an app, right? Yeah, Texting people.

[Jen]

Jill doesn't have children, so she still has friends. Well, I'll preface that.

[Jill]

I mean, my second is probably messages. It is a lot. It's crazy, but actually so fun fact. I turned off my screen time because I don't want to care about that.

[Host 1]

Yeah.

[Jen]

Any tips for decluttering your usage of your phone? Like, getting that into control or you just, like, let yourself live?

[Jill]

I think it's a problem for a lot of people, and I feel like I've got a pretty good grip on it for the most part. But that digital minimalism book has. Has so many tips for making your phone seem less appealing. And of course, you can do screen time limits on the iPhone, though. You can just ignore them. Yeah, click it and ignore. But at least there is a reminder. It says, hey, you're choosing to ignore this. Like, pay attention. But I think making the phone less appealing has been a very helpful step for me.

[Host 1]

Oh, we've gotten so many helpful tips from you, Tara. If people want more from you, where can they get that?

[Jill]

So my favorite place, probably the best place to get the most house piece is my newsletter, Housebeast.net Newsletter. And we do lots of fun stuff on Instagram. But if you want to know all the things that are house beast, our newsletter is. Is where it's at.

[Jen]

And what do you include in your newsletter?

[Jill]

So definitely, like, some stories I try to get, give tips. We've got just what's happening in different areas. Like, if I'm traveling to wherever for this event, I'll say, hey, I'm going to be at mom 2.0. You want to link up there? Like, it's. I like it to be fairly personal but also helpful.

[Jen]

Nice. And house Peace does in home organizing in several areas around the country. So that is another. You are a wealth of information on that too. So definitely any listeners who are interested in decluttering across the board, physical and digital. Tara's your girl.

[Jill]

I'm your girl.

[Host 1]

Thanks so much for being here.

[Jill]

Thank you.

[Host 1]

Okay, number one takeaway is eat and delete. Love that idea.

[Jill]

Right?

[Jen]

Yes.

[Host 1]

Yes. So, so genius. Like, I often think I need to get rid of all of this. This stuff on my phone, but when do I ever want to do that? Sometimes I'll do it when I'm sitting on a plane. But if I'm being honest, when I'm on a plane, I just want to watch a movie. I just want to sit, eat my pretzel snack and watch a movie. I don't want to be sitting there deleting photos so it just never happens. But getting together with, with friends and doing that and then the rule that you can only tell two stories from your pictures. It's so perfect. It's boundaries, it's fun, it's productive. And I need a neat and delete.

[Jen]

I. I do love that idea. And I also, it just made me think like in my downtime, I just mindlessly consume and I could just be mindlessly deleting too. So. Same habit of picking up my phone, but could be healthier. But yeah, I do love, I love the community aspect of it. That that's one of the things I love about Kara. She's not just like decluttering for decluttering sake, but like also what's most important. These things are on our computers, on our devices because they hold some importance and their importance is usually people really did so like. Yeah, yeah, I love it.

[Host 1]

Oh, so fun. Well, thank you all for being here, for listening, for watching. If you are watching us on YouTube, please hit that subscribe button. If you are just listening to us on a podcast, go to YouTube and subscribe to us. Thank you.

[Jen]

You won't be able to see what I just did because you're on the podcast on YouTube.

[Host 1]

She did do something super secret and mysterious. You're only. You can only watch it on YouTube. And than for those of you who are reading our book, buy what you love without going broke and leaving us kind. Reviews like this one from Maddie Hansen, five stars. I loved this book. I got to know the authors through listening to their podcasts. This book is a great compacted version of some of their best tips and more. It has a great vibe and shares stories of the authors and fellow readers. Which makes me feel like I'm not alone in my money struggles. No, you're not. Not Maddie. You're not alone. You've got friends and you've got community and you've got a book that you just read and reviewed. So thank you. If you have read the book, please review it.

[Jen]

Yeah. If you haven't head to buy what you love book dot com. Get yourself a copy. You can also find out how to request it at your library if it's not already there. And if you've read it, please leave a review. And if you liked this video, like this podcast Please leave a rating and review on Spotify or comment on YouTube. It really does help us.

[Host 1]

Thank you. See you next time.

[Jen]

Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni.

[Host 1]

Okay. Did you have a story that you're able to share?

[Jen]

Um, not legally.

[Host 1]

Wait, should I censor this? Uh, oh.

[Jen]

I. I've.

[Host 1]

Careful. I mean, I did ask for it, but now I'm scared.

[Jen]

I know, right? I hate being a landlord. Okay, I'm gonna be honest. It's not for me.

[Host 1]

What are the worst parts?

[Jen]

I. I. Bigger pockets, Too close to the sun. And I got two rentals and I. We self manage and. And I'm. Yeah, it's not for me. It's not for us.

[Host 1]

Is it just people reaching out and having needs.

[Jen]

People having the worst part. Reasonable needs that I don't want to deal with. I don't want to deal with my own needs, Jill.

[Host 1]

I know.

[Jen]

And when I have them, I actually don't deal with them. In reality, I don't. So why do I have to deal with somebody else's needs? Because if I'm perfectly happy not dealing.

[Host 1]

With my own, I can't answer your phone call. I haven't showered yet this week.

[Jen]

Yeah, come on.

[Host 1]

How do you expect me to text back when I don't even have a meal plan together?

[Jen]

Yeah, it's just something additional. On top of parenting, on top of rearing this new dog puppy, on top of of doing work stuff. And it's summer, I think that's another thing. Summer just started and now I'm a. Now I'm a stay at home mom. So I have a business, but forced.

[Host 1]

To be a stay at home mom.

[Jen]

Yeah. So, yeah.

[Host 1]

Yeah.

[Jen]

Well, we'll see.

[Host 1]

Okay.

[Jen]

See how it goes. But yeah, I mean, if you're considering real estate investing, think again. I just want to give a balanced. If you've been listening to too much, I don't know what other real estate shows there are, but if you've been listening to them, just know that there's others out there. It's not for them either.

[Host 1]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not for everybody. And maybe what was right for you in one season isn't right for you in another.

[Jen]

This is so true. It's so true. But I don't think it was ever right for us.

[Host 1]

Only one way to find that out, though.

[Jen]

There's only one way to find it out. And if I can save someone who's on the fence, so be it. So be it.

[Host 1]

Okay.

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[Tara Bremmer]

Know that parents rank financial literacy as the number one most difficult life skill to teach? Meet Greenlight, the debit card and money app for families. With Greenlight, you can send money to kids quickly, set up chores, automate allowance, and keep an eye on what your kids are spending. With real time notifications, kids learn to earn, save and spend wisely. And parents can rest easy knowing their kids are learning about money. With guardrails in place, try Greenlight Risk free [e-mail] iheart hey, it's me, Earhart.

[Host 1]

Mind if I pick the next song?

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[Jill]

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[Jill]

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[Jill]

Common side effects include runny nose, sore.

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[Jill]

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[Host 1]

This is an iHeart podcast.