Spring Cleaning: Don't Be A Digital Hoarder

Summary

The Wirecutter Show: Spring Cleaning Episode - "Don't Be A Digital Hoarder"

Release Date: March 12, 2025
Host/Authors: Christine Cyr Clissette, Kyra Blackwell, Rosie Guerin
Guest: Caitlin McGarry, Senior Tech Editor at Wirecutter

---

Introduction

In the episode titled "Don't Be A Digital Hoarder," released on March 12, 2025, The Wirecutter Show shifts the focus of their ongoing spring cleaning series from physical spaces to the often-overlooked digital realms. Hosted by Christine Cyr Clissette, Kyra Blackwell, and Rosie Guerin, the episode features Caitlin McGarry, Wirecutter's Senior Tech Editor, who provides expert insights on maintaining digital hygiene.

Segment 1: Understanding Digital Hoarding

The hosts kick off the discussion by acknowledging the modern struggle with digital clutter. Christine shares her personal experience, admitting, "I'm a digital hot mess, honestly, like, I'm a hoarder" (01:36). This candid admission sets the tone for the episode, highlighting that digital disorganization is a common issue.

Key Points:

• Digital Clutter vs. Physical Clutter: Unlike physical items, digital clutter can often be less visible but equally, if not more, stressful.
• Common Areas of Digital Clutter: Overflowing email inboxes, duplicated photos, unnecessary apps, and outdated files.

Segment 2: Managing Photos and Storage

Caitlin McGarry delves into practical strategies for reducing digital clutter, starting with photo management. She emphasizes the importance of "clearing out your screenshots or duplicate photos will go a long way" (06:33). The hosts discuss the tendency to accumulate endless photos, especially duplicates or irrelevant snapshots, which consume significant storage space.

Notable Quotes:

• Caitlin McGarry: "Taking some time to just clear out your screenshots or duplicate photos will go a long way." (06:33)
• Kyra Blackwell: "I'm sorry, like manually?" (06:31)

Recommendations:

• Manual Cleanup: Regularly delete unnecessary photos and screenshots.
• External Backups: Offload important photos to external hard drives or cloud services like Dropbox to free up device storage.

Segment 3: Optimizing Phone Performance

The conversation transitions to phone maintenance, where Caitlin highlights how device performance can degrade due to digital clutter and battery health issues. She advises checking battery health via phone settings to determine if a replacement is needed, stating, "The maximum capacity when you buy a phone should be a hundred percent. If you... notice that it's like under 80%, it's probably time to think about getting a battery replacement." (10:06).

Key Points:

• Battery Health Monitoring: Regularly check battery health to ensure optimal phone performance.
• Battery Replacement: Affordable alternatives to purchasing a new phone when battery capacity declines.
• Optimized Charging: Enable settings that prevent the phone from charging to 100%, thereby prolonging battery life.

Notable Quotes:

• Rosie Garant: "I was gonna say, what is yours?" (11:08)
• Caitlin McGarry: "On your iPhone, there's a screenshots folder, so it automatically sorts all of your screenshots into one folder." (07:59)

Segment 4: Enhancing Digital Security

Password management emerges as a critical aspect of digital hygiene. Caitlin identifies the prevalent issue of using the same password across multiple platforms and introduces password managers as a solution. "A good password manager will store all of your passwords for you, but also create strong passwords for all of the services you have logins to" (18:41).

Recommendations:

• Use of Password Managers: Tools like 1Password are recommended for generating and storing unique, strong passwords.
• Two-Factor Authentication (2FA): Implementing 2FA using apps like Duo or Google Authenticator enhances account security beyond just passwords.

Notable Quotes:

• Christine Cyr Clissette: "If you're not using anything, just get started with something and that's safer." (19:34)
• Caitlin McGarry: "We recommend using a two factor authentication app... we recommend using Duo and Google Authenticator." (22:47)

Segment 5: Email Management

The hosts address the challenge of managing overflowing email inboxes. Caitlin suggests filtering emails into specific folders and regularly unsubscribing from unwanted mailing lists to keep the inbox manageable. "Filtering things into specific folders is really helpful. I sign up for a lot of retailer mailing lists just to get like discount codes and stuff." (24:54).

Key Points:

• Organizational Tools: Utilize email filters and folders to categorize incoming messages.
• Unsubscribing: Regularly opt-out of unnecessary mailing lists to reduce email influx.
• Email Storage Awareness: While vast email storage is manageable, being mindful helps prevent potential security risks from overlooked malicious emails.

Notable Quotes:

• Kyra Blackwell: "I was today years old when I realized that when you download stuff off of Spotify, it goes to your phone." (09:32)
• Caitlin McGarry: "If you have a password manager, which you're getting tonight when you go home, it will change it for you and store your new, secure, strong password." (20:57)

Segment 6: Physical Cleaning of Devices

Beyond digital aspects, Caitlin emphasizes the importance of physically maintaining devices. She recommends regularly wiping down phones with a damp microfiber cloth or 70% isopropyl alcohol wipes to keep them clean and free from debris that can hinder functionality.

Key Points:

• Regular Cleaning: Prevent accumulation of grime and debris that can affect device performance.
• Proper Tools: Use appropriate cleaning materials to avoid damaging devices.

Notable Quotes:

• Caitlin McGarry: "Your phone gets so gross... so, just little things make a difference." (14:57)
• Christine Cyr Clissette: "It's like taking couch cushions off your couch. You're like, oh, what? All these crumbs, that's where they went." (15:08)

Conclusion: Taking Action for Better Digital Hygiene

As the episode concludes, the hosts and Caitlin summarize actionable steps listeners can take to improve their digital hygiene:

1. Password Management: Adopt a password manager to create and store unique passwords.
2. Photo and Storage Cleanup: Regularly declutter digital photos and back up important files externally.
3. Battery Health Monitoring: Check and maintain phone battery health to ensure device longevity.
4. Email Organization: Implement filters and unsubscribe from unnecessary mailing lists to manage inbox size.
5. Device Maintenance: Clean devices regularly to maintain functionality and hygiene.

Final Takeaways:

• Christine Cyr Clissette: "You can't do anything about the past. Mistakes have been made. It's all about the future." (27:44)
• Kyra Blackwell: "Y'all already know I have to get a password manager." (29:12)

The episode wraps up with listeners encouraged to visit the Wirecutter website for detailed guides on password managers, two-factor authentication apps, and device cleaning tips. The hosts tease upcoming episodes focusing on practical advice for everyday problems, reinforcing the show's commitment to enhancing listeners' lives through expert advice and thorough product testing.

---

Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Christine Cyr Clissette: "I'm a digital hot mess, honestly, like, I'm a hoarder." (01:36)
• Caitlin McGarry: "Taking some time to just clear out your screenshots or duplicate photos will go a long way." (06:33)
• Caitlin McGarry: "A good password manager will store all of your passwords for you, but also create strong passwords for all of the services you have logins to." (18:41)
• Caitlin McGarry: "Your phone gets so gross... so, just little things make a difference." (14:57)
• Christine Cyr Clissette: "You can't do anything about the past. Mistakes have been made. It's all about the future." (27:44)
• Kyra Blackwell: "Y'all already know I have to get a password manager." (29:12)

---

Key Takeaways

• Digital Clutter is Real: Just like physical spaces, digital environments require regular maintenance to prevent overwhelm.
• Security is Paramount: Strong, unique passwords and two-factor authentication are essential for safeguarding personal information.
• Proactive Maintenance: Regularly cleaning devices and managing storage can enhance device performance and longevity.
• Organizational Strategies: Implementing effective email and photo management systems can significantly reduce digital stress.

By adopting these practices, listeners can achieve a more organized, secure, and efficient digital life, aligning with the episode's core message: "Don't Be A Digital Hoarder."

Transcript

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[Caitlin McGarry]

People use the same password for everything all the time. Like, the same basic password and just add, like a few things here and there.

[Kyra Blackwell]

Wait, that's not okay.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

I'm Christine Cyrclasset.

[Kyra Blackwell]

I'm Kyra Blackwell.

[Rosie Garant]

I'm Rosie Garant.

[Caitlin McGarry]

And.

[Rosie Garant]

And you're listening to the Wirecutter show.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

This episode is called Don't Be a Digital Hoarder.

[Rosie Garant]

Hey, pals.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

Hey, there. Hi.

[Rosie Garant]

We're at week two of our spring cleaning series.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

Are you feeling motivated still? Are you?

[Rosie Garant]

Not yet.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

Okay.

[Caitlin McGarry]

All right.

[Rosie Garant]

But it's a long month.

[Kyra Blackwell]

It's more fun thinking about the cleaning than actually doing it, though.

[Rosie Garant]

It turns out today we're pivoting, though. We're not talking about scrubbing the floors. We're talking about cleaning, cleansing, tidying our.

[Kyra Blackwell]

Digital lives, which is somehow more stressful.

[Rosie Garant]

Are y'all digitally prim and proper?

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

I feel the appearance of me would be that I'm prim and proper, I would assume. But I am an. I'm a hot mess digitally. You're a digital hot mess, honestly, like, I'm a hoarder.

[Kyra Blackwell]

But every part of your life outside of that is perfect. So we'll allow it. We'll allow it.

[Rosie Garant]

Everybody's got something.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

Yeah.

[Rosie Garant]

What's going on with your digital life?

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

I. I think I'm kind of, like, digitally sloppy. Like, I don't erase emails. My phone is completely full. I don't think I'm doing the things that I should be doing to keep myself tidy and protected. Actually.

[Rosie Garant]

Protected. Yeah. That's the other thing. I. I am not beyond reproach here, but I do think about it often because you're right. It's not just about deleting your emails. It's also passwords. It's also storage on your phone. Some of these things you don't necessarily think about or you do when you really annoying pop ups that say your phone is glitchy.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

And I think it's. Yeah, exactly. I think it's one of those things that sometimes you don't think about it until an emergency happens. It's almost like too late. And it's like it's again, it's like a preventative thing. Right. Can you. What can you do now to keep things tidy? Telling myself in order to keep that bad stuff from happening.

[Kyra Blackwell]

Yeah, that's why we're going to be bringing on Caitlin McGarry because she knows all the things to do to keep your digital life in order. She's Wirecutter's senior tech editor and she edits all of our coverage about computers, phones and digital security. So she knows a ton about digital hygiene.

[Rosie Garant]

I like Caitlin too, because she's not judgmental. She's just going to take us all gently by the hand and show us a world where we are not encumbered by the number of emails in our inbox.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

Yeah, that's right. She's firm but loving.

[Kyra Blackwell]

I love it. Well, let's find out.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

After the break. Caitlin is going to talk with us about our phones. If you're annoyed by your phone, if it's acting slow, if you can keep getting annoying pop ups that say storage full, or if it seems like it might be dying. You want to listen to this? We'll be right back.

[Caitlin McGarry]

Okay.

[Kyra Blackwell]

I'm opening the New York Times app.

[Rosie Garant]

The app has so much more than you might expect.

[Caitlin McGarry]

The way the tabs are at the.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

Top with all of the different sections.

[Rosie Garant]

It'S just easier to navigate that way. There is something for everyone.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

When I open the you tab, I get a short list of articles that are more related to me.

[Kyra Blackwell]

Pick for you every day you're able.

[Caitlin McGarry]

To add sections that interest you.

[Rosie Garant]

That's really handy. There are some individuals in here I can add. Paul Krugman or Jim Albuque. I like him.

[Caitlin McGarry]

The lifestyle tab, the photos are just phenomenal. It's kind of like a collage. I go to games, always scroll over to the games page, play wordle or connections and then swipe over to read today's headlines.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

There's an article next to recipe next to games and it's just easy to get everything in one place and before.

[Rosie Garant]

You know it, you're gonna be late to work.

[Caitlin McGarry]

The New York Times app, all of the times all in one place.

[Rosie Garant]

Download it [e-mail] app.

[Kyra Blackwell]

Welcome back to the Wirecutter show. Our guest today is Caitlin McGarry, Wirecutter's senior tech editor. She's reviewed technology devices, including Apple products, phones and wearables for over a decade. At this point and before she worked at Wirecutter. Kaitlyn oversaw consumer tech coverage at Gizmodo.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

Caitlin, welcome to the show.

[Caitlin McGarry]

Thanks for having me.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

I think that when people think of spring cleaning, which we're covering all this month, people generally think of, you know, like, organizing and cleaning their physical lives. But there's a lot of reasons to think about cleaning up your digital life and the devices in your life. Why should people pay attention to digital hygiene?

[Caitlin McGarry]

Well, at Wirecutter, we're all about extending the life of your device. So tech products cost a lot of money and making them last longer helps you obviously save money in the long term. And also, like, freeing up storage space is really important so you can stash more stuff on your device. And it's also really important to keep your information safe. So I have some tips for how to lock down your data.

[Kyra Blackwell]

Yeah, I've literally never thought to do this, which clearly means that I need to. But where would you recommend people like me start?

[Caitlin McGarry]

Well, everyone I think I've ever met has asked me about what to do about their photos. People have thousands, if not tens of thousands of photos on their phones. Depending on how much storage space you have, which is a whole issue, you've probably gotten an annoying pop up on your phone that's like you've run out of storage.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

Would you like to upgrade for $2.99 a month?

[Kyra Blackwell]

And I always do.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

Right.

[Caitlin McGarry]

It's like, smash that upgrade button rather than like. Yeah, but there's a way you can deal with that problem, which is to actually clear out your photos.

[Kyra Blackwell]

I'm sorry, like manually?

[Caitlin McGarry]

No, manually. You gotta do it. Taking some time to just clear out your screenshots or duplicate photos will go a long way. And then what we recommend, you know, you get those reminders on this day you took this photo. So going through like every photo you took on a specific day over the years and just deleting the ones that you don't need. Or you took like 50 photos of the same exact thing from like, slightly different angles. That can be really helpful.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

Or your kid took 50 pictures of their face.

[Rosie Garant]

Relatable.

[Kyra Blackwell]

What if I need that random meme that I saved at 2:00am?

[Caitlin McGarry]

I mean, keep the ones that are important to you, Kyra. I'm not judging.

[Rosie Garant]

I love that.

[Caitlin McGarry]

Delete the other ones.

[Rosie Garant]

There's something that you can do about all this. Do better. Just, like change your behavior and do better.

[Caitlin McGarry]

It's a small tweak, but it goes a long way.

[Kyra Blackwell]

You also had some advice about backing up your photos on a separate hard Drive, right?

[Caitlin McGarry]

Yeah. So if there are photos that you want to save, but, like, you're obviously not needing to look at them all the time, you can just offload them to your computer and then store them on an external hard drive or upload them to a service like Dropbox. Just anything to get them off your actual phone to free up storage space.

[Rosie Garant]

Are there automatic ways, Caitlin, you can find what those duplicate photos are in, let's say, an iPhone, so that it. It becomes easier to go ahead and batch delete them?

[Caitlin McGarry]

So on your iPhone, there's a screenshots folder, so it automatically sorts all of your screenshots into one folder. Like, I just looked, and I have over 400 screenshots, and I don't even know what any of these are. So I'm just gonna go ahead and delete all of them, like, right now.

[Rosie Garant]

Old Moon. So that's where all Kyra's memes are.

[Kyra Blackwell]

Yeah.

[Caitlin McGarry]

So, Kyra, you're gonna have to go through. Through all of those to save your cherished ones. But. But that will go a long way toward freeing up some space.

[Rosie Garant]

Okay, so then let's say I have been really rigorous about trying to delete photos of my friends and family and cherished moments, and maybe I haven't done a great job, but I've done my best. And I'm still getting an alert that I'm out of space and need to buy more, and it's really annoying. What do I do then?

[Caitlin McGarry]

Yeah, so on your phone, under Settings, there's a tab called Storage, and you can just open that and it'll tell you exactly what's taking up so much space. So in my case, I looked this morning, and I have, like, an incredible amount of saved messages that I don't need. So you can have your phone delete every message that you've sent or received, like, after a year, and you'll be surprised how quickly, quickly that frees up storage space. But you might have also saved a lot of podcasts that you've already listened to. You don't need those anymore. Or, like, a lot of playlists that you don't need. So you'll be able to see exactly what's taking up so much space and then decide what to do about it.

[Kyra Blackwell]

I was today years old when I realized that when you download stuff off of Spotify, it goes to your phone. That's definitely common sense. But I was like, yeah, she's going to either. I don't know.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

No, I don't think it's common. I don't think it's commonly known though. Like, I recently did look on my phone and realized how much of my storage was being eaten up by things like old text messages and like podcasts I downloaded. So I, I think it's. It's actually pretty common. I've also read that if your battery health is less than optimal, that can also be slowing down your phone. Is that true? Can you tell us a little bit about that?

[Caitlin McGarry]

Yeah. So the older your phone is, the older the battery is and after a certain point your battery just degrades and. And so you'll notice that it doesn't last as long after you charge it. Newer iPhones and some other Android phones have a way to check to see what your battery health is. So it'll tell you, like, your battery health isn't great. It's time to get the battery replaced. And that is much cheaper and easier than buying a whole new phone.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

How do you know the battery health isn't great? Like, what, what are you looking for? That kind of would indicate it may be time for a new battery.

[Caitlin McGarry]

On an iPhone, if you go into settings and battery, you can see an option called battery health and you just tap on that and it'll tell you, you know, if it's normal. If the battery needs to be replaced. The maximum capacity when you buy a phone should be a hundred percent. If you, after a few years notice that it's like under 80%, it's probably time to think about getting a battery replacement.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

Oh, sadly it is. It might be time to.

[Rosie Garant]

I was gonna say, what is yours?

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

Mine is 77.

[Rosie Garant]

Mine's normal.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

How old is your phone though?

[Rosie Garant]

It's really new.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

My phone's maybe like I was. I wasn't prepared for a follow up question. My years. Mine is two or three years old, so maybe that makes sense. But Caitlin, what do I do to replace it? Like, I'm not super technically handy when it comes to like repairing devices. Do I need to take it to a store to get it replaced? Can someone else help me?

[Caitlin McGarry]

Yes. So it actually is somewhat possible to swap your own battery, but we don't recommend it for most people because there's like tools and glue and all kinds of stuff involved. But you can get it replaced at a store. If you have an iPhone, you can go to an Apple store if you pay for Apple Care. Plus the battery replacements are free. If you don't, it's anywhere from like 70 to $120 to get a battery replacement. That's like not nothing, but it's Way cheaper than a new phone.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

What about if you don't have an Apple device?

[Caitlin McGarry]

Google and Samsung obviously don't have stores the way Apple does, but they do partner with other repair shops. So if you just go to their respective websites, you can find which shops they partner with and how much it'll cost to change your battery.

[Kyra Blackwell]

I've also heard that it's not advisable to charge your phone overnight because you never want to charge to 100%. Is that true? And if so, why.

[Caitlin McGarry]

Yes, that is true. So charging your battery degrades the battery life over time. A phone's battery life is measured in charging cycles. But most new iPhones and Android phones have optimized battery settings that you just turn them on and it will automatically stop your phone from charging to a hundred percent even when it's plugged in. So you don't even have to think about it. It's just not going to charge all the way.

[Rosie Garant]

That is something I did not know. And I've stressed out about the idea. Cause I'm like, if I don't charge it at night, when am I gonna charge it? Because when I wake up, there's never a charger. I have 50 chargers in my house, but there's never one available because I can't find it.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

They're like soft dryer.

[Rosie Garant]

Yeah, they're just gone. And so if I don't do it at night, it's like at 20% and then my phone dies. So I didn't optimize battery. That's amazing.

[Caitlin McGarry]

Optimized battery technology.

[Sponsor]

Technology.

[Rosie Garant]

Who knew? So what about cleaning the phone itself? Because I feel as though our phones are kind of grungy.

[Caitlin McGarry]

Oh, yeah, Your phone is disgusting.

[Rosie Garant]

Okay, talk about it.

[Caitlin McGarry]

I mean, just in. This is not for you specifically. I'm sure your phone is pristine. But for most of us, and I include myself, your phone gets so gross. Especially if you like, have it in the kitchen while you're cooking or like you just set it down on a random surface at like a bar or restaurant, it gets sticky. I don't even want to think about it. So, yes, clean the actual phone, Wipe it down. Clean out your charging port. When you notice, like, oh, it's not holding a charge, there might be stuff in the port preventing it from charging. So just little things. Little things make a difference.

[Rosie Garant]

What do you wipe it down with? Is it just a damp cloth or what do you use?

[Caitlin McGarry]

Yeah, it can be a damp microfiber cloth. The companies recommend 70% isopropyl alcohol wipes, which are super cheap and common. So nothing. Nothing too over the top. Just basic maintenance.

[Rosie Garant]

While you were talking, I started to look at my phone and this is absolutely fell. Really just alarming.

[Kyra Blackwell]

What are you using to pick at the port, though?

[Rosie Garant]

Right now I'm using a push pin, which is probably not advisable. Don't tell.

[Caitlin McGarry]

Yeah, maybe just. Maybe just a toothpick.

[Rosie Garant]

Don't send Tim this episode.

[Caitlin McGarry]

If you have your phone in a case, it actually gets even grosser. I don't know if you've ever taken. Most people never take the case off, right? But, like, once you do, oh, God.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

It's like taking couch cushions off your couch. You're like, oh, what? All these crumbs, that's where they went.

[Caitlin McGarry]

You're like, this is the kind of person I am.

[Kyra Blackwell]

So what I'm hearing is that we definitely need to be culling our photos. Just kill anything that is a duplicate. That is a random picture that you've taken 3,000 times from 3,000 different angles. And I'm also hearing that you need to check your battery health because that can really make or break your phone experience. Maybe if it's dying all the time or if it seems slow, maybe you just need a new battery. Or unfortunately, you might need a new phone. I'm also hearing that we should be cleaning our phones more often. I can only imagine the amount of times I've dropped my phone on the subway platform and I just forgot to wipe it down immediately.

[Rosie Garant]

That is so crazy.

[Kyra Blackwell]

That's my confession. Don't judge.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

There's no judgment here.

[Rosie Garant]

We listen and we don't judge.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

And we will also link on our show notes to some super helpful guides we've got on the site right now for organizing photos on your phone, optimizing your battery, and cleaning your phone. We're going to take a quick break, and when we're back, we will talk a bit about the biggest digital hygiene problems people have and some of the easy things you can do to make your devices safer. We'll be right back.

[Rosie Garant]

I'm literally pumping Purell onto my naked phone.

[Caitlin McGarry]

I play wordle and spelling bee every single day.

[Rosie Garant]

That's the first thing I do, play wordle.

[Kyra Blackwell]

While making coffee, I pour myself a.

[Rosie Garant]

Cup and do the crossword, which is.

[Caitlin McGarry]

The jewel of my morning.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

What's our starting word today?

[Caitlin McGarry]

I think it should be ocean.

[Rosie Garant]

I have seen you do spelling bee during meetings.

[Caitlin McGarry]

The New York Times crossword is a.

[Rosie Garant]

Moment of Zen that cleanses my brain. I wish the days were shorter and that the wordles were longer.

[Kyra Blackwell]

Join us and play all New York times [e-mail] games.

[Caitlin McGarry]

Subscribe by March 16 to get a special offer.

[Kyra Blackwell]

Welcome back. With us now is Caitlin McGarry, a senior editor at Wirecutter who covers tech. And this episode is all about digital hygiene.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

Caitlin, if you had to say the biggest issue that people have with their digital hygiene, what would it be?

[Caitlin McGarry]

I would say passwords for sure. People use the same password for everything all the time. It's the easiest thing to remember, right? If you use, like, the same basic password and just add, like, a few things here and there.

[Kyra Blackwell]

Wait, that's not okay.

[Rosie Garant]

I can't with you.

[Kyra Blackwell]

I thought you said no, but I thought when you say that people use the same password, I thought you meant literally they use the same password, not that they use the same base password and add numbers and exclamation points.

[Rosie Garant]

Get out of here.

[Caitlin McGarry]

Kyra, we're all about prevention here. So now that we know that adding 1, 2, 3, 4 to the base password is not the safest way to manage your passwords, I think we can make better choices going forward. That's what we're all about.

[Rosie Garant]

Kyra rocks 1. Kyra rocks 1, 2, exclamation point.

[Kyra Blackwell]

I thought I was doing really good, you guys.

[Caitlin McGarry]

Yeah. So when you go home tonight, Kyra, you're going to get a password manager.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

Tell us what this is, really, because I hear it all the time. I know that people should be using a password manager, but what is it exactly?

[Caitlin McGarry]

So a good password manager will store all of your passwords for you, but also create strong passwords for all of the services you have logins to and just keep track of them for you. So you have a master password to your password manager. And then the password manager has all of your passwords so you don't have to remember each individual one. You just know the one password. And then the password manager fills them in for you as you're logging in places, and it can also change them for you if there's like, a data breach and your password has been leaked on the Internet.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

Can I ask just the question that always pops into my head about password managers? I know we should be using them. Caitlin, how do we know that we can trust the password manager? How do we know that you know that that's going to be more secure than, like, my little black book full of all of my little passwords in the back pocket of my jeans?

[Caitlin McGarry]

Well, we test password managers thoroughly, so I highly recommend people read our guide to password managers. And we Outline exactly what we look for and how we determine which ones are the safest. Our current recommendation is 1Password. We love it. It works really well. But basically any password manager is better than no password manager at all. So if you're not using anything, just get started with something and that's safer. We recommend 1Password. But if you are all in with Apple products, like you have an iPhone, a MacBook, Apple has a new passwords app that does basically the same thing. It manages all of your passwords for you.

[Kyra Blackwell]

Is that free?

[Caitlin McGarry]

It is free, yeah. It comes pre installed on your iPhone and using that is better than nothing at all. We just recommend 1Password because we don't like services that are locked into one ecosystem. So if, if you have like an Android phone and a MacBook or an iPhone and a Windows laptop, it's not possible to use passwords in the way that's most effective. So that's why we recommend 1Password because it works on everything.

[Kyra Blackwell]

So now that I've learned that I've been doing passwords incorrectly, if I am worried that one of my exact same passwords have been leaked, what should I do?

[Caitlin McGarry]

So change your password immediately. If you have a password manager, which you're getting tonight when you go home, it will change it for you and store your new, secure, strong password. You can also monitor your credit just to make sure that someone hasn't gotten a hold of anything that they need to like, open new accounts in your name or something like that. You can check your credit for free once a [e-mail] or you can pay to see your credit score at various places. So just keep an eye on that stuff. But yeah, changing your password immediately is pretty much like the pro tip.

[Kyra Blackwell]

And then how often are you changing your passwords just to switch it up?

[Caitlin McGarry]

Oh, I, I'm changing them daily, you guys. I'm like, I'm a pro over here.

[Rosie Garant]

No, you're not.

[Caitlin McGarry]

I change them whenever I get like, your. Your information has been leaked. I'm like, all right, let me take some control here. I don't tend to change them all that often. Yeah, just letting the password manager hold onto things for me. I don't even know what my passwords are to like most of the things that I use because I haven't created them myself. So that helps.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

That's what makes me nervous about a password manager. If I don't know what the password is, then that kind of makes me nervous. But I guess it's like, you could always reset your password Right, Yeah.

[Caitlin McGarry]

Yeah. So having the password Manager with the 1Password that you need to remember, your master password, that's all you need to know. So the password managers that we recommend, they work across all different platforms, so you don't need to know each individual password to each individual service.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

So clearly passwords are super important. Caitlin, beyond that, is there something else that, you know, you commonly see people be lax or sloppy about and that they could just immediately improve their lives by sort of paying more attention to?

[Caitlin McGarry]

Yeah. We also recommend using a two factor authentication app. And I think a lot of people think of two factor authentication as like, oh, I'm just going to, like, enter my phone number and it'll text me a code and then I'll enter the code in. But we actually don't recommend that because it's pretty easy to hijack someone's phone number. So we recommend using an app we currently recommend Duo and Google Authenticator. And that way it'll just send a code to this app on your phone and then you can enter the code and log into your account. And if you have an Apple or a Google device, they both have fine. Find My Network. So, like, the ability to find stuff that's attached to your account, so I recommend setting that up so that you can track stuff down when you lose it.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

And by stuff, what do you mean?

[Caitlin McGarry]

You can find your phone, you can find your laptop, you can find. If you have air tags on anything, you can find those, you can find your AirPods. Basically, anything that you've set up with your Apple ID, you can find using the Find My app.

[Rosie Garant]

I have to say, I am thrilled with the Find My function on the phone. You put on that ding, the little sound, play a sound, and then you burrow under the covers and find wherever your phone or your watch is. It is so unbelievably helpful. And I feel like that technology has gotten very, very precise. I always find my stuff.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

I mean, clearly I probably need an airtag on my keys because that's what's always going missing.

[Caitlin McGarry]

Yeah, yeah. And you can also share air tags with, like, other people in your life. It's. It just makes it easy to know where things are. So highly recommend those. And they're not super expensive. They're only 29 bucks for one.

[Kyra Blackwell]

It feels like emails specifically pile up and there's just no way to cut them down. I know that my email inbox is probably in the tens of thousands at this point. So what advice do you have for people who just feel like it's past the point of no return with their emails.

[Rosie Garant]

I relate to this so much.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

Yeah, me too.

[Caitlin McGarry]

Yeah. I feel like email is something I'm always struggling to stay on top of as well. Like, I find that filtering things into specific folders is really helpful. I sign up for a lot of retailer mailing lists just to get like discount codes and stuff. And remembering to unsubscribe or having the Apple Mail feature that will unsubscribe for you. Just remembering to do that on a regular basis is really key because, like, I don't need all of these promotional emails and the emails that you get that are actually relevant and that you need to read are. I don't know, at least in my case, like, it's not that many.

[Rosie Garant]

What you're saying is you don't recommend just letting it go and waiting till whatever comes after email gets popular and catches on.

[Kyra Blackwell]

We thought it would be slack, but that turned out to be worse.

[Caitlin McGarry]

Now it's slack and email. So I don't think email is ever going anywhere. Like I like most effective. I think it's great.

[Rosie Garant]

Have you looked at your inbox recently?

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

Oh, it's got over 50,000 messages.

[Rosie Garant]

Oh, God.

[Caitlin McGarry]

When you run out of space, you can still just upgrade to more space.

[Rosie Garant]

We know there's an issue psychologically with just letting this pile up into the tension of thousands and sort of turning an eye and pretending it's not happening. But is there an issue from a digital hygiene perspective, Caitlin, of taking that approach?

[Caitlin McGarry]

No. I mean, you might eventually, like, run out of space. I think right now I've used like six gigs of the 15 gigs that I have in Gmail, and I've had my email account for I'm not even going to say how long. So I think it's pretty tough to actually reach, like the storage space cap on your email.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

Oh, I'm trying.

[Rosie Garant]

So is it just about. Yeah. Is it just about sort of taking a guess of how long you're gonna live and then putting. And then just divide that by the gigs you have?

[Caitlin McGarry]

Totally. Yeah. It's. It's the most effective way. I mean, I think the only problem is that, like, you might miss emails that are like, extremely important if you don't stay on top of, like, the things that you're subscribed to and whether they look like legit or you may be at risk for falling for, like a scam email if you're not on top of it. Because the scammers are getting really sophisticated and the emails they send can look like very similar to legit emails. So if you don't stay on top of things, you might be more susceptible to stuff like that, but otherwise, it's just totally psychological. I think for your mental health, you should curate your email a little bit. Okay.

[Kyra Blackwell]

So don't look behind. There's only ahead. Anything that's.

[Rosie Garant]

That is not what she's hearing.

[Kyra Blackwell]

No, that's what I'm hearing.

[Caitlin McGarry]

I. I mean, I think you can totally handle it that way. Like, just today.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

Thank you, dude. Start today. Start today for a better you tomorrow.

[Caitlin McGarry]

Right? You can't do anything about the past. Mistakes have been made. It's all about the future.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

I'll leave my digital archive as is and move forward.

[Kyra Blackwell]

Just be better.

[Caitlin McGarry]

Be better.

[Kyra Blackwell]

Okay, Caitlin. Well, before we wrap, we usually ask all of our guests one final question. What's the last thing you bought that you've really loved?

[Caitlin McGarry]

The last thing I bought that I really loved. So I play the cello, and I have been renting a cello for a little while, and because I just moved, I had to, like, turn in my rental. So I finally splurged and bought this really beautiful cello for myself. And I'm looking at it right now, and it's making me so happy. So I think just splurging on the things that bring you joy and hobbies that are away from technology and away from screens is really delightful.

[Kyra Blackwell]

That is the most wholesome and sophisticated answer. I think we.

[Rosie Garant]

Iconic answer.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

I will also say it brings me joy when I'm on a video call with you and I see your cello in the background. So, like, love it.

[Rosie Garant]

Love it. If you don't do it for yourself, do it for Christine. Caitlin, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for making us look at the hard truths and for holding us with grace.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

That's right.

[Caitlin McGarry]

Happy to help.

[Rosie Garant]

Y'All. What are we taking away from Caitlin from this episode?

[Kyra Blackwell]

Y'all already know I have to get a password manager.

[Caitlin McGarry]

Ah, yes.

[Kyra Blackwell]

And that's it.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

Yeah.

[Rosie Garant]

It's time.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

It's time. It's probably, like, the most effective thing you can do if you take one thing away from this episode if you're not using one.

[Kyra Blackwell]

And it's free.

[Rosie Garant]

Yeah. I'm gonna see if I can hack you when we get home. You. I'm Gonna see if Kyra W123 works. My takeaway is that I'm gonna clean all of my devices when I get home with little alcohol. Prep pads.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

Yeah, I got to.

[Rosie Garant]

It's disgusting.

[Kyra Blackwell]

I mean, you already did it today.

[Rosie Garant]

So you said I know, but I haven't done the case. My AirPod case, my watch, all of it.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

I do that when I go to the gym. I just take the, you know, you wipe down stuff with those, those pads from gym and I just do that with my, my phone. So my takeaway is that I have this ginormous pile of emails and I'm not going to let that pile stop me from doing better in the future. I may not go back through the archive and delete everything, but going forward, I'm going to be better about just staying on top of the things that are coming into my email.

[Kyra Blackwell]

I love it.

[Rosie Garant]

Look ahead.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

That's right.

[Rosie Garant]

It's a whole new you. So as always, if you want to find out more about what we talked about today, go to our website. We'll also link in our show notes to lots of helpful guides with more details on password managers, two factor authentication apps and more. That's it for us until next week when we're going to do a two part episode about stains. We've got the stain doctor back. Andrea Barnes. We're going to hear from you, our listeners.

[Caitlin McGarry]

Am I too late? Are the pants ruined? Any of would be really helpful, thank you.

[Rosie Garant]

We're gonna get into it. In the meantime, thanks so much for listening. Kyra, Christine, my friends. Peace.

[Kyra Blackwell]

Bye.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

Bye. Today's episode was mixed by Katherine Anderson, original music by Dan Powell, Marian Lozano, Alicia Ba Itup and Diane Wong. Wirecutter's deputy publisher and general manager is Cliff Levy. Ben Fruman is Wirecutter's editor in chief. I'm Christine Cyr Clissette.

[Kyra Blackwell]

I'm Kyra Blackwell.

[Rosie Garant]

And I'm Rosie Guerin.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

Thanks for listening. Let me also say welcome to the show again because I feel like I sounded like a very soft, like nighttime dj. Okay.

[Caitlin McGarry]

Welcome to the show.

[Christine Cyr Clissette]

Welcome to the show.

[Rosie Garant]

Caitlin. We're gonna spin some of your favorite tracks.

[Caitlin McGarry]

Oh, my God, what a vibe here. This is so exciting.

[Rosie Garant]

Let's start with Michael McDonald.