Well, out here on the Pacific Coast, the flowers are beginning to bloom, and the trees are starting to bud. (I hate to tell my east coast friends who are now digging out of what will hopefully be their last snow of the season, that, in truth, the flowers never stopped blooming out here. We had roses blooming every month in the garden!) But, with the sun re-appearing and frigid temperatures beginning to wane, I say it's time for some Spring Cleaning!

I have three great suggestions for us all...

1. Clean up that messy computer hard drive!
Is your hard drive like mine? Where does all of the clutter come from, and why am I so afraid to trash those files I will never revisit again?! Well, today I've been unburdening my computer of every file I can trash.

For Mac users, I recommend OmniDiskSweeper because it's free! It scans your computer and lists your files, by categories, in order from the largest files in each category to the smallest ones. (I'm sure my Windows friends have similar utilities.) I've gone through those files looking for what I can trash and what I can permanently archive and remove from my laptop hard drive. I'm amazed at what I've accumulated over the years!

Next, I tackled orphaned files--those files that are no longer used on my computer because the applications associated with them have long since been deleted. I used CleanApp to identify and delete those. It only costs $15 and does a lot more--like identifying those files you haven't used in forever. Then, I deleted some old applications I never use. (CleanApp offers to delete those hidden files, like the preference files, etc. associated with the app too.) Several other apps are available to assist with this type of task, I just chose CleanApp.

This process has now reclaimed nearly 100 GB of much-needed disk space! I feel as if I've been on a successful diet plan!

2. Clean up that messy computer desktop!
No matter how hard I try, my computer desktop gets cluttered with things I need to get to, but just not right now. I try really hard to keep documents located in a folder, in my documents folder, for the application that created the original file. But try as I might...

So today I cleaned up the computer desktop by placing all of those miscellaneous files in their correct and logical place. It's completely free!

3. Purchase an automatic offsite backup plan/service!
I personally use Backblaze (Mac and Windows) as I find it to be very reasonably priced and hassle-free. I've used it now for over a year. No matter how many disks you have routinely connected to your machine, no matter how large the capacity of these disks, Backblaze only charges you $50 per year per computer. (I was afraid of services that charged incrementally as I had no idea what I would actually be spending per year. Backblaze is one fixed price!)

After setup, Blackblaze automatically and constantly keeps the files on your machine, unless you choose to exclude them, encrypted and copied safely on the great server in the sky. So if the house burns down, if someone steals my computers, if California falls into the Pacific Ocean, I can restore my machines, once they are replaced, to the state they were in when I used them last. I love that peace of mind.

Having my time capsule backup doesn't save all of my data (because I have too many external hard drives filled with data) nor does it protect my data should the time capsule be stolen or destroyed with my computer. With Backblaze, I don't worry at all.

So, for the first spring cleaning for the new decade, why not join me in getting your machines nice and tidy! You'll be glad you did.