I Stopped Letting Photos Pile Up on My Phone: This Routine Keeps Me Clutter-Free

Tired of seeing 10,000+ photos (most of which I never actually looked at), I realized that I needed to be more proactive in organizing my Camera Roll. Now, my multi-step (but simple) routine stops photos from cluttering my phone.

1

Auditing My Favorited Photos Each Month

I often mark images as Favorites when I want to share them with others because it’s an easy way to find them in my catalog. But while some people leave them here for simple access, I rarely look at them again later. So, the only logical way to stop clutter and organize my iPhone photos is to audit this part of my Photos app.

Each month, I review my Favorited photos and critically assess whether I truly want to keep them. Most of the time, the answer is no; I’ve already used them for their intended purpose, which is to either post on Instagram or share with my friends and family.

If I need the image later, I can always get it from wherever I shared it. However, since it doesn’t need to consume space on my phone, I don’t want to see it in my Favorites.

2

Clearing Out My Screenshots Folder

Most of my screenshots are for practical purposes. I often keep them when traveling for public transport directions, especially when I may not have access to mobile data. In other cases, I take screenshots of emails, statements, and other documents that I’ll need in the near future.

Apart from a couple of screenshots, I’ve rarely needed to keep them longer than roughly three months after taking them. However, they’re some of the easiest things to forget about—and over time, they’ll needlessly clutter my Camera Roll and eat away at my storage space.

Thankfully, my iPhone has a dedicated Screenshots folder. Going here and deleting everything is very straightforward and takes me a few minutes at most. I normally do this every 1-2 months, and I always do it after a trip.

3

Deleting Duplicate Files

I sometimes download duplicate images, especially when saving photos from my full-frame camera. Since these files are often much bigger in size, they quickly eat away at my storage space. I am certain that I wouldn’t have needed to upgrade iCloud so soon if I had removed my duplicate files.

Thankfully, my Photos app also has a folder for removing duplicate files. When I clear out my phone, it’s very easy to go into here and remove any duplicates. I’m often surprised at how many there are, and it’s one of the easiest ways to declutter my device.

4

Clearing My Photos at the End of Each Trip

When I travel, I take more photos and am likely to store more than I need. Everything seems like it’s worth keeping on a trip, but once I return home, I can look at my Camera Roll with a clear mind.

First, I mark anything I might want to keep as a Favorite. I also send images that others might want to see to ensure that I don’t delete anything that might be important to someone else. Everything else gets removed.

Once a couple of days have passed, I’ll assess my Favorites. If I don’t want to keep something, I’ll similarly delete it.

5

Choosing Photos to Store in Cloud Software

In addition to iCloud, I store my photos in Google Drive and Dropbox. I store most of my full-frame photos in Dropbox, while Google Drive is my go-to option for phone images. In some cases, I’ll transfer pictures from my phone rather than keeping them on my camera roll.

Most of the time, I store older phone pictures—which I class as anything older than three years—in Google Drive. Since I always back up my full-frame camera’s photos to Dropbox, I only keep them on my phone if I truly think that I’ll need to access them. I have the Dropbox app on my phone, so it’s not hard to re-download my pictures.

6

Searching Photos Based on My Camera

Besides having lots of photos from my full-frame camera, I’ve often saved pictures from my old cameras on my phone. When I haven’t cleared out my Camera Roll for a while, I frequently forget about those. Thankfully, however, I don’t need to scroll through years’ worth of images to find them.

My phone has a helpful feature where I can search for images based on the device they were taken on. So, if I want to clear out images from a specific device, I can make the process much smoother than would otherwise be possible. This does not work with other iPhones, but if you have a DSLR camera, I recommend trying this tip.

7

Deleting Photos After Sharing

One of the easiest ways I’ve decluttered my phone’s pictures and mastered the Photos app on my iPhone is by not keeping images after I send them to others. I often take pictures of my friends and family when out and about, and I typically send them everything. This often means that they’ll receive 10+ versions of the same image—which is great for helping them to choose if they actually want to use each image.

However, it’s less ideal for me. I often keep every version of these pictures after transferring them, when in reality, I only need one. To tackle this problem, I now keep one version of each image and then remove the rest.

8

Removing Folders That I No Longer Need

Organizing photos into folders is one of the best ways that I categorize my images. While I mostly use these for travel, I’ll also create folders for special events. Doing so makes it easier for me to keep everything organized and access my pictures whenever I need to.

But just because I create one folder, it doesn’t mean that I will need it forever. Rather than hoarding different folders, I think it’s easier to remove them when they no longer serve their purpose. When doing this, I can decide which images I’d like to keep within each folder as well.

I audit my folders less often than other parts of my Photos app; it’s normally something I do every six months or so. Doing so makes my clearouts more meaningful.

9

Clearing Out the Recently Deleted Folder

Decluttering my Camera Roll is about more than just deleting pictures from the main folders. Even though files will automatically be removed after 30 days, I would rather not wait. So, I then go into the Recently Deleted folder and get rid of everything I’ve just deleted.

Before finalizing my deletion, I’ll quickly check and ensure that I haven’t deleted anything by accident. Once I’ve done that, I then feel more confident. Doing this ensures that I truly declutter my phone and don’t keep anything that does not need to be there.

10

Auditing the Recently Saved Folder

I save a lot of pictures so that I can use them elsewhere, which means that my Recently Saved folder is always bigger than the average person’s. However, my biggest problem with this folder is that I haven’t "recently" saved most of the images that appear here. I sometimes see pictures that are over four years old, which is quite frustrating.

When decluttering my camera roll, I’ll go through my Recently Saved folder and delete anything I no longer need. For newer images I’ve added, this is equally as important; it means that I remove all pictures that have served their purpose. If I need the picture later, I can normally trace it back to wherever it was saved from.

Though it felt daunting in the early days, I find it quite easy to keep the Photos app on my phone decluttered. It just takes a bit of proactivity and some clear systems.