A great thing about storage devices nowadays is that their prices have plummeted, while their capacities have shot through the roof. However, having affordable storage can sometimes lull us into complacency. The explosion of content on the Internet can be quite tempting, along with the myriad of sources for rich media like DSLRs and high definition videocams. I used to save everything that got my interest without much thought (after all, what’s my spanking new hard drive for?). Of course, my PC quickly became a cluttered mess, with all my gigabytes nearly filled to the brim. Sound familiar?

The quick and dirty solution would have been to buy even more storage, but then that would mean throwing myself into a never-ending vicious cycle. I don’t want to be spending more money that I really need to, and being wasteful makes me feel guilty. A Web 2.0 remedy would be to port some of my files to one of those free online vaults in the cloud. While this sounds promising and would give me mobility, it doesn’t really solve the problem of clutter (not to mention the reliability issues). It’s like telling somebody to clean her room, and she does so by throwing the trash onto the living room. No, the real solution to data overload is to take a glass of organization and a spoonful of discipline.

Prioritize. What I learned is that it doesn’t take much to save space and clean your digital clutter. Most of what’s inside our computers is really fluff – things we rarely even used or look at anymore. The first thing is to ask yourself, “Which files and programs do I really need?” If you don’t use it, might as well lose it.

Back-up. For seldom used files that you can’t bear to part with, create a backup on DVD (or whatever your favorite format) and start building up your archive.

Organize. Download everything to one folder. This makes it easier to keep track of what goes in to your computer. After reviewing if it’s worth keeping, either move it to a systematically arranged folder or delete it outright. That said, nothing should stay in this download folder for very long.

Make it a habit. Always be aware of how much data you save, much like being careful about eating too much fatty foods. Run Disk Cleanup religiously and defragment every once in a while. Keeping it light will make your computer run smoother, and you’ll probably finish your work much faster.

These are just some of the little things I tried to do that really helped a lot. Did you have a similar experience? How did you go about it?