Spring is here! Everything is yellow, the sun has come back to us, and it’s time to get some spring cleaning done. Let’s start with your apps.

If you’ve had your phone for any length of time, you know it gets bogged down by the pressure of everything. Cleaning up some of your apps will help your phone function the way it’s supposed to. Here are your first steps to take.

1. Delete old photos

If you aren’t already connected to iCloud or some sort of cloud storage system, you want to go ahead a set that up. This way you can delete the old photos off of your phone and save them on your cloud so you won’t lose them.

2. Remove unused apps

I did this recently and realized I still had apps on my phone that my son played with when he was little – he is so not little anymore. I freed up lots of space just by deleting those unused apps. I have pages of apps that I use on a regular basis, but there are still a lot I just don’t need. It’s like clothes: if you haven’t dealt with it in the last few months, get rid of it. You can always download it again if there’s a better version or if you miss it.

3. Reorganize your apps

Move your apps around so they make the most sense to you. All of my Instagram apps are together, all of my money apps are together, all of my Google apps are together, all of my graphics apps are together. Then my home page is where I live and breathe; this is for the apps I use all the time – Facebook, Business Pages Manager, Instagram, LinkedIn. If it’s a social media app, it’s on the front page of my phone. Just reorganizing your apps will help you tremendously.

4. Review your subscriptions

I was kind of startled when I realized I was paying for things I don’t use. A lot of times you don’t think about it – it’s $2 here, it’s $4 there, no big deal. But I sat down and realized I was being charged for an app I had deleted from my phone and cancelled my subscription, so I had to call and have that taken care of. Make sure you’re actually using the stuff you’re paying for, and get it out of there if not. It’s just taking time and wasting money.

5. Backup your information

iPhones have an automatic backup feature, so make sure you’re taking advantage of that. If you haven’t been using the feature, it will probably take several hours to backup your information on that first go round. My whole life is on my phone, but because I have everything backed up and stored on my cloud, I know I’m not going to lose anything. If you’ll just auto backup, you won’t have to worry about your information if your phone is lost, broken or stolen. So make sure that’s set to backup automatically.

6. Deny location tracking

There are a lot of apps, like Life360, that I use to track my son, but I don’t need to be tracked 24/7. So if an app doesn’t need my location, I’m going to make sure I turn that off so my phone isn’t constantly tracking my location. When your phone is just running your location all the time, it’s killing your battery and your storage. You just don’t need that running in the background nonstop.

7. Manage app permissions

You might be surprised by the apps that have access to your camera, mic and contacts. I’m big on privacy. I don’t ever log in to any of my apps through Facebook, and there’s a reason for that. I don’t want Facebook to know all of my business; they know plenty already. Make sure your apps are working for you and you aren’t sharing information you don’t want to share.

8. Clean your charging port

Especially if your phone is older, you might want to see about having your charging port professionally cleaned. A lot of times now, though, by the time your port needs to be professionally cleaned, it might just be time for a new phone. You kind of have to weigh those options out and see what works for you.