My digital cleanup saga (Pt 2 of ?)

10 Mar, 2026

You can read the previous post in this series here.

Backing Up All The Things In One Place

I've finally gotten it right and now I can at last transfer my 500gb of data from OneDrive to my external HDD... and then I'll have all. My. Stuff. In one place, where I can go over them and mass delete duplicate files (I'm accepting recs on software for this task btw) and organize folders in a way that makes sense for the long run.

My auntie said she could buy me a lifetime plan from pCloud if I wanted to (as an early bday gift, she said; bless her.). I'd been leaning more towards Mega because I was more familiar with it, but they don't have lifetime plans and if I can avoid a subscription service, that's what I'll do.

Socials

Been away from mainstream social media for about a year and half. I think the most amazing thing is that after the first week (singular, yes) of jittery energy that made me wanna go back to Instagram, I haven't missed it at all. I created an empty account just so I could open posts my friends send to me (on my computer browser), but even that I'm almost not doing any more... They're so aware of it that they've gotten into the habit of screenshotting it when it's a static image and my partner is downright downloading the videos to show them to me bc I've been terrible at clicking on instagram links. lol

Things I'm using:

Status.cafe for speaking into the void of the internet social media and not really expecting a reply (though I'm not surprised/upset when one shows up).
iMood to have it across pages together with status.cafe.
Reddit for niche news, cute stuff (r/cats, r/whimsigoth, r/quartosvibe, r/femalelivingspaces, r/pixelart, r/bookbinding) and troubleshooting/learning things. Also memes I guess (r/ADHDmemes).
32-bit Cafe Discourse for reading and sharing blog posts, catching interesting links and discussions.
Listography for record keeping, general media tracking and discovering new people and things.

Though I do have other accounts across the web, I rarely touch them. Subscribing to things via RSS really has completely shifted the way I interact with online information/social streams.

RSS is the GOAT

It truly is a game changer, and I cannot stress this enough. Not only for following the news outlets and online folks that are interesting to you (be them bloggers, newsletter writers or youtubers), but also for actually decluttering my inbox. Guys, my email now works for human interaction. Not only job-related but also for messaging real people. Incredible; I had forgotten what that was like. Absolutely liberating.

All newsletters migrated to a folder on my RSS reader (Inoreader in most devices, Feeder on the Palma), and I even subscribed to a few threads on 32-bit Cafe and YouTube channels. Long live RSS, folks.

Set up

I have my Geekom A5 mini dualboot Kubuntu and Windows 11. So far, I've only booted Windows to back up stuff and work on proofreading/copyediting books. I'm thinking of shrinking it even more on the SSD, but I'd have to look up how to do that. I know it's possible tho. Atm it's sitting with 133gb for Win11 but I think it could go down to 100gb.

I'm using my Boox Palma a lot, and I'm considering selling my Samsung tablet to downsize the amount of devices I have.

Besides the Palma, I have a Nintendo Switch and my iPhone 13 Mini. It might just be enough for now. I love the fact that my phone is small but reasonably powerful. When the time comes though, I'll switch to Android, probably. It just bums me out that decent Android devices won't come with a small screen like the 13 Mini. I might get an Android flip phone, we'll see.

Not going back

I don't feel any need to go back to traditional, big tech walled gardens. My doom scrolling is abysmally slow and I don't feel guilty about my screen time. Now I do things that I like to do when I'm on a small screen (playing a video game, reading a book or an RSS feed, watching something), and I can't remember the last time I checked screen time. It truly does not matter any more.

Still pending & other considerations

I still haven't settled on a Cloud back up service yet. And for the future, who knows, maybe the simplest NAS set up I can find/afford. A girl can dream.

But thinking about this has also triggered a thought in my little brain: do I really need everything synced up? This is something I've been thinking ever since getting the Palma. Although it's an Android device, it's e-ink, and I'm also not using Google Play. A few services that I use in other devices don't work there natively (of course there are workarounds, but ain't nobody got time for that), and I've been juggling a few ebook reading apps to check which ones are good for my overall needs and storing local music to listen to when offline and and... Do I really need everything there synced up with other devices? Do I? The more I think about it, the less necessary it seems. I'm starting to think device syncing is a luxury, not a necessity.

(btw I'm not talking about safely backing up stuff, I'm talking about syncing reading/listening progress, for example.)

Another issue is YouTube. I'm spending too much time on it. I unfortunately have always enjoyed this damn website (though it did take me 3 years to get into it since it launched -- I refused at the beginning, videos sounded silly to me lol), and I'm even using Freetube on Kubuntu, but tracking isn't the problem here. The problem, as usual, is me. Not sure how to solve this one though. lmao.

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