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We not only spend our lives on our smartphones, we put our lives into them too. Endless pictures, messages and apps create a cluttered digital space that can become stressful. A messy workspace or home would get tidied, so why wouldn't your phone?

It's easy to get started and once you have, keeping it up will be a doddle too! We've got tips and tricks to help keep your phone experience was smooth as possible.

Delete old contacts

Sifting through and sorting out contacts is something many of us avoid. Over the years, you add in numbers but rarely find the time to sit down and review who's in there. You can almost guarantee there's a takeaway you haven't used in ages and a few people who became your best friends after a few and were never heard of again.

Not only that, there are probably contacts saved under incorrect names, or that only have first names "" making it harder to work out who it is, or even with old school emo hearts beside their names. We were all young once.

Take some time out of your day to go through who's in there and consider if they need to be. It can be in a spare 20 minutes when you're flicking through your phone anyway! Be ruthless. Plus, if anyone messages you after you've deleted them, "˜new phone, who's this?' always works.

Sort out apps

The majority of our phones are taken up by apps "" it's what we see the most, they cover the home screens of our devices and are easily accessible. The more we download, the more room it takes up and eventually becomes cluttered.

There are a whole heap of ways to arrange your apps. Here are a few ideas:

Colour code

You can arrange your apps so that they all align in the same colours, or create folders for the apps (if you have a lot of them) into each colour. Such as Facebook and Twitter in blue, whereas Whatsapp and Spotify in green.

Arrange by use

Arrange your apps into folders of what they are useful for. Keep all your social media apps in a single folder that's easy to find, your banking apps in another and so on.

Emoji folders

Using emojis instead of text might just brighten your home screen up a little! As long as you know what each emoji stands for, you'll soon get the hang of putting everything into folders.

Ease of use

Arrange your apps into the most comfortable way to find them. So, if you can only stretch your thumb halfway across the screen, make sure your most used apps are closer to it. That way, it's quicker and easier to get around. You'll get used the layout quicker because it's so easy to find what you need.

Alphabetical order

Sorting out the apps by alphabetical order can be super rewarding, and you'll always know where they are!

Put the most used apps first

Do you have apps you don't open every day? Don't keep them in the forefront if it isn't necessary. Keep the apps you find yourself opening more often on the first page – if you have more than one – and sort back down to the app you use the least.

Once you start arranging your apps, take some time to review them too. There's no harm in downloading apps because loads of people were talking about it "" FOMO is real. But if you haven't looked at it since, why cling on to it?

If you paid for an app, you can download it again and you won't be charged. Deleting them doesn't mean they're gone forever.

Sift through old messages

Does anyone take the time to delete their old messages? We probably should! Erase old conversations so your devices aren't being clogged up. Comb through your Whatsapp messages, texts and emails to get rid of the correspondence you don't need. All those "˜Okay' messages aren't adding any value!

Turn off push notifications

Push notifications are useful but they can be incredibly annoying too. They fill up your screen and force you to look at your phone. Do not disturb modes are great for curbing this, or you can turn off push notifications all together.

Be choosy about what you want to be notified about "" is it emails you care about? Think about the notifications you receive and which ones are most tedious. Switching them off means you'll only delve into apps as and when you feel the need to.

Clear out notes

Having the notes app is great to jot something down quickly like a shopping list. It also houses random pieces of information we can't quite understand. Dig through your notes which might be your greatest thoughts or some serious ramblings. Get rid of the things you don't need.

Put photos into albums

Like a lot of parts of your phone, photos end up being out of sight and out of mind. Photo streams can become bloated quickly but it's worth going through what you've got and splitting them into albums.

Keep holiday memories, your favourite selfies and even some situation-appropriate memes in separate places so they're easy to find.

With the time you'll take arranging your snaps, you'll find some you no longer want or need (like the blurry pictures) so you can clear them from your phone.

Back anything up, just in case it is deleted accidentally. You never know what you might want to keep, but you'll probably also be surprised by what you have inadvertently kept on there!

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