Now that spring has sprung, there is no better time to clean up, declutter and purge all the unused, unnecessary files and junk looming around slowing down your computer.

I will admit that I was a serial procrastinator.  When it came to cleaning up and purging my files I would put it off as long as possible just so I wouldn't have to face the disaster that awaited me.  I was becoming a digital hoarder, holding on to documents because I truly believed I would need or use them at one point or another.  I was clogging my poor computer and was holding myself back at the same time - so one day after not being able to find a significantly important document I decided to break my reckless cycle.

Technology was essentially created to simplify and minimize messes, but because we don't physically see the mess, it becomes easy to digitally hoard because it is not immediately affecting you.  But after a while, overloading your hard drive with "stuff"  will begin to affect the most valuable piece of hardware in our lives.

So with that, below are five tips for cleaning up your computer and optimizing its performance.

• Protect your computer.  Always have the latest antivirus (like Norton or McAfee) and spyware software (Malwarebytes Anti-Malware is one that if often used) to keep your computer free of malicious software.
• Organize your documents and downloads.  Take the time out to trash any documents or downloaded items you no longer need or use.  Create and manage an online filing system that will allow you easy access your documents. Also, do not forget to clean up your desktop as well as it can easily get littered with unwanted icons.
• Clean up and purge unused applications. Free up disk space by deleting or uninstalling programs that you don’t use and are taking up space in (and slowing down) your computer.
• Backup your data.  Using an external hard drive (Western Digital is my fave) allows you to store your entire media library (music, photos, movies, etc), and important data or you can store it in the Cloud using services like Google, Flickr or Dropbox (I love this service).
• Always empty your trash.  Once you have tossed out all the programs and documents, be sure to empty your trash bin and finally be done with them.  Skipping this step will not help improve the speed of your computer.