It’s that time of year again!  I wrote this two years ago but with a little tweaking I felt like this info would be useful to show you again!

When was the last time you took a good look at the apps on your smart phone? If your phone is anything like mine, it’s loaded with apps that don’t get used.  There is nothing harmful about having unused apps on the phone aside from the fact that they take up memory storage space.  

There is is also the issue that with too many apps on the phone it can be difficult to find the ones that you do want to use.

As I write this, it’s the first day of Summer here in the Northern Hemisphere, but it’s never too late to do some spring cleaning on our phones!

I’ve assembled some easy to follow resources to guide you through the process of getting rid of apps you don’t want and organizing the rest so that your phone becomes more useful to you!

The very first step is to backup your phone before deleting anything.  That way if you make a mistake and delete something important or you deleted something by accident, you’ll be able to get it back.

Here is how to backup an iPhone: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203977

And here is how to backup your Android phone: https://www.androidauthority.com/backup-android-phone-708622/

Once you have a good backup in place, it’s time to take a good hard look at every app that’s on the phone.  If you haven’t used it for a long time maybe you should just delete it.

Here is how to delete apps on your iPhone; https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207618

And here is how to delete apps on your Android phone: https://www.androidauthority.com/how-to-delete-apps-android-789537/

Once you have trimmed down the apps on your phone, why not organize them into folders or groups that make sense to you?

Here is how to do that on an iPhone: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT200290

And here is how to do that on an Android phone:http://download.cnet.com/blog/download-blog/organize-your-android-phones-home-screen/

Now that your phone is just the way that you want it, let’s make sure that you have the essentials still on it.  By essentials, I am referring to everyday apps that make your real estate life easier and more organized.

Of course we need our phone calling, voice mail, email, calendar, contacts  and messaging apps, and luckily for us, they come with the phones, but there are others that should be on the phone as well.

I think that the following apps are a good start:

A mapping app (Google Maps is my favorite)

A really good calculator

A scanning app (Scannable is my favorite)

Microsoft Office – Word, Powerpoint, Excel

If you are a Mac user then Pages, Keynote and Numbers for your phone

MyFax for when you have to send a fax

Your MLS

RPR Mobile

Docusign

zipFormMobile

SkySlope (If you use this) 

Zillow

Realtor dot com 

A voice recorder

Slydial to call directly to voice mail

Your banking app

Dropbox for file storage

MagicPlan to create floorpans

Your favorite title company app

You may have others that you like, but this is my list of really useful apps.

Take a few hours and get your phone back in shape …doing so will be a time saver in the future!