My Simple, Organized, Clutter-Free Desktop.

Posted: August 28th, 2009 | 4 Comments »

Some of you will hate me for this and some of you will appreciate it, but I wanted to show you guys what the desktop of my laptop (main computer) looks like…or rather, doesn’t look like. See, I don’t keep anything on the desktop other than a Dateline calendar and a few small icons in the menubar. I really hate clutter (even though I am getting rid of 10 Things a week, I still keep a pretty sparse, neat house) – and my computer is no exception. Here is a screenshot of the desktop without the dock even showing:

desktop1 My Simple, Organized, Clutter Free Desktop.
click to enlarge

Up in the menubar, I have found the simplest icons I could for Dropbox, Xmarks for syncing my bookmarks, Notify to monitor my Gmail account, Evernote for web clippings/notetaking, and then a few of the standard Apple items. And while I do use the Dock for my most commonly-used applications, I keep it hidden because, well, it’s an eyesore. Here is what the desktop looks like with the Dock showing:

desktop2 My Simple, Organized, Clutter Free Desktop.
click to enlarge

In the Dock, I keep the following easily available: Finder, Dashboard, Hulu, Adium, SMCFan Control, Airfoil, Tweetie, Evernote, EventBox, Firefox, Safari, Address Book, Preview, iTunes, iPhoto, Image Well, Open Office, Transmit (FTP client), Photoshop, Dreamweaver, System Preferences. That’s pretty much everything I use on a daily basis, so everything else stays hidden away in the Applications folder until I need it.

In my mind, having a clutter-free computer makes me more efficient (and also makes me calmer). What do you think? Does your computer look something like this, or do you have tons of folders all over the desktop?

Related posts:

  1. Using Dropbox To Manage Files On Multiple Computers.
  2. My Minimalist Computer Setup Is Complete.
  3. Consolidating Down To A Single Laptop Computer.


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4 Comments on “My Simple, Organized, Clutter-Free Desktop.”

  1. 1 marci said at 2:41 pm on August 28th, 2009:

    Whatever floats your bubble, as they say….

    However, MY desktop is 5/6th’s covered with icons…. I want to just click once and there it is…. but then I am a very ‘visual’ person… if I hide it, I forget it…. so I like to keep things out in the open.

    To each his/her own :)

  2. 2 Sarah said at 6:21 pm on August 28th, 2009:

    I have no idea how to screencap, so I can’t offer a picture – but I have a very minimalist screen as well. I have the recycling bin down in the left hand corner right above the blue start bar (I have a PC), and then my three most commonly used icons in the top right hand corner. I do change my background image on a fairly regular basis, but I tend to go for ones that aren’t too busy.

  3. 3 Simple Llama said at 6:37 pm on August 28th, 2009:

    No icons at all on my desktop. I do keep my dock visible at the bottom, though I did shrink it from the default. Coming from a billion years of using Windows, I am used to there being something at the bottom. And the Dock is so much better than the taskbar / startmenu, so I keep it around.

  4. 4 Annie said at 10:47 pm on February 24th, 2010:

    I keep a few icons on my desktop, and otherwise use that place as a temporary holding pen when transferring files from place to place.. too many icons on the Desktop really get on my nerves.. kinda like tripping over trash on the way to the bathroom, you know? Great post!

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