-Marie Kondo, we need to talk.
She's taught us a lot about tidying up.
-I'm Marie Kondo.
My mission is to spark joy in the world through tidying.
-But as a tech guy, I think she's missing
one very important cleaning tip --
the life-changing magic of not throwing things away
and keeping them in the cloud.
In Kondo's Netflix show, she has people dig through mountains
of old photos, papers, records, and family mementos
to throw away the ones that don't spark joy.
When I see this, I think, "These poor people!"
It's 2019.
Precious memories and even old paperwork
don't need to go in the trash.
They need to go online.
Up here in the cloud, I have every single photo
I've ever taken -- 300,000 of them.
And they're all available here on my phone.
Nowadays, you can be a digital maximalist
and still tidy up, thanks to
Apple iCloud, Google Photos, Microsoft OneDrive, Adobe
Creative Cloud, and others.
I asked Kondo what she thinks of my view.
She said, "Tidying up is not about accommodating the size
of the space you have available,
it's about choosing what to keep because it sparks joy.
Just because the cloud has endless space available
doesn't mean you have to fill it."
I think that's true, but the cloud
can also make it easier to part with sentimental items
and even to get more enjoyment out of them.
So I've got an Internet update to the KonMari method.
Call it the KonGeoffrey method Step one.
Thank you phone and laptop for their service.
Okay, you don't actually have to do this.
There's a monthly fee for most cloud storage,
but $1 a month for 50 gigabytes
will seem like a fantastic deal once you do it.
Any big name cloud provider can do the job
of storing your stuff
and making it available on your phone,
your tablet, laptop, even TV.
Google's is less expensive
and does the best job at sorting.
Apple's is built into its devices
and puts an emphasis on privacy.
Adobe's Lightroom is pricey,
but amazing for people who edit photos.
Okay, now you've got to get your stuff up into the cloud.
Or is it that way or that way?
If you've got an iPhone, iCloud Photos will automatically upload
a copy of everything you snap or Google Photos
will do that in an iPhone or an Android phone.
Bonus, your phone will no longer complain
about running out of storage.
The apps manage what to remove
from your device in the background.
[blows] What about ye oldey-timey physical photos?
I've even got old slides.
Well, I shipped my old albums off
to a service that scanned them for me.
Or Google has a really cool PhotoScan app
that makes it pretty easy to scan with your phone.
Scanning old photos also keeps them safe
from fires and floods.
Storing your stuff in the cloud also makes it easier to enjoy.
Google and Apple both us artificial intelligence
to sort your photos into memories
for you to rediscover.
Location tags, timestamps,
and facial identification make it remarkably easy
to find photos of specific places, times, and people.
The cloud providers are even smart enough
now to sort through images and files based on their content.
Here, Google has made a collection
of every receipt I've ever snapped.
Now I'm going to ask it for photos of goats.
Looks like I've met a lot of goats.
One other important thing.
The cloud isn't just for photos.
You can use it to store old paperwork,
letters, drawings, music, even home videos.
I've even said goodbye to old clothes by snapping a photo.
This was my first concert T-shirt.
Ah, En Vogue. -Free your mind.
-To me, algorithms tidying my cloud brings
as much joy as Kondo-folded clothes,
maybe more, because I don't have to do the folding.