A chaotic home screen on your smartphone also causes chaos in your head. With these tips you can easily tidy up and organize your iPhone home screen.
Clean up and organize iPhone homescreen
A tidy house provides peace of mind. It’s no different with your iPhone. By cleaning up your iPhone home screen and organizing your apps with these tips, you get more peace of mind and you can work faster.
1. Return your home screen to its default layout
If you want to tackle it rigorously, it is possible to completely reset the home screen. If you do this, your homescreen including the dock will be reset to the standard format. You won’t lose your apps this way, but they will be placed in the order in which they were installed.
To reset your homescreen, complete the following steps on your iPhone or iPad:
- Open the Settings app and go to ‘General’;
- Tap on ‘Reset’ at the bottom;
- Tap Reset Home Screen Layout, then tap Reset Home Screen.
This is one way to start with a clean slate and organize from there. You can of course also choose to organize according to how your homescreen looks like at the moment.
2. Remove apps you are not using
Chances are you have installed some apps that you never actually use. These apps take up unnecessary space. Therefore, go through all your apps and decide for each application whether you want to keep it or throw it away.
You can always download any app again later. Even if you ditch the app from your iPhone, you won’t lose it forever. For example, do you have apps that you have not used for a month, but are still installed for ‘ever’? Then throw it away for a tidy feeling.
To delete an app, press and hold the icon on your home screen. You will now see a shortcut menu with ‘Delete app’ at the top. Do you want to discard multiple apps at the same time? Then keep the app pressed until a cross appears in the corner of each icon. Tap on this cross and tap on ‘Delete’ to discard the app.
Not sure if you want to get rid of an app? From iOS 14 you do not have to delete the app to get it from your home screen. Long press an app, then tap Change Home Screen. Then tap Remove from Home Screen.
3. Organize apps
The next step in cleaning up your home screen is to organize your leftover apps. You can move apps by pressing them briefly until they vibrate and a minus icon appears at the top left of the app icon. Then you drag them to another place. For the order you have to take several things into account.
First of all, think about how you hold your iPhone. Your goal is to easily access the apps you use the most. For example, if you hold your iPhone with your right hand at the bottom, it is smart to place the apps you use most often at the bottom right.
Then keep in mind that you can fill multiple screens with apps by swiping. It is sometimes easier to swipe your thumb and start the apps at the bottom right of the next page than to open an app at the top left. However, if you have filled more than three screens with apps, it may be time to work with folders.
Don’t be afraid to rearrange apps later. Do you notice that you often use an app, but is it in a difficult place? Then press and hold the app again, then tap Change Home Screen on the shortcut menu. Then move the icon to a location where you can reach it faster.
4. Clean up iPhone homescreen by putting apps in folders
If you have a lot of apps and don’t want to use the iOS 14 App Library, folders are the most logical way to organize them. Folders are collections of apps that you reach by tapping the folder. You create a folder by holding down an app and dragging it over another application and releasing it. Then they are both in a folder.
To change the name of a folder, open the folder and press and hold the name at the top. As a nice alternative, you can choose to use emoji as a name instead of text.
There are several ways to organize your folders. It just depends on what works well for you. These are some suggestions:
- By category: Place your apps per category in folders. For example in the categories ‘social apps’, ‘games’ and ‘security’;
- Per verb: Name your folders after verbs such as ‘chat’, ‘play’, ‘watch’ and ‘work’ and then divide the apps under these words;
- By theme: Folders can be easily divided by theme. Consider, for example, ‘traveling’, ‘working’, ‘children’ and so on;
- By color: Apps can also be divided into folders per color. That looks nice and tidy, but this makes apps difficult to find.
5. Create more space between the apps and folders
Apps always appear at the top by default on a new page. Do you want to create more space between the apps or folders? This is an option via a trick. For example, it is possible to keep an entire line empty and to place apps lower on the screen. Handy if you only place a few apps on the home screen, but do not want to place them at the top of the screen.
For this trick you unfortunately have to use a completely black background, otherwise it will not work. An advantage is that a black background immediately gives a tidy feeling. Go through the following steps for this trick:
- In the Settings app, go to ‘Background’;
- Tap on ‘Choose a new background’, look for the black background and set it;
- Go to this website on your iPhone via Safari;
- Tap the share icon and choose ‘Add to home screen’;
- Repeat the above step several times to place more invisible icons as empty space on your homescreen.
Set wallpaper
When you have a busy background, your iPhone is no longer clear. For a tidy feeling, choose a quiet background. Each new iPhone has its own wallpapers, but you can also install them on your older device. For example, take the backgrounds of the iPhone 12. In our Wallpaper Weekly section we also share the best wallpapers every Friday.
Read more articles in our beginner’s guide:
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Bought a new iPhone? This way you transfer all data securely
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5 tips to organize your iPhone home screen and keep it tidy
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8 tips to get the most out of the iPhone’s default Camera app
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3D Touch explained: this is how it works, and everything you need to know
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Step-by-step plan: This way you protect your privacy on an iPhone extra well