The best advantage of cloud storage is just uploading something there, and forgetting about it.
But if you're using Microsoft's OneDrive cloud, you might have to do a bit of spring cleaning.
Microsoft announced a few months ago that they would be cutting the amount of free storage offered to users from 15 gigabytes to 5.
This change isn't just affecting new users, but those who got in early and are currently using it.
The size changes come into effect on the 10th of August, so it's best to get in now and sort out your cloud.
What's best to delete
Whatever you're going to delete, make sure you've got backups. Plug in a USB stick or external hard drive, and copy everything to it.
When you log into your OneDrive account online, you can Manage Storage in your Settings. There it'll tell you how much storage you have left available to you right now and how much is used up.
From there, you can start thinking about what you have to remove.
First, empty the drive's recycle bin. There probably won't be a big amount freed from it, but it's a good start.
Then think about taking any video files off the cloud. Most videos are very large files, usually upwards of half a gigabyte each. If you have any folders of videos in your OneDrive, they should be the first to come down.
After that, look at if you have any photos stored there. Cloud services are primarily used to backup and save photos, so this might be your sole reason for using it. Be very selective with what you take down, so keep your absolute most precious memories on the drive and take off what you don't want.
The best to do then is just to trawl through all your folders and see what can go. Any old work documents that you don't use anymore, or huge spreadsheets that hold useless information now can all go.
5 gigabytes is still a big enough size to hold a lot of stuff, so you might not have to be too lethal with your deletion.
It's always a good thing to do to keep an eye on your cloud storage, not just now that Microsoft is trimming it down. If they get too overloaded, the syncing between cloud and computer can get a bit sluggish, so delete from it what you don't need.
