Mark Your Calendar for Clean Out Your Computer Day

If you’re like me, your computer is weighed down with way too many files, e-mails and spyware. And if you’re really like me, you don’t have any time to do a system purge.

Short of throwing a party whose theme is just a ruse to have friends do it for you, there’s a national day to band together in commiseration around much needed system cleansing. Yes, this really exists; Feb. 8 (this Monday).

It was started in 2000 by Institute for Business Technology, with the idea that slow machines aren’t just aggravating, but can dig into productivity and thus profitability. A fair amount of system maintenance vendors like iolo are backing the day for obvious reasons.

Here are a few stats they provided:

• The average American adult has 1,800 digital files, according to the Consumer Electronics Association, making searching them quite a task.
• Executives waste six weeks each year looking for lost items and information, according to a study published in the Wall Street Journal, adding up for huge corporate operating losses.
• Americans waste nine million hours per day searching for misplaced items. On average, people spend a year of our lives looking for lost items, according to the National Association of Professional Organizers. Imagine the things you could do if cleaning up your computer saved some of those hours!
• In 2007 alone more than 40 million computers were dumped, up from 20 million in 1998. On average, each computer lasted only 30 months, that short life span often attributed to the need for larger hard drive. Save yourself the money and the environment the damage by freeing up space on your old hard drive.

You can find out more and get in on the action (including list of tips) here and here.