Children often take to a new game or app with great enthusiasm, only for interest to fade again within a few weeks. What was once opened every single day can end up forgotten entirely, while still sitting there on the home screen taking up space and attention.
These forgotten apps are easy to overlook, since none of them cause an obvious problem on their own. Together, though, they can make a child's device feel cluttered and harder to navigate, especially when new apps keep being added on top of the old ones.
Sort through them together
Sit down with your children every so often and go through the apps together, asking which ones they still actually play with. This turns the task into a shared activity rather than something done to them, and it often reveals apps they'd genuinely forgotten they had.
Remove the apps that are clearly no longer used, while keeping a few that still bring genuine enjoyment, even if they're not opened every day. The goal isn't to remove everything, just to clear out what has plainly lost its place.
It's worth checking at the same time whether any of these apps still have permissions they no longer need, such as access to photos or contacts. Removing the app usually takes care of this automatically, but it's a useful thing to keep in mind.
A tidier selection of apps makes it easier for children to find what they actually enjoy, rather than scrolling past dozens of forgotten icons. Doing this every so often, rather than waiting for the device to feel completely cluttered, keeps things simple for everyone involved.
