Notion is generous to a fault. It gives you a page for every idea, a database for every list, and no limit on how many of them you can stack in the sidebar. That generosity has a cost. After a year of steady use, most workspaces carry two versions of the same reading list, a meeting notes database from a job you have left, and a page called "Ideas" that nobody has opened since March.

A seasonal clear-out sorts this out. Spring is a good excuse, but the method works whenever your workspace starts to feel heavier than it should.

Why the sidebar is where clutter hurts most

Databases will quietly hold thousands of rows without complaint. The sidebar will not. It is a flat list of everything you have ever built, shown every time you open the app, with no filters and nowhere to hide.

That makes it the right place to start. When forty pages sit at the top level, you stop choosing what to work on and start scanning instead. Names get vague, duplicates multiply, and the handful of pages you use each week disappear into the crowd.

The goal is simple: the sidebar should show what you are working on this month. Everything else belongs one or two clicks away, inside a hub page or a database.

The ten-minute sidebar sort

Do this before archiving anything. Work top to bottom, and resist opening each page as you go.

1. Cap your favourites. Five is a sensible ceiling. If something has sat in favourites for months without being opened, it can come out.
2. Build hubs. If "Client work", "Invoices" and "Proposals" all sit separately at the top level, create one page called "Work" and move them inside it. Ten top-level items is a workable limit.
3. Rename with a prefix. "Work — Clients" reads better in a sidebar than "Clients (old, updated)". The prefix tells you where a page lives before you click it.
4. Reorder. Drag pages into the order you actually use them. Notion keeps that order, so tomorrow you get the same useful layout.

You have not deleted anything yet.

The four-bucket pass

Open Quick Find with Cmd + P on a Mac or Ctrl + P on Windows, then work through your page titles. Give each one a single decision.

1. Keep. Current, accurate and used. Leave it where it is, ideally inside a hub.
2. Move. Useful but in the wrong place. Use Move to to nest it under the right parent rather than dragging it through the sidebar.
3. Merge. A duplicate. Take anything unique from it, add it to the survivor, then archive it.
4. Archive. Finished, out of date or never really started. Archive rather than delete.

If a page is borderline, ask whether you would open it in the next three months. If the honest answer is no, archive it.

Keep what you will use this quarter. Archive what you will not. Delete almost nothing.

Archiving old pages without losing them

Archive is not delete

Notion's archive is the gentle option. The page leaves your sidebar and stops cluttering your notes, but it is not thrown away. Deleting sends a page to the trash, where it is eventually removed for good. Archiving keeps it recoverable, which is why it should be your default for anything you are finished with but not certain about.

Archive projects, not single pages

Archiving a parent page takes its sub-pages with it, so finished projects are best archived at the top. Before you do, pick out what is worth keeping: the final deliverable, the decisions you made, anything you would need if you had to repeat the work. Copy that into a short summary on the parent page, then archive the lot.

Export first if you are unsure

For records you might need outside Notion, export the page to PDF or Markdown before archiving. If you handle client or personal data, check your own retention policy — or ask whoever advises you on data protection — before you archive or delete it.

Merging duplicates properly

Duplicates are the fiddliest part of a clear-out, because merging means making a judgement. Two reading lists, three versions of a project brief, meeting notes spread across four pages.

Start by choosing the survivor: usually the page that sits in the right place and has the clearest structure. Copy across anything unique — a useful link, a decision, a name — then deal with the old page. Rather than deleting it, add one line at the top: "Merged into [page name]" and archive it. If an old link turns up in a message or a notebook, you will know where it went.

If two pages genuinely need to stay identical, a synced block will do the job: edit one and every copy updates. Use it sparingly. Synced blocks suit content that must match exactly, not pages that merely look similar.

Habits that stop the mess returning

A clear-out is only worth doing if the clutter does not creep back.

• New pages go inside a hub, never at the top level.
• Name to a pattern: "Project — Acme (2025)", "Notes — 14 March stand-up".
• Book fifteen minutes on the last Friday of the month to archive finished work and empty your inbox page.
• Close projects properly. A project with no next action is archive material, however promising it once sounded.

Your first hour

If you would rather do this once than tinker for weeks, set aside an hour and work in this order.

1. Minutes 0–10: favourites and sidebar order.
2. Minutes 10–30: the four-bucket pass through Quick Find. Decisions only, no tidying.
3. Minutes 30–45: merge duplicates and archive finished projects, exporting first where you need a copy.
4. Minutes 45–55: rebuild the sidebar: hubs, names, order.
5. Minutes 55–60: put a fifteen-minute monthly tidy in your calendar.

A workspace you can read at a glance is worth more than one that holds everything. Archive generously, name things plainly, and next spring the job will take twenty minutes.

Photo: 1681551 / Pixabay