How to organize your iPhone and make it look aesthetic & cute
Since the release of iOs14 for iPhones, you are able to make your home screens much more organised and visually appealing.
By replacing default app icons with images of your choice you can freely customize the look of your home screen.
Not only can you make it look pretty, but you can also add new widgets such to your homepage such as:
Time
Calendar
Date
Photos
Battery
Upcoming Events
Reminders
Weather
Step Count
Activity/Health
Tide Graph/Clock
Sun Rise/Set
Moon Phase
Instead of having to click into an app to see how many steps you have done for the day, iOS14 allows you to have it showing on one of your homepages all the time.
Setting up your homepages takes a little bit of planning and time so let’s get into it.
Step One: Download & Update
In order to make your phone look pretty and use all the features above, you need to make sure your iPhone has the latest iOS14 software. Personally, the iOS 14 update took at least an hour on my phone so do this step first so it can run in the background while you move on to Step Two.
You also need to download Widgetsmith from the app store.
If you have purchased your Icon Bundle from The Organised Hustler, make sure you have also downloaded all the files to your phone.
Step Two: Clean up your apps
Now that you are organising your homepages, it’s a good chance to review what apps you use more frequently and which ones you don’t use at all.
Get out a piece of paper and write the following three headings:
Apps I use all the time
Use sometimes
Apps I never use
Go through every single app in your phone and put them into one of the three categories.
Everything that you never use probably doesn’t need to be on your phone at all so delete the apps in this list.
iOs 14 has a great feature where you no longer need to have all your apps showing on your homepage, they now can live in the App Libary. The App Libary is a list on the last homepage where every app in your phone is kept.
Personally, I moved all my sometimes apps into the app library. I wanted my phone to be very clear and organised and apps like uber eats for example that I only use once a month, don’t need to be showing on my homepage.
Now you have left with your use all the time apps. This is where you can have some fun. You can organise your homepages by different themes, activities, frequency of use or literally whatever makes you happy.
My homepages are:
First Homepage: Frequently used apps and a calendar that I can see the entire month on.
Second Homepage: Entertainment apps with two picture widgets
Third Homepage: Health and Fitness apps with a sunrise/sunset widget and a step counter widget.
Fourth Homepage: Social media with a big quote widget
All my other apps are located in my app library.
Step Three: Change your icons
The steps below explain how you can add a custom icon, for any app of your choosing, to the home screen.
If you haven’t made your own icons, you can purchase my bundle here for $5.
The process effectively involves creating a Shortcut to open an app, and then adding an image to that Shortcut on the home screen
If you prefer to follow steps from a video, this is the video I used to learn how to change my icons and add widgets.
- Launch the Shortcuts app on your iPhone or iPad.
- Tap the + icon in the top-right corner of the screen.
- Tap Add Action.
- Use the text field to search for Open App.
- Select Open App.
- Tap Choose.
- Use the search for the app you want to change the icon of, and select it.
- Tap the three dots in the top-right corner.
- Click Add to Home Screen.
- Tap the placeholder app icon.
- From the drop-down menu, select Take Photo, Choose Photo, or Choose File, depending on where your replacement app icon image is located.
- Select your replacement image.
- In the text field, rename the app as you want it to appear on the home screen.
- Tap Add.
- Tap Done. Your Shortcut has now been created.
- Return to the home screen.
If you already had the app on your home screen, you will now have two icons. In order to keep only your newly-created icon, simply move the old icon to the App Library. You must not delete the original app.
Step Four: Adding Widgets
There are probably other apps out there but this is what I have used and I have found it really easy.
The following steps outline how to create widgets with Widgetsmith. Below I will explain how to use the calendar widget however the process is largely the same for all widgets, with slightly different visual options offered at each stage of the process.
- Open the Widgetsmith app.
- Choose whether you want to make a Small Widget, Medium Widget, or Large Widget. To make a brand new widget in addition to the preset calendar widget, select Add… Widget for your chosen size. In this case, we are editing the preset calendar widget. To change the preset calendar widget of your chosen size, select it.
- Select Default Widget. To make the widget appear at a scheduled time, simply tap Timed Widget instead of Default Widget.
How to Customize Widget Font and Colors
- Under Style, scroll through the list and select the widget of your choice.
- Select the Font bar toward the bottom of the screen. Note that depending on the widget you chose, the option bars may be different.
- Under Font, scroll through the list and select a font.
- Select the Tint Color bar toward the bottom of the screen. Again, your option bars may be slightly different.
- Under Tint Color, scroll through the list and select a tint.
- Select the Background Color bar toward the bottom of the screen.
- Under Background Color, scroll through the list and select a background colour.
- Tap the back arrow in the top left corner.
- Tap Save.
- Return to the home screen.
Add the widget of your chosen size from Widgetsmith to your home screen, and drag it to your preferred location. If you have made multiple widgets in Widgetsmith, you may need to hold down on the widget, tap Edit Widget, and then select the correct widget.
Step Five: Making it your own
Now that all your icons look cute, your widgets are set up, all you need to do is move everything around until you have something that works for you.
I hope these instructions helped you and you have set up your new homepages with no issues.
Please tag @theorganised.hustler on Instagram if you use my icons to make your phone look beautiful. I would love to see them.
Leave a Reply