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![Spring cleaning your TV streaming services A spray bottle, television remote, a brush, another television remote and another brush side by side with television color bars in the background](https://aarp.widen.net/content/j8fbuyxcbg/jpeg/240325_AARP_StreamingCleaning.jpg?crop=true&anchor=0,0&q=80&color=ffffffff&u=mh5igy&w=1140&h=655)
Spring cleaning is as much a rite of the season as watching daffodils bloom. It feels like the perfect time to declutter, deep-clean the house, take those unworn clothes to a local charity and maybe even spring for a fresh decorating accent or two. So why not take the same spring-cleaning approach to that bunch of streaming subscriptions that you’ve added over the year? Whether you’re watching shows and movies regularly (or not), you’re definitely paying for it all and may have lost track of how much it’s costing. That’s a situation made for spring cleaning.
Here's how to take stock, clean out and refresh your TV options in the spirit of spring cleaning.
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1. Create a list of your streaming subscriptions
Just as a good spring cleaning begins with a clear-eyed assessment of what’s accumulated in the house over the course of the year, a streamer spring cleaning should begin the same way: with a manual audit. What are you paying for and at what amount? Sure, you may know you’re a Prime Video or Netflix subscriber, but what about that platform you signed up for to watch one series and forgot all about? Or, worse, signed up for a free trial from and forgot to cancel?
It's easy to manually audit your streamer subscriptions. Go through your bank and credit card accounts for the year and note what you’re paying and to whom. If you’re a DIY-er, you can do this by hand, but there are online services that can do it for you — a major time saver. Services like Trim and Hiatus monitor your online accounts (with your permission) and use AI to figure out which of your payments are likely to be subscription-based services. (You’ll also discover whether you’ve double-subscribed to a magazine, and who hasn’t done that?) These are easy to set up and have other analysis features that can be useful for budgeting overall.
2. Take stock of your streamers
Now that you have a good list of what you’re paying to watch, it’s time to cull with a critical eye. First, go service by service and think about how frequently you’re going there for shows and movies. Regular visitor to Hulu? Good for you! Keep it another year. Got lured in to Disney+ by The Mandalorian but haven’t watched it since? Time to kiss the magic streaming kingdom goodbye. Don’t keep it around because you think you might start watching again – chances are you won’t. (Remember that pair of jeans you kept in the closet for years in case you wanted to wear them again?) And remember: In the world of streaming, it costs nothing to cancel a subscription, and there’s no penalty for coming back if you change your mind later. That’s what you call no risk and all return.
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