Summer Clean-up: the Guide to sorting out your HubSpot properties

Summer is the perfect time to clear out... even your CRM. Between duplicates, outdated fields, and never-used properties, your HubSpot database probably needs a good cleanup. A well-executed "Summer Clean-Up" guarantees you a CRM that is more readable, faster and more efficient from the start of the school year.

This practical guide takes you step-by-step through identifying, sorting, archiving, and structuring your HubSpot properties—without breaking anything or losing valuable information. The result: a clean foundation, a streamlined CRM, and teams that can breathe.

Summer is the perfect time to clear out... even your CRM. Between duplicates, outdated fields, and never-used properties, your HubSpot database probably needs a good cleanup. A well-executed "Summer Clean-Up" guarantees you a CRM that is more readable, faster and more efficient from the start of the school year.

This practical guide takes you step-by-step through identifying, sorting, archiving, and structuring your HubSpot properties—without breaking anything or losing valuable information. The result: a clean foundation, a streamlined CRM, and teams that can breathe.

Why Clean Up Your HubSpot properties?

An overly busy CRM is an ineffective CRM

By constantly creating properties for each new need, your HubSpot database can quickly become unreadable. The result: overloaded contact records, endless forms, sync errors, and teams struggling to find useful information.

Concrete consequences on your performance

Misuse of properties directly impacts:

• Data quality: duplicates, empty fields, inconsistent values.
• User experience: for internal teams as well as for prospects.
• Automations: workflows triggered incorrectly, distorted lead scoring.
• Reporting: unreliable or difficult to use data.

A useful cleaning at all levels

Whether you are a marketing, sales, ops or customer success team, a dedicated structure allows you to:

• Save time on typing and searching.
• Building reliable automations.
• Obtain relevant reports.
• Better collaboration between teams.

Identify unnecessary properties

Tip: Start by renaming them to [TBD]

Before deleting, add the tag[TBD](To Be Deleted) in the name of each suspicious property. This allows you to:

• Easily group them together via search.
• Avoid accidental deletion.
• Share the list with your teams for validation.

Filter smartly in HubSpot

To identify obsolete or little-used properties, use the columns available in the tab Settings > Properties :

• Used in: if a property is not used anywhere (form, workflow, view, report, etc.), it is probably useless.
• Creation date: some old properties may no longer match your current processes.
• Field type: some multiple choice or custom properties are created in duplicate or incorrectly.

Prioritize obvious targets

Start by:

• Properties never used.
• Duplicates (same labels, similar values).
• Abandoned fields (no updates for X months).

Check where properties are used

Before archiving or deleting a property, you must knowwhere it is still active in HubSpot. A property can be linked to:

• of the forms(display or field condition),
• of the workflows (triggers, actions),
• of the active or static lists,
• of the custom reports,
• of the recorded viewsin CRM,
• or even tothird-party integrations.

How to locate these uses in HubSpot

1. Go to Settings > Properties.
2. Click on the name of the property to analyze.
3. Open the tab"Used in".
4. Expand the blocks by tool (Workflows, Forms etc.).
5. Click directly on each link to access the relevant item.

This allows you toclean in a targeted manner, without risking breaking an active process.

Pro Tip if/else Agency

Centralize this review in a spreadsheet (Notion, Google Sheet, Airtable, etc.) to track the progress of the team cleaning.

Delete or archive properly

Once you've identified obsolete properties and verified that they're no longer in use anywhere, it's time to take action:archive or delete properly.

Conditions for archiving or deleting a property

You will not be able tonot archive a property and:

• It is still used in a HubSpot tool (form, workflow, list, etc.).
• It still contains recorded values in files (contacts, companies, transactions, etc.).

This is why it is crucial todo a two-step cleaning :

1. Remove ownership from tools that use it.
2. Clear existing data in CRM.

Reset values ​​if necessary

To reset a property:

• Create a filtered view or a list containing all the records where this property is “known”.
• Select all records →Bulk Action → Edit Properties → Set as Empty.
• You can also export the data if you want to keep a record before deletion.

Caution: any deletion is final. If you have any doubts, use the archiving, which allows temporary deactivation without loss of data.

Organize and structure your properties

Once the sorting is done, it's time to put things away.Organize your propertiesallows the entire team to gain clarity and facilitate future automations.

Group, rename, standardize

• Use Property Groups: group your properties by theme (CRM, scoring, attribution, content, etc.) for more intuitive navigation.
• Rename clearly your custom properties: avoid vague or technical names. Prefer an explicit convention (e.g.:Original Campaign - Leadrather thancamp_source_23).
• Harmonize formats: for similar properties (drop-down menus, booleans, dates, etc.), align the field type and options to avoid duplicates.

Document your agreements

Create a shared document (Notion, Google Doc, HubSpot Wiki, etc.) that lists:

• The meaning of each custom property.
• Its type, its use, its owner.
• The workflows, lists or reports that use it.

This documentation prevents errors, especially in the event of a transfer or team development.

Keeping a clean CRM all year round

Cleaning once is good. Keeping your HubSpot CRM clean for the long term is better. Here are the keys to continuous property hygiene.

Good maintenance practices

• Validate any new property before creation: avoid duplicates and improvised titles.
• Limit creative rights: reserve this function for admins or well-defined roles.
• Include properties in your CRM rituals: each new field must be documented, exploited or eventually deleted.

Internal charter and quarterly audit

• Establish a naming and usage charter: authorized field types, naming conventions, creation conditions.
• Implement a quarterly auditproperties:
  • Obsolete properties to be archived
  • Inconsistencies to be corrected
  • New properties to document

A clean CRM is a solid foundation for your automation, reporting and growth.

To conclude

Doing a major summer clean-up of your HubSpot properties isn't just a matter of organization: it's a strategic lever. A well-structured CRM saves you time, improves the quality of your data, avoids bugs in your workflows, and boosts collaboration between teams.

Our advice experts HubSpot: Plan your cleanup now, document your standards, and turn this annual sorting into a collective reflex. Your CRM will thank you when the school year starts.

FAQ

How to identify useless properties in HubSpot?

Start by filtering out those that are not used in forms, workflows, or reports. Add a tag[TBD]to track and archive them later.

Can I delete a property even if it has data?

No. You must first reset the values on the affected records before deleting or archiving them.

What is the difference between archiving and deleting?

Archiving makes the property invisible but reversible. Deleting is permanent. Archiving is recommended for sensitive or historical properties.

Is there a limit to the number of properties in HubSpot?

Yes, it depends on your subscription. Even if you have unlimited access, too many properties can affect readability and performance.

How often should you clean your properties?

Every quarter is ideal. At a minimum, do it once a year; summer is a good time!