Facebook’s user numbers are slipping, and that means that a lot of people are trying to delete Facebook accounts. The problem is that Facebook doesn’t make it so simple to get rid of an account no matter how hard you try.

But there is a way to delete your Facebook account once and for all. Here’s how to get rid of that social page and never see those boring posts ever again.

Backing it All Up First

Facebook advises (and this isn’t a bad idea) everyone that is trying to delete an account to back up all the data and images that are currently on a Facebook page. Once you delete your account, you won’t be able to access that data any longer. To make sure that all of your Facebook memories are sufficiently saved, head to your Settings tab, choose ‘Download a copy of your Facebook data,’ and a copy of your page should be downloaded to your computer.

Getting Rid of Your Account

To completely wipe your account from Facebook without any trace that you were ever part of the social media craze, log into your account, choose the ‘delete my account’ option, and from that point on nobody will be able to see anything on your Facebook page. It will take the company a few months to actually get rid of your page, but nobody will be able to find you past the delete point.

If you are just sick of Facebook and want to get rid of your page for a while without deleting everything, go to the Settings menu, click on Security, and then choose ‘Deactivate your account.’ This will get rid of your profile and any other details about you, but it won’t completely delete your account. This means that you can still activate your account at a later time by going to Facebook and logging into your page again. If you don’t want to get rid of your page for good, this is the better option.

To Delete or Not to Delete

I get it. I completely understand why someone would want to delete a Facebook account. The social media site is quickly becoming a breeding ground for useless memes, baby photos, and strange messages put out there by people that aren’t happy with life. Or, you might find the opposite is true - too many perky messages that are just annoying. You can filter out the streams that you do and don’t see (just don’t follow the people that constantly annoy you), and you can use various special social media apps that will do the filtering for you.

But if you really want to get rid of that page for good, you can easily do this by following the steps above. My advice is to deactivate your account for a few months, and then see if you can live without Facebook or not. For those of us that are hanging onto our Facebook page, it’s mostly out of guilt that the site is the only way to connect with distant friends and family members, and that might just mean logging into your account a lot less often.