Easy tips for cleaning up your Mac

Over time, your Mac probably accumulates a lot of cruft. There are applications you no longer use, duplicate and outdated data, a desktop full of icons when you only use four…you know what I mean. With so many people working from home lately, the problem has only gotten worse. 

Now is as good a time as any to tidy up your Mac, freeing up storage space and probably CPU cycles and RAM in the process. Here are a few tips to make quick work of your Mac “spring cleaning.”

Optimize Storage

On versions of macOS prior to Ventura, the Storage Management app was the best place to deal with all the cruft on your SSD. Open it either by using Spotlight (Command-space) or by clicking the Apple logo in the upper left of the menu bar, choosing About This Mac, clicking the Storage tab, then Manage.

In the Recommendations tab you’ll see a number of useful options, like Store in iCloud and Empty Trash Automatically. The Optimize Storage solution will get rid of things like old TV shows you’ve already watched and old email attachments when you’re low on storage space.

In macOS Ventura or later, this Storage Management app is gone, but you’ll find the Optimize Storage option in System Settings. Open System Settings, choose General, then Storage. The Optimize Storage option here only affects movies and TV shows from the TV app, but you can click the info button (i) button next to the various categories (Applications, Developer, Documents, etc.) to manage them.

Foundry

For more advice about deleting data from your Mac read the following:

Take a look at your Applications and Documents

If you have an older macOS version and you’re using the Storage Management app, click on the Applications tab in the left column. You can see all your installed applications here and sort them by size, easily deleting apps you haven’t used in ages.

Then, click on Documents in the left tab. There are several sections here, like Large Files and Unsupported Apps, that are worth perusing. Big library files (for apps like Lightroom or Final Cut Pro) are likely to show up here, and you might not want to mess with them. But you may have old large files and documents, or apps that no longer even work on your version of macOS, that you can safely remove.

In macOS Ventura or later, head to System Settings > General > Storage and click on the info button (i) next to the Applications, Documents, and other categories. You can sort by size and type and manage these things here. You may be surprised how much stuff you forgot you had on your Mac!

Get your desktop under control

If your Mac desktop is littered with icons, you should probably tidy things up a bit. Right-click (two-finger tap on a trackpad) any open space and choose Clean Up to get things arranged neatly, or Clean Up By to sort them as well. Consider the Use Stacks feature to automatically stack-up files of the same type into a single icon. Just click on that icon to open the stack. This can really tidy up your desktop!

Use a Mac cleaner utility

Power users that really want to clean out their Mac’s storage may want to check out a third party app like CleanMyMac, MacCleaner or DaisyDisk (free trials available for all). These apps provide a simple and clear way to see everything on your Mac, or any other attached storage device or drive. They can help you clear out what you don’t need.

IDG

It may seem unnecessary to pay money for an app that just helps you delete stuff from your Mac’s storage, but there’s a lot of value in disk analyzers. It can really be eye-opening to see exactly what’s filling up your Mac’s SSD. See our roundup of the best Mac cleaner apps (our current best pick is CleanMyMac).

If your Mac needs a clean on the outside because it’s grubby read these tutorials: How to clean a Mac: Keep your iMac or MacBook free of germs and dirt and How to clean a Mac keyboard, display, and more.