4 Quick and Easy Ways to Clean up Your Mac
Wondering how to keep your Mac computer in a good working order? Over time, Macs get cluttered up with old apps you no longer use, forgotten download files, duplicate files, and other junk data. These files accumulate, take up valuable disk storage space without you realizing it, and can create problems and slow your Mac down. And they aren’t necessary.
That means you need to regularly clean up your machine from unneeded stuff and junk files. This way, you can ensure your Mac is well-performing, fast, and responsive. We’ll provide you with easy tips on how to clean your Mac manually, but you should keep in mind that this process may take several hours. Of course, it’s worth it because it will help keep your machine in optimal condition, but if you aren’t ready to spend your time on doing that, you can use a good cleaning utility CleanMyMac. It can remove all the clutter in just 4-5 minutes.
Clean out Caches
Your Mac computer stores different cache files or temporary data on the HDD or SSD to speed up processes, allow fast access to that data, and save time when loading websites. But the problem is that over time, these files accumulate and take too much space. Then, they actually slow your machine down instead of speeding things up. So you should regularly clean up caches to help your Mac work efficiently.
Here is how you can clear cache in Safari. Launch the browser and click Preferences in the top menu. Then, choose the Develop menu to make it active and click on Empty Caches.
Delete Unused Apps
Many of us download different applications from time to time and then may forget about them. Why not remove apps if you don’t use them anymore to clear out your Mac? Click on the Applications tab in the left column. You’ll be able to see a list of all your installed apps in one place. You can sort them by size and first of all, delete big apps that you haven’t used in ages.
Optimize Storage Space
macOS comes with storage management features. You can easily access them if you click the Apple logo in the upper left of the menu bar, then, choose About This Mac, and click the Storage tab. You’ll see a chart that represents the amount of space taken by different types of files as well as the amount of free storage space. Click the Manage button to see the Recommendations tab.
You’ll be able to choose from several useful options, for example, Empty Trash Automatically or Store in iTunes. And if you select the Optimize Storage solution, it will help you get rid of such things like old TV movies you’ve already watched, and old, unnecessary email attachments.
Get Your Mac’s Desktop under Control
It’s may seem obvious to store lots of files and documents on the desktop for the sake of convenience, but it can have a negative effect on your Mac’s performance because your operating systems treats each file here as an active window. So if your desktop is littered with different icons, you need to tidy things up a bit and sort these files and docs to separate appropriate folders.
Right-click (or tap with two fingers on a trackpad) any open space and select the Clean Up option to get the icons arranged neatly. You may also choose Clean Up By to sort them. And if you use the Use Stacks feature, it will automatically stack-up different files of the same type into a single icon. You’ll only need to click on that icon to open the entire stack.