How to Clean Up Your Mac Computer

Juliet D'cruz

Updated on:

Do you want to improve the performance of your Mac computer? Looking for ways to increase available storage space?

If you want your Mac computer to continue being reliable and useful over time, you need to take care of it properly. It’s important to do some maintenance and cleanup from time to time to ensure that your Mac stays in great shape and keeps working at its best.

Here are a few tips you should use to clean up your Mac computer while maximizing storage space and performance.

  1. Manage Your Storage Device

One of the things that you can do to clean up your Mac computer is to take care of your storage disk. You should check your hard drive and repair it as needed.

It’s a good idea to check your storage space regularly and ensure that there isn’t anything stored on your computer that you don’t need. You should be sure to delefe files on Mac that are taking up space but that aren’t being used.

You can manage your storage by opening the Storage Management app. On the Recommendations tab, you can find all kinds of ways to free up space and optimize storage easily.

You can also use the Disk Utility application to check available space on your storage disk as well. While using Disk Utility, it’s also a good idea to run Verify Disk to check the status of the disk and uncover any errors. You can then click Repair Disk to resolve issues. 

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  1. Check For the Usual Suspects

When managing your storage space, there are a few common places you’ll want to check often to find files that need to be deleted. 

You should be sure to check the Trash folder on your device often and empty it regularly. Files that you have deleted in the past will be sent to the trash folder. These files can take up a lot of space if you never empty the trash and permanently delete the files that are there.

You may also want to check your Mac’s downloads folder often as well. The downloads folder is often overlooked, and if you download files often, there could be a large amount of space being taken up by it. If you no longer need some of the files in the downloads folder, be sure to get rid of them.

Additionally, it’s also a good idea to clean out the cache on your web browsers regularly as well. This is easy to do. You’ll usually just need to go to your web browser’s preferences to empty the cache. 

  1. Organize Your Mac’s Desktop

To improve your Mac’s performance, another thing that you can do is to clean up your desktop. A computer desktop can get cluttered easily, so you’ll want to do what you can to keep it organized

By performing a two-finger tap or right-clicking on your desktop, you can open a menu that will allow you to organize the desktop space in several ways.

Try clicking on the Clean Up or Clean Up By options to align and organize your icons and arrange them accordingly. You can also sort the files by file type and choose to snap files to a grid.

If there are any files or folders on your desktop that don’t need to be there, consider putting them into the Documents folder or placing them somewhere else on your computer instead.

  1. Keep Software Updated

One of the ways that you can clean your Mac and ensure that it keeps on performing well is to keep all software updated. Keeping software up-to-date can add new features, prevent security issues, and improve the performance of your Mac.

Be sure that you install updates for your Mac and any software that is on it regularly. Always make updates as soon as they become available if you want to keep your computer working well.

  1. Get Rid of Applications You Don’t Use

In addition to cleaning up storage by getting rid of files that you don’t need, you may also want to consider removing any apps that you aren’t using regularly.

It’s a good idea to particularly seek out programs that use a lot of resources. You can check your Activity Monitor to find out exactly how much memory a program’s processes are using. 

If a program is using a lot of resources, you may want to reconsider whether you need it or not. Removing just a few apps that use a lot of resources can be helpful for cleaning up your computer and boosting its performance.

  1. Check Your Startup Applications

Another thing that you can do to clean up your computer is to re-evaluate which applications begin at startup. Applications that automatically start when you turn on your computer can slow your system down and can make it harder for you to start using your computer.

You should be sure to check which applications will start when you start up your system. Use System Preferences to turn any applications off that you don’t really need at startup. 

Also, keep in mind that you should be switching your computer off regularly. Be sure to turn your system completely off at least one time per week. This will help your Mac clear its memory and close processes that are running in the background. 

Using These Tips to Clean Up Your Mac Computer

If you want to improve the performance of your Mac computer, be sure that you take steps to maintain it from time to time. Be sure that you follow these tips if you want your computer to continue to be fast and reliable.

In search of more Mac tips? Browse our blog now to discover more useful tech guides.

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