How to clean up your Mac: a one-hour declutter
Clean up a cluttered Mac in an hour: Desktop, Downloads, Documents, apps and the Trash, in that order, plus the habits that keep it clean without a cleaner app.
Clean up in this order: Desktop, Downloads, Documents, apps, then empty the Trash. Each step makes the next one easier. Count about an hour for a Mac that has never been sorted, and five minutes a week after that.
1. Desktop (15 minutes)
Open the Desktop in Finder (⇧⌘D), group by Kind (View > Use Groups), and move each group in one go: documents to Documents, images to Pictures, installers to the Trash. Send new screenshots to their own folder with ⇧⌘5 > Options. Step by step: how to organize your Mac desktop.
Free toolWhat's in your Downloads folder?See its files by type, size and age in your browser. Nothing is uploaded.2. Downloads (15 minutes)
Same method: group by Kind, trash the .dmg, .pkg and already-unzipped .zip files, move keepers out. Details: how to organize the Downloads folder.
3. Documents (15 minutes)
Make a handful of top-level folders by area of your life (Admin, Work, Home, Archive), not by file type. Move loose files into them. Anything older than two years that you haven’t opened goes to Archive. The full system: how to organize files on a Mac.
4. Apps (10 minutes)
In System Settings > General > Storage > Applications, sort by last opened. Trash what you haven’t used in a year; App Store apps can be downloaded again any time.
5. Empty the Trash and check storage (5 minutes)
Empty the Trash, then look at Storage for anything big left: old iPhone backups, videos, disk images. More: how to free up disk space on a Mac.
Keep it clean
- Friday, five minutes: Desktop and Downloads back to empty.
- One “Now” folder on the Desktop for this week’s files; nothing loose.
- Automate the sorting so the weekly pass is a check, not a chore.
The weekly part, automatic
DeclutrDeclutr sorts the Desktop, Downloads or any folder into category folders by file type: Documents, Images, Videos, Audio, Archives, Apps, Code & Scripts, 3D Models and more. It moves files, never deletes them, and one Undo button puts every file back.
The sort is free. Pro, a one-time $8.99 purchase in the US, watches the Desktop and Downloads, runs a daily cleanup, and adds rules by name, extension, age or size. It needs macOS 13 Ventura or later.
Questions people ask
How do I clean up my Mac?
Work in this order: clear the Desktop, sort and empty Downloads, file what's loose in Documents, remove apps you don't use, then empty the Trash. Finish with System Settings > General > Storage to see what else takes space.
Do I need a cleaner app like CleanMyMac?
Not for decluttering. macOS already shows large files and unused apps in its Storage settings, and caches are rebuilt by apps anyway. The clutter people notice is in the Desktop and Downloads, and that's a sorting job, not a cleaning one.
How often should I clean up my Mac?
Five minutes a week on the Desktop and Downloads, and a longer pass like this one every few months. Automating the weekly part is what keeps it from piling up again.