So you’ve had your Mac for a while, and things don’t feel as fresh and clean as they used to? Although Macs don’t require a lot of maintenance for cleaning, those temporary files, app leftovers, and system cache do accumulate. These files may slow down your machine and take up a lot of valuable space. In this article, we share quick and easy ways to clean up your MacBook. Let’s get started!

• Free Mac Cleanup Software 2018
• How To Clean Up My Mac
• Best Mac Cleaner Software

How to clean your Mac automatically

Other reasons why you need to consider Mac cleaner software includes the removal of GBs application data that is not often used. These tools can help clean up temporary data and cache files just to save a lot of space. Using mac cleaner software helps you to take care of all these with just a single click. Jan 15, 2020  Get the 6 free Mac cleaners to clear disk space, clean junk or duplicate files to free up your Mac. Many of us know exactly how to clean Windows computer or Android phone, but when it comes to cleaning Mac, few people know about it.

Here’s a simple diagram to explain the most common types of computer junk, sorted by size. Some of these, like Trash bin files, are easily reachable, while others are stored away in hidden system folders. Sadly, there’s no easy way to clear them up without special skills.

If you don’t feel like spending the next several hours cleaning your Mac manually, you can use a powerful cleaning tool CleanMyMac X to find and remove all the clutter your Mac contains. It knows which files are useless, how to find them and remove completely. CleanMyMac has everything to finish the 3-hour task of a Mac cleanup in under 5 minutes. It will even clean up the junk you didn’t know about and give your computer a speed boost.

How to clean up system storage on Mac with CleanMyMac X:

1. Download CleanMyMac X for free here.
2. Run the app and go to System Junk.
3. Click Scan.
4. Press Clean to get rid of all junk.

Done! Now your Mac looks much better!

How to Clean Mac Hard Drive Manually

If you never performed an automatic or manual system cleaning — it means that your Mac has been collecting unnecessary files and clutter for years. You can quickly clean up your Mac with these easy steps.

1. Clean up cache

You’ve probably heard “Remove your cache” as a web browser troubleshooting tip. In fact, your Mac stores a lot of information in files called caches, allowing fast access to that data and reducing the need to get it from the original source again. Unfortunately, those files take a lot of space on your Mac, and instead of speeding the things up, they slow your computer down. Therefore, if you want to give your system a boost, clean your Mac from the cache files.

There are two ways to do that: you can delete them manually or use a MacBook cleaner like CleanMyMac X to do the job for you. Of course, the second way is an easy and fast one. However, if you decide to clean up the cache manually, check out a comprehensive guide on “How to Clear Cache on a Mac.”

2. Uninstall apps you don’t use

The applications you’ve installed on your Mac take up space, of course. And over time when your Mac becomes full of different apps, it may start running slowly. How to clean MacBook? In the first place, you need to remove the apps you no longer use or need. To do this, right-click on the app you want to remove and choose Move to Bin.

You may be surprised to find out that sending an app to the Trash will not uninstall it completely because the app leftovers still remain on your Mac taking up a lot of storage. So, if you want to be a responsible Mac user, you need to uninstall applications the right way. Here’s a step-by-step guide on “How to Uninstall Apps on a Mac.”

Extra step: Trim down your login items

Login items are applications that run automatically upon startup. Nowadays, every second app tries to become as prominent as possible and get into your Login Items. First of all, you may not even know what they are (not all of them appear in the Dock). Secondly, such apps consume memory. That's enough reasons to get rid of extra login items you don't need.

1. Open System Preferences.
2. Go to Users & Groups.
3. Choose your nickname on the right.
4. Choose the Login Items tab.
5. Check startup programs you want to remove.
6. Press the “–” sign below.

You’re done.

3. Remove old Mail Attachments

You get different attachments via email — PDFs, Word Documents, images, etc. Sometimes we all make a mistake of double-clicking the file. When you do that, the file saves itself to your Mail Downloads folder. Double click enough files and that folder can blow up like a balloon. That’s why you need to remove old Mail Downloads.

How to do that? How to clean my Mac? The easiest way is to use Spotlight. Press Command+Space to make the search field appear and type Mail Downloads. In the Folders section, you’ll see the Mail Downloads folder. Once you get to the folder, you can select the files and delete them. Make sure to check and empty it every year or so.

4. Empty the trash

Even though you’ve deleted the files, they reside in your Trash bin taking up a lot of storage on your Mac. They are just waiting to be removed completely. If you want your precious hard drive space back, you need to empty the Trash.

Here’s how to clean your MacBook from the trash:

1. Click and hold on the Trash can icon in the Dock.
2. Click Empty and then Empty Bin.

The process is quite simple, right? There is even a more effortless way to clear Trash. CleanMyMac X scans your Mac for junk and lets you remove all trashed files. To do that, launch CleanMyMac X and press Scan. When the scan is completed, click Review Details to see what exactly CleanMyMac X has found.

I’ve already cleaned Bin a couple of weeks before, but over some time, almost a gigabyte of trashed files has accumulated. Now, I can simply click Back to Summary and then Run to clean Trash and system junk.

5. Reduce clutter

Apple has already thought about the clutter that can be generated on the Macs and provided a possible solution. Here’s how to reduce clutter on your Mac:

1. Go to the Apple menu.
2. Choose About This Mac and then Storage. Here you can see how much free space is left on your computer.
3. Then click Manage.

Here’re some recommendations for saving space on your Mac. You can choose Review Files to examine apps, documents, and other files that are stored on your Mac.

You can choose any file in every category (Applications, Bin, Documents, etc.) and click Delete to remove it and optimize space. Look through other recommendations and make the necessary changes to use your Mac’s space more efficiently.

Microsoft is using the Outlook app for Sticky Notes integration.

6. Delete large and old files

It has always been a rule of thumb among computer geeks, that you should keep a minimum of 15-20% of free space on your main hard drive. This is just a rough estimation, but the more free space you have, the faster your Mac works. A computer magazine once performed a test on this, which concluded that the difference in speed can reach as much as 35%. If you work with heavy graphics or video rendering, even more free space is recommended.

How to have more free space? Delete large and old files.

The first way is totally manual and requires you to find them one by one, while for the second way, you just need to make two clicks and CleanMyMac X will do the job for you.

How to clean up Mac with CleanMyMac X:

1. Download CleanMyMac X (a link to a free edition of the app)
2. Launch the program.
3. Go to the Large and Old Files section on the menu.
4. Click Scan.
5. Review the details, select what to clean and then click Clean.

That’s it!

7. Remove old iOS backups

Having your files backed up is a wonderful thing. But over time your Mac becomes overloaded with old backups that take gigabytes of storage on your hard drive. That’s why you should consider removing the old iOS backups you no longer need.

Each backup remains stored on your computer and is accessible via iTunes. To delete the old backups, you need to do the following:

1. Choose the Apple menu and then select About This Mac.
2. Go to the Storage tab and click Manage.
3. Here, choose iOS Files.
4. Select the backup you want to remove and click Delete.
5. Confirm and you’re done!
   

That’s it! The backup files are gone from your Mac forever.

8. Wipe out Language files

Unused language localizations take up about 1 GB of storage space. Mac applications come with language files for every language they support. It allows starting using the app in that language immediately. Cool, right? Not always. Just consider: when was the last time you used the app in Bengali or Korean? Since you don’t speak those languages, such files just waste space on your Mac. You need to remove the unnecessary language files and clean MacBook from that clutter.

How to delete the language files? Go to Finder > Applications, then right-click the app which language files you want to remove and choose Show Package Contents. Open the Resources folder and then find folders ending with “.lproj.” Every folder contains language files for one particular language. Note that for every app you should manually find and select the files to remove. But there is an automatic way to delete the language files that will save you tons of time — CleanMyMac X. Just download the application (for free) and it will do the job for you.

9. Delete old DMGs

Disk images (DMGs) often take up valuable space on your Mac. Here’s how to perform a Mac cleanup and get rid of those files:

1. Open Finder and type “disk image” in the search bar.
2. Then delete all files that have .dmg extensions. Don’t forget to remove them from Trash as well.

CleanMyMac X allows you to locate and delete DMGs quicker. With its System Junk module you can remove unused disk image in the single click of a button:

Just press Clean and it’s done!

10. Remove duplicates

Useless copies of your documents, files, and photos eat up your Mac’s precious space. Therefore, if you wonder how to clean up a Mac and boost its performance, try to delete the duplicates. Note that the process of finding and removing the duplicates requires either a lot of patience and time (if you decide to delete them manually) or a duplicate finder app. Whatever method you choose, make sure to check out this article on “How to Find Duplicates on Mac.”

11. Tidy up your desktop

Many people use Desktop as their primary destination for files. But this could be tricky because your OS treats every file on a desktop as an active window. When items on your desktop are too many, Finder gets substantially slower. This leads us to the most compelling advice in this article — cleaning up desktop does miracles!

Rather than just leaving every file on your desktop, organize them into folders. The latest macOS does that automatically thanks to the Stacks feature. You can also use Google Drive, Dropbox or any external storage device to save your files and keep your desktop tidy.

12. Clean your Mac’s keyboard

Our last but not least advice is to wipe your Mac’s keyboard. As you use your keyboard daily, it quickly gets dirty. Moreover, all those crumbs may live under the keys forever!

If you were wondering how to clean Mac’s keyboard, there are no special rules here. You can try blowing the dust and other particles out of your keyboard once in a while. Disinfecting wipes and alcohol-based sprays may also prove useful. Just choose the piece of fabric and wipe the keys gently to make them clean and shiny!

All in all, be careful with your system files. Don’t delete things you’re not sure about. If you are not completely confident that you can manage the task by yourself, better use a dedicated utility like CleanMyMac X to get a fresh and clean Mac in just two clicks. Here's the video describing quick tips to clean up your Mac:

Happy cleaning!

These might also interest you:

Cleaning up anything seems a very laborious task.

I remember how my mother used to bellow at me to clean my room.

But..

..I always had some lame excuse to keep this task at bay.

But unlike then, now it’s totally opposite with me.

Now that I use MacBook, I’m in constant scour for good cleaners for my device.

Keeping the computers and phones clean are not only important to free up space, but it also keeps them safe from Malware and viruses.

Read: Do You Need Virus Protection For Mac?

5 FREE Mac Cleaning Software

Being an Apple products aficionado, and to keep them in good condition, I’ve been using many cleaning apps for my iPhone and MacBook.

I’m listing some of the free Mac Cleaning Softwares and applications for you guys out there who have clogged up PCs and need some memory.

#1: AppCleaner

One of the easiest to use Cleaner of all is AppCleaner.

Free Mac Cleanup Software 2018

What you have to do in this application is to just to drag and drop the app that you want to uninstall.

AppCleaner waves its magic wand in two ways.

You can either drop the files manually into the app’s window

or..

..just use the smart delete feature of the app and it will automatically find the files or the data of the deleted files from the trash.

#2: Dr. Cleaner

If you want to speed up and optimize your Mac with just a click then this great app named Dr. Cleaner is just for you.

It cleans your Mac’s disk and frees up a lot of space thus enhancing its performance.

It not only deletes the unwanted files but also eradicates the cache files that are building over a period.

This app is a boon for the amateur Mac users and what else can one ask for but a free app and here you’re served with one.

#3: CCleaner

Want to give your Mac a new kick?

Then you should give a chance to CCleaner.

It’s an effective and simple to use app that makes the Macs fast without touching the privacy of your files.

In fact, it is designed to make the device more secure.

It has three elements - Cleaner, Tools and Options.

These elements remove the junk files, uninstall the programs and fixes or deletes the cookies respectively.

Its paid version has lots of other features

but..

if you just want the basics, then you should go for the free one.

#4: MacClean 3

Why do you let your pretty Mac get cluttered with junk?

MacClean 3 cleans and frees your Mac’s hard drive with zero effort.

It works on the rule of three - Select, Scan and Clean.

It deletes all types of junk, for instance, Internet Junk, System junk, Development Junk etc.

It provides 10 different tools to clean your Mac’s unwanted things totally.

#5: Magican

If you think that buying a Mac frees you from every responsibility of making efforts in maintaining it, then you’re wrong my friend.

Just because the device seems to be working fine doesn’t mean that it don’t need any repair or maintenance.

An optimizer tool, Magican cleans the hard drive of the device from every unnecessary caches and data.

It keeps a check on the status of the system by showing CPU usage and Disk info.

It goes deeply into the stats, which is according to me an efficient feature.

Best Paid Solutions

Now that we’ve discussed the things for freeloaders let me also tell you about the applications, which are paid

but..

..are favorite of Pro Mac users and in which people don’t hesitate while spending, or let me say investing.

#1: CleanMyMac 3

This is my personal favoriteCanon digital professional 4 download. and I’d like my readers to give this app a chance.

CleanMyMac 3 cleans gigabytes from the system in a matter of seconds.

It has been a very successful app since much time and now can also be supported by OS X 10.10 Yosemite.

There are many features on the app that helps you to clean the whole system in one click or choosing options from cleaning photo, iTunes, trash or other junk.

It is available for $39.95 per Mac license and in my view the cost is worth this beauty.

You can read the detailed review of CleanMyMac 3 here.

#2: Gemini 2

Gemini 2, that doesn’t actually clean the device but deletes the duplicate or much similar looking files is already a favorite of many users.

Based on an exclusive algorithm, it scans and removes the files that are alike and unnecessary.

It just requires a simple process - Drag and Drop.

Available at $19.95, this app is definitely one of its kinds.

You can read the detailed review of Gemini 2 here.

Final Words

How To Clean Up My Mac

I’m sure you also want your device to be absolutely cleaned and work without any lagging.

Best Mac Cleaner Software

So, go in the world of these awesome Mac Cleaner apps and get awestruck by their features.