Automate your Mac’s clean-up routine

Install Hazel

Hazel ($32, noodlesoft.com) is an app that can automate your ongoing maintenance, using rules you set up. It monitors folders for you and performs specified actions.

Start defining your rules

Open System Preferences > Hazel and add a folder to watch using the Folder pane’s Plus button. Then create rules for that folder, adding each using the Plus button beneath the Rules pane. You can have duplicate files or broken downloads trashed automatically, for example.

Build actions

If you’ve ever created a playlist in iTunes, the steps for creating rules are similar here. You define conditions that trigger actions when any, all, or none of the conditions are met. Use the Preview button to test a rule.

Remove apps

In Hazel’s Trash tab, you can enable its App Sweep feature. This tries to remove application support files when you delete an app, thereby potentially freeing up more space than just trashing the app alone.

Automate Trash

macOS can be set to automatically erase items that have been in the Trash for 30 days, but Hazel offers many more timescale alternatives — and you can optionally set a maximum Trash size, too.

Use Smart Folders

Alongside Hazel, or instead of it, you can also use Smart Folders to keep tabs on certain file types. In Finder, click File > New Smart Folder. Set up searches for recently added large files, say, to make sure you’ve actually done something with them.