A Mac offers us steady, reliable performance without the usual maintenance we have to do on other systems; still, there are a few resources we can keep in mind. Let’s talk about five ways to keep our Mac clean, efficient, and always ready for any task.
Empty the Trash and automate its cleanup
When we delete files, they are temporarily stored in the Trash and continue taking up space there. To empty it manually, we do the following:
- Right-click the Trash icon in the Dock.
- Select Empty Trash and confirm in the dialog that appears.
If we prefer to automate this process and forget about it, macOS offers us the option to automatically delete files that have been in the Trash for more than 30 days. The steps to enable it are:
- Open a Finder window.
- In the top menu, select Finder > Preferences or press Command (⌘) + comma (,).
- Under the Advanced tab, tick Remove items from the Trash after 30 days.
Keep apps up to date
One of the simplest and most effective steps to ensure our Mac runs at its best is making sure apps are up to date. Updates usually include security, compatibility, and performance improvements that benefit both the apps and the system overall. To update them:
- Open the Mac App Store.
- Go to the Updates section.
- Tap Update All.
If we prefer to automate this process, we can enable automatic updates from Preferences in the App Storemenu. This way, we make sure we don’t miss any improvement.
Remove unnecessary and outdated apps
Over time, it’s normal to accumulate apps we stop using, or even forget we installed. These apps take up disk space and, on top of that, some may keep running in the background, which isn’t recommended at all. To remove them, we follow these steps:
- Open a Finder window.
- Press Command (⌘) + Shift (⇧) + A to access the Applications folder.
- Drag the apps we no longer use to the Trash and confirm with our password, if needed.
Delete large files and reorganise storage
As we use our Mac, it’s common for certain large files to end up forgotten in some folder. These files take up space, and we don’t always need them. Fortunately, to locate and delete them, the system offers a very handy tool:
- From the Apple () menu, select System Settings.
- In the sidebar, tap General and then Storage.
- Click the “i” next to Documents to view the largest files and decide which ones to delete.
Manage and clean up emails
The inbox can quickly become a dumping ground if we don’t manage it efficiently. Deleting old emails or archiving the less relevant ones helps us keep storage use under control and, at the same time, improves our productivity. We can archive messages outside our email account or delete them directly. We do it like this:
- If we want to archive messages, create a new folder on the desktop (for example, Mail archive 2025).
- Open the Mail app and select the emails we want to archive.
- Drag the selected emails to the new folder.
- Delete the emails and empty the trash within Mail.
Although Macs are computers that require virtually no maintenance, these five resources let us take care of them. Are they necessary? Not exactly, but they help the system run better. Steps we can do regularly to make sure our computer is in the best possible condition.
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