The longer you use anything your Mac included the more cluttered its likely to become. One solution is to upgrade to a new machine, but the more economical move is to make what you have already work better. To help your computer feel almost like new, or at least cleaner and less chaotic, we put together this guide with techniques and useful apps that have helped us maintain a more civilized computer. Ive been using these tips since I first published this guide in 2021, and theyve helped keep my 2018 MacBook Air looking and running (almost) like brand new. How to clean your Macs screen and body While there are many products specially made to help you with cleaning your computer, Ive found the simplest approach works best and its the one Apple recommends. To start, you need some water in a spray bottle and a clean microfiber cloth. You can use either regular or distilled water; the advantage of the latter is that its far less likely to leave residue on your Mac, particularly on the display. You can buy distilled water at a grocery store or make it yourself with some simple cookware. Either way, its more affordable than dedicated cleaning solutions. If you dont already own any microfiber cloths, Amazon sells affordable 24-packs you can get for about $11. One other product Ive found that can make the job easier is a Giottos Rocket Blower. I cant say enough good things about this little tool. It will save you from buying expensive and wasteful cans of compressed air. As for the process of cleaning your Mac, the most important tip to remember is to start with a clean cloth (thats part of the reason we recommend buying them in bulk). Youll save yourself time and frustration this way. Begin by turning off your computer and unplugging it. If you bought a Rocket Blower, use it now to remove any dust. If not, take a dry microfiber cloth and go over your computer. Take special care around the keys, particularly if you own an older Mac with a butterfly keyboard. Next, dampen one side of your cleaning cloth with water. Never spray any liquid directly on your computer. Youll have more control this way and youll avoid getting any moisture into your Macs internals. I always clean the display first since the last thing I want to do is create more work for myself by transferring dirt from some other part of my computer to the screen. The last step is to buff and polish your computer with the dry side of the cloth. Be gentle here as you dont want to scratch the screen or any other part of. Thats it. Your Mac should be looking clean again. How to organize your hard drive Igor Bonifacic / Engadget One of the hardest parts of cleaning your Macs hard drive is knowing where to start. After all, most of us have apps on our computers we dont even remember installing in the first place. The good news is that macOS comes with a tool to help you with that exact issue. Navigate to System Settings > General > Storage. Here youll find a tool that separates your storage into broad categories like Applications, Documents, Music, Photos and so on. Double-click on an item in the list, such as Applications, to see the last time you used an app and how much space its taking up. You can delete the apps from the same window. The applications section is particularly helpful since you can see the last time you used a program, as well as if its no longer supported by the operating system or if its outdated thanks to a more recent release. Igor Bonifacic / Engadget You dont need me to tell you to uninstall programs you dont use, but what you might not know is that theres a better way to erase them than simply dragging them to the trash can. A free program called AppCleaner will help you track down any files and folders that would get left behind if you were just to delete an application. After deleting any apps you dont need, move to the Documents section. The name is somewhat misleading here since youll find more than just text files and excel spreadsheets. Documents, in this case, turns out to be the tools catch-all term for a variety of files, including ones that take up a large amount of space. You can also safely delete any DMGs (disc image files with the extension .dmg) for which youve installed the related app. The other sections in the storage space are self-explanatory. The only other thing Ill mention is if youve been using an iPhone for a while, theres a good chance youll have old iOS backups stored on your computer. You can safely delete those, too. Tips and tricks for keeping a neat Desktop and Finder Igor Bonifacic Lets start with the menu bar. It may not technically be part of the desktop, but a tidy one can go a long way toward making everything else look less cluttered. My recommendation here is to download an app called Bartender. At first glance, its a simple program allowing you to hide unwanted menu bar items behind a three-dots icon. However, the strength of Bartender is that you get a lot of customization options. For example, you can set a trigger that will automatically move the battery status icon out from hiding when your computer isnt connected to a power outlet. While were on the subject of the menu bar, take a second to navigate to System Settings > General > Login Items and look at all the apps that launch when you boot up your system. You can speed up your system by paring down this list to only the programs you use frequently. When it comes to the desktop itself, the best advice is less is more. Nothing will make your computer look like a cluttered mess more than a busy desktop. Folders and stacks can help, but for most people, I suspect part of the problem is they use their desktop as a way to quickly and easily find files that are important to them. If youve ever struggled to find a specific file or folder on your computer, try using your Macs tagging capabilities instead. Start by opening the Finder Settings menu (Command + ,) and click the Tags tab. You can use the default ones provided by macOS or make your own. Drag the ones you think youll use most often to the favorites areas at the bottom of the preferences window. This will make it so that theyre easily accessible when you want to use them. To append a tag to a file or folder, click on it while holding the ctrl key and select the one you want from the dropdown menu. You can also tag a file while working on it within an app. Keep in mind you can apply multiple tags to a single file or folder, and you can even apply them to applications. Igor Bonifacic / Engadget What makes tags so useful in macOS is that they can appear in the sidebar of the Finder window, and are easily searchable either directly with Finder or using Siri. As long as you have a system for organizing your files, even a simple one, youll find it easier to keep track of them. As one example, I like to apply an Engadget tag to any files related to my work. Ill add an Important tag if its something thats critical and I want to find quickly. One tool that can help supercharge your Finder experience is Alfred. Its effectively a more powerful version of Apples Spotlight feature. Among other things, you can use Alfred to find and launch apps quickly. Theres a bit of a learning curve, but once you get a hang of it, Alfred will change how you use your Mac for the better. How to organize your windows and tabs Igor Bonifacic / Engadget If youve used both macOS and Windows 10, youll know that Apples operating system doesnt come with the best window management tools. You can click and hold on the green full-screen button to tile a window to either the left or right side of your screen, but thats about it and the feature has always felt less precise than its Windows counterpart. My suggestion is to download an app that replicates Windows 10s snapping feature. You have several competing options that more or less offer the same functionality. My go-to is a $5 program called Magnet. If you want a free alternative, check out Rectangle. Another option is BetterSnapTool, which offers more functionality than Magnet but doesnt have as clean of an interface. All three apps give you far more ways to configure your windows than what you get through the built-in tool in macOS. They also come with shortcut support, which means you can quickly set up your windows and get to work.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/how-to-clean-your-mac-macbook-cleaning-supplies-digital-organization-153007592.html?src=rss