How to Free Up 20GB+ on Your Mac in 10 Minutes

Let's cut straight to it. Here's a realistic plan to reclaim 20 GB or more of disk space on your Mac, organized from quickest wins to deeper cleanup.

Quick wins (2 minutes, 5-10 GB)

Empty the Trash It sounds obvious, but many people forget. Right-click the Trash icon in your Dock and select "Empty Trash." If you haven't done this in a while, you might recover several gigabytes instantly.

Clear browser caches Every browser accumulates cached web content. If you use Chrome, Firefox, or multiple browsers:

• Chrome: Settings > Privacy > Clear Browsing Data > Cached Images and Files
• Firefox: Settings > Privacy > Cookies and Site Data > Clear Data
• Safari: Develop menu > Empty Caches (enable Develop menu in Safari Preferences > Advanced)

Combined, this typically frees 1-5 GB across all browsers.

Delete old downloads Open your Downloads folder and sort by date. Delete: - .dmg files from apps you've already installed - .pkg installers you've already run - .zip files you've already extracted - .iso images you no longer need

This alone can free 2-5 GB.

Medium effort (3 minutes, 5-10 GB)

Xcode DerivedData If you've ever used Xcode: ```bash rm -rf ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/* ```

This is completely safe — Xcode rebuilds everything on the next build. This commonly frees 5-30 GB.

Application caches The ~/Library/Caches/ folder contains caches from every app on your system. Large offenders include: - Slack (can be 1-5 GB) - Spotify (500 MB - 2 GB) - Discord (500 MB - 1 GB) - Microsoft Teams (500 MB - 2 GB)

You can delete individual app cache folders. The apps will recreate them as needed.

Old iOS backups If you've ever backed up an iPhone or iPad to your Mac: System Settings > General > Storage > iOS Files

Old device backups can be 5-20 GB each.

Deeper cleanup (5 minutes, 5-15 GB)

Package manager caches If you're a developer, check these locations: - npm: `~/.npm/_cacache` (often 500 MB - 2 GB) - Yarn: `~/Library/Caches/Yarn` - pip: `~/Library/Caches/pip` - Gradle: `~/.gradle/caches` (often 2-10 GB) - Cargo: `~/.cargo/registry/cache` - CocoaPods: `~/Library/Caches/CocoaPods`

iOS Simulator data If you use Xcode for iOS development: ```bash xcrun simctl delete unavailable ``` This removes simulator data for devices you no longer need.

node_modules in old projects If you have Node.js projects you're not actively working on, their node_modules folders are pure dead weight: ```bash find ~/Developer -name "node_modules" -type d -prune ``` This shows you all node_modules directories. Delete the ones in projects you're not currently using. You can always run `npm install` to get them back.

Preventing future bloat

After cleaning up, a few habits help prevent the cycle:

1. Empty Trash regularly — Or set it to auto-empty after 30 days in Finder Preferences
2. Delete installers after use — When you install an app from a .dmg, delete the .dmg afterward
3. Clean DerivedData periodically — Every month or two if you use Xcode actively
4. Review Downloads folder — Once a month, sort by size and remove what you don't need

The automated approach

Going through all these locations manually takes time and requires knowing where to look. CleanMyMacOS scans all of them automatically — 11 cleanup categories, 38+ developer caches, 6 browsers, and 15+ project folder types — and presents everything in a single review screen with risk levels and sizes.

A typical first scan finds 10-50 GB of reclaimable space, depending on how long you've been using your Mac and what tools you use. Everything moves to Trash by default, so you can undo if needed.

CleanMyMacOS can help with this — download it free from the Mac App Store.