Minimal Mac

Your Mac, simplified.

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In previous days, I have talked a lot about the methods, ideas and choices you can use to reduce clutter. Now, I’m going to talk about tools. There are many third party apps that can help you keep your Mac clutter free – far more then I will cover here. I am also sure that for every one of these I mention, I will get feedback on others that people feel I have missed or should be added. That said, this list is in no way comprehensive. Just things I have used and like. Also, almost everything here will cost some money. Good software generally does:

Hazel - This is a great little app. It can watch any folder you tell it to and automatically organize your files according to rules you create. For instance, I have it watching my desktop and any file that is on there for more than two days, and has not been modified in the last 3 hours, gets moved to a “Working” folder I have. It can also do other magic little things like auto empty the trash on a schedule and delete all the associated apps for an application if you move it to the trash.

Appzapper - The uninstaller Apple forgot. This also will clean up all traces (preferences, support files, etc.) when an application is dragged into it. One kind of nice feature is The Hit List which allows you to sort your applications by most recently used (see: day 4) and zap those you don’t use at will.

Yojimbo – Just about any of the “everything boxes” (Evernote, Shovebox, etc.) will work here. The idea being that all of those items that don’t otherwise seem to have a good place can go in here. Heck, even a good deal of the things that do. I store all sorts of things from PDF’s, eBooks, receipts, serial numbers, bookmarks, web archives. It is a tag and fast search enhanced digital shoebox. Yojimbo gets my vote because not only is it the most “Mac Like” to me, but it also does a good job of allowing you to export your data out in the format it was put in (i.e. TXT, RTF, PDF, etc.).

Daisy Disk – There are many apps that can analyze your disk and tell you what is taking up the most space. That said, none do it more elegantly then this. In fact, the darn thing looks so pretty you may not want to delete anything.

So there is my short list. Do you have any you want to suggest?

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Notes:

  1. 32paths reblogged this from minimalmac and added:
    Some really awesome...cleanliness/organization.
  2. cormacle answered: dropbox is good for those with multiple macs who duplicate and reduplicate all their files just to have one on each machine… really helps.
  3. hopewellpastorr answered: Macaroni, DevonNote, Mori (RIP)
  4. garrick answered: Daisy Disk helped me discover a rogue backup script was backing up to my drive onto itself.
  5. sohooo answered: Spirited Away - hides application windows you dont need
  6. dishismymoniker reblogged this from minimalmac
  7. mike3k answered: I used Yojimbo for a long time, but I now prefer Evernote for its flawless syncing
  8. analogsenses answered: If you like AppZapper, you should try AppCleaner: does the same, it’s pretty, and it’s free ;-) freemacsoft.net/AppClea…
  9. ruminator answered: I like to use OnyX to fix permissions, run those pesky daily/weekly/monthly scripts that don’t run otherwise; etc.
  10. jtth answered: Why is AppZapper on here when Hazel already does everything it does?
  11. anunreliablewitness answered: I like AppTrap, mainly because you can just delete apps using Trash and it ‘interrupts’ you for a warning.
  12. mnmal answered: I use AppDelete and it’s been saving me a lot of grief. Also Monolingual to delete unneeded languages’ files
  13. philbowell answered: You can use Hazel to act as AppZapper. It will watch for .app files placed in the Trash and offer to take all the extra files as well.
  14. minimalmac posted this

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