Mac file patterns

Mac File Organization Patterns

Standard Mac Directory Purposes

Directory	Purpose	Common clutter
~/Documents	Long-term personal & work files	Becomes a dumping ground for everything
~/Downloads	Temporary landing zone	Never cleaned up, accumulates for years
~/Desktop	Quick access, active work	Screenshots, temp files pile up
~/Pictures	Photos Library (managed by Apple)	Rarely needs manual organization
~/Movies	iMovie projects, media	Usually small unless active video editing
~/Music	Music app, GarageBand	Managed by apps
~/Dropbox	Cloud sync	Often abandoned with large orphan files

Recommended Personal Folder Structure

~/Documents/
  Work/
    [Company]/
      Projects/
      Admin/           (contracts, invoices, HR)
  Personal/
    Finance/           (budgets, tax, bank statements)
    Medical/
    Legal/             (IDs, visas, permits, contracts)
    Travel/
  Creative/
    Design-Projects/   (client or personal design work)
    Assets/            (fonts, templates, stock images)
    3D-Printing/       (STL, GCODE organized by project)
  Education/
    [Course or Topic]/
  Archive/             (old projects, reference material)

File Category Classification

By extension

• Documents: .docx, .doc, .pdf, .pages, .txt, .rtf, .md
• Spreadsheets: .xlsx, .xls, .numbers, .csv
• Presentations: .pptx, .ppt, .key
• Images: .png, .jpg, .jpeg, .gif, .webp, .heic, .svg
• Video: .mp4, .mov, .avi, .mkv
• Audio: .mp3, .wav, .m4a, .aac
• Design: .ai, .psd, .afdesign, .sketch, .fig, .eps
• 3D printing: .stl, .3mf, .gcode, .obj
• Fonts: .ttf, .otf, .woff, .woff2
• Archives: .zip, .rar, .7z, .tar.gz, .dmg
• Code: .html, .css, .js, .py, .swift

By purpose

Classify by searching filenames for keywords. Account for both English and Spanish terms:

• CVs/Resumes: "cv", "resume", "curriculum"
• Invoices: "invoice" / "factura", "receipt" / "recibo"
• Budgets: "budget" / "presupuesto", "financial"
• Contracts: "contract" / "contrato", "agreement"
• Recipes: "recipe" / "receta"
• Letters: "letter" / "carta"

Bilingual filename equivalents

Files may use Spanish or English naming. Common pairs:

• Documents/Documentos, Recipes/Recetas, Invoice/Factura
• Budget/Presupuesto, Contract/Contrato, Letter/Carta

Hidden Dotfiles & Developer Caches

Dotfiles (directories starting with . in the home folder) are invisible in Finder and often overlooked by file scanners. They routinely consume 20-80+ GB on developer machines. Always scan these — they are often the single largest category of reclaimable space.

Common large dotdirs

Directory	What it is	Typical size	Cleanup command
~/.cache/huggingface	Downloaded ML models	5-50 GB	rm -rf ~/.cache/huggingface/
~/.npm	npm package cache	2-10 GB	npm cache clean --force
~/.cache/uv	Python uv cache	1-5 GB	uv cache clean
~/.cache/pip	pip download cache	0.5-3 GB	pip cache purge
~/.bun	Bun runtime cache	1-3 GB	rm -rf ~/.bun/install/cache
~/.gradle	Gradle build cache	1-5 GB	rm -rf ~/.gradle/caches/
~/.m2	Maven repository cache	0.5-3 GB	rm -rf ~/.m2/repository/
~/.cargo/registry	Rust crate cache	0.5-3 GB	cargo cache --autoclean
~/.colima / ~/.lima	Container VM images	5-20 GB	colima delete
~/.codex/worktrees	Codex stale worktrees	1-10 GB	rm -rf ~/.codex/worktrees/
~/.cache/puppeteer	Puppeteer browsers	0.5-2 GB	rm -rf ~/.cache/puppeteer/
~/.cache/torch	PyTorch model cache	0.5-5 GB	rm -rf ~/.cache/torch/
~/.rustup	Rust toolchains	1-3 GB	Keep if using Rust
~/.platformio	PlatformIO (IoT)	0.5-2 GB	Keep if using PlatformIO
~/.rbenv	Ruby versions	0.5-2 GB	Keep if using Ruby
~/.vscode	VS Code extensions	1-3 GB	Manage in VS Code

All cache directories regenerate on demand — cleaning them is always safe, just costs a re-download next time they're needed.

~/Library hidden costs

~/Library is excluded from many scans but often holds 20-50+ GB:

Subdirectory	What it is	Typical offenders
Application Support/Google/Chrome	Chrome profiles, data, extensions	5-15 GB
Application Support/Code	VS Code extensions, cache, WebStorage	2-5 GB
Caches/	App caches (Chrome, Homebrew, Playwright, pip)	3-10 GB
Containers/	Sandboxed app data (iMessage, Slack)	2-5 GB
Developer/Xcode/DerivedData	Xcode build cache	1-5 GB
Developer/CoreSimulator	iOS simulator runtime data	1-5 GB

Clean Caches: rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/* (regenerates automatically) Clean DerivedData: rm -rf ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/

System-level space consumers

Location	What it is	Typical size
/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator	iOS Simulator runtimes (separate APFS volumes!)	10-30 GB
/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework	System Python installs	2-5 GB
/opt/homebrew	Homebrew packages	3-10 GB
/Applications/Xcode.app	Xcode IDE	5-15 GB

Clean old simulators: xcrun simctl delete unavailable Clean Homebrew: brew cleanup --prune=all

Common Cleanup Targets

Always safe to delete

• ~$*.docx / ~$*.xlsx - Office temp lock files
• .DS_Store - macOS folder metadata
• $RECYCLE.BIN/ - Windows recycle bin (from external drives)
• Thumbs.db - Windows thumbnail cache
• .Spotlight-V100/ - Spotlight index data
• .Trashes/ - macOS trash on external drives

Usually safe to delete (verify first)

• .dmg files in Downloads (installers, delete after install)
• *.partial / *.crdownload - Incomplete downloads
• Duplicate downloads: file (1).pdf, file (2).pdf
• wetransfer folders with hash names (after extracting content)
• Empty directories

Build artifacts in code projects

These regenerate automatically when you build/install again:

• node_modules/ — rm -rf per project, npm install to restore
• build/, dist/, .next/, .expo/ — build outputs
• DerivedData/, .build/ — Xcode/Swift build caches
• Pods/ — CocoaPods dependencies
• .gradle/ — Gradle build cache (project-level)

Additional Resources

Reference Files

• references/cleanup-checklist.md - Detailed cleanup procedures with bash commands by priority