Circles
A pair of wallpapers in collaboration with MacPaw.
Disclosure: Circles is a sponsored post by MacPaw, the folks behind CleanMyMac as part of their Earth Day digital decluttering event on April 22. They supported my time to create this wallpaper and to share a post on social media advertising their event.
The idea is simple: many of us have become digital packrats, storing terabytes on top of terabytes of old screenshots, ancient messages, blurry photos, and app we never use but keep "just in case". And while our devices look pristine, the digital files stored on them... err... not so much.
How much digital clutter do you have on your Mac?
CleanMyMac is a tool that can help you handle digital clutter. I've used the app for over a decade because having an app that allows me to find large files, delete unused applications, and free up extra space helps my Mac feel new. Apple's macOS already has some space-saving strategies to help offload files onto iCloud. Still, tools like CleanMyMac give me a bit more knobs and buttons to fiddle with to take that experience further.
CleanMyMac is available via the Mac App Store, macpaw.com, or as part of a subscription through Setapp. CleanMy®Phone is available through the App Store for iPad & iPhone.
Some of my other digital decluttering tips & tricks include:
Clean Install: Whenever I get a new computer or iPhone, I try to do a clean install my files and apps. It's a time-consuming pain in the ass, but it means no old cache files, no outdated logs, and only the apps I am intentionally using right get come on board.
Quarterly Photo Scans: I like to go through my Photos app regularly to pull out screenshots and non-photo-related items that find their way there. Anything I want to keep from that category goes into an app like Eagle, and the rest gets trashed. I also do a photo cleanup of duplicate and similar-looking photos to keep my library feeling manageable.
100-Day App Review: I review my apps at least 2-3 times yearly and delete anything I haven't used. It's way too easy to keep apps on the guise that you might one day use them or because the icon is great, so building a habit of releasing apps when they no longer serve a purpose is a difficult but helpful habit to have.
Regular Download Tidy: Going through my download folder every couple of weeks and sorting out the collected files helps keep that folder from becoming an unholy mess.
And now that you have read/scrolled this far; here's your reward: a couple of wallpapers as part of my collaboration with MacPaw. I was having some fun with gradients and transparency, so here are some images merging these two ideas. Both wallpapers are available for the Mac, iPhone, and iPad. Enjoy!
