🧹 Clean This Shit

Your Mac says 232 GB in "Documents" but you can't find where? Yeah. We fix that.

A no-bullshit Mac disk cleaner with a beautiful terminal UI. Scans everything, explains what it found, lets you pick what to nuke, and only cleans with your explicit say-so.

Install

npm install -g clean-this-shit

Or clone it:

git clone https://github.com/andycufari/clean-this-shit.git
cd clean-this-shit
npm install && npm link

Usage

# interactive menu — browse each category
clean-this-shit

# auto mode — scan everything, review checklist, clean
clean-this-shit --auto

What it does

1. Scans your entire system for space hogs — caches, logs, Docker, dev tools, cloud data, large forgotten files
2. Shows you exactly what's eating your disk with size bars and plain-English explanations
3. Lets you pick what to clean with an interactive checklist (safe items pre-selected)
4. Cleans only what you confirm — never touches your documents unless you explicitly ask

Features

🔍 Disk Overview

Full breakdown of where your space goes. APFS-aware — shows real container usage, not the misleading df numbers.

🧹 Cache & Temp Cleaner

Browser caches (Safari, Chrome, Arc, Firefox), app caches (Slack, Discord, Spotify), dev caches (Xcode, Homebrew, npm, Yarn, pip, Cargo, CocoaPods), logs, crash reports, temp files, Trash.

🐳 Docker Cleanup

Shows docker system df alongside the actual VM disk size on your Mac — explains the gap. Prune images, containers, volumes, build cache, or full nuke.

☁️ Cloud Data

Photos Library, Mail, iMessage, iCloud Drive local caches. Shows what's cleanable vs info-only with tips.

🐘 Large Files Hunter

Scans your home directory for files > 50 MB with a live progress bar. Multi-select with spacebar, type DELETE to confirm. Shows file age and path.

📥 Downloads Review

Finds old .dmg, .pkg, .zip, .iso, .rar files and anything untouched for 30+ days in your Downloads folder.

💀 Stale Documents

Files > 10 MB in Documents/Downloads/Desktop not accessed in 90+ days.

🚀 Auto Clean

The star of the show. Three steps:

1. Scan — live progress bar scanning 20 locations
2. Review — interactive checklist with safe items pre-checked, toggle what you want
3. Clean — processes your selection with before/after disk stats

What it cleans

Safe — apps regenerate these, marked [x] by default:

• ~/Library/Caches — app & browser caches
• ~/Library/Logs — app logs & crash reports
• /tmp — temp files older than 1 day
• Homebrew, npm, Yarn, pip, Cargo, CocoaPods caches
• Xcode DerivedData, device support, simulators
• Trash

With caution — marked [ ], you opt-in:

• iMessage attachments (pics & vids from chats)
• Docker full prune (re-downloads images next time)

Info only — shows size and what to do:

• Photos Library → enable "Optimize Mac Storage"
• Mail Data → IMAP cache managed by Mail.app
• iCloud Drive → right-click files > Remove Download

Controls

| Key | Action | |-----|--------| | ↑/↓ or j/k | Navigate | | Space | Toggle item on/off | | Enter | Select / Confirm / Delete | | a | Toggle all | | s | Select safe items only | | o | Reveal in Finder | | i | File details | | c | Credits | | Esc | Back | | q | Quit |

How it works

• Uses diskutil for accurate APFS container stats (falls back to df on non-APFS)
• Scans with async find + du so the UI stays responsive
• Cleanup commands use find -exec rm with error suppression — cleans what it can, skips protected system files
• Never runs sudo. Never touches files outside known cache/temp/log paths unless you explicitly select them in Large Files

Requirements

• macOS (optimized for APFS, works on HFS+ too)
• Node.js 18+

Author

Made by andycufari

License

MIT