Digital Konmari: The Life-Changing Art of Deleting Your Old Files

I just got a new machine and transferred over all my old files blindly without inspecting what I really needed, and now, inexplicably, am low on disk space. I hardly use my home computer for anything useful, I don't keep big media files around, and I aggressively selectively-sync my dropbox. Everything critical to me lives in a repo somewhere.

I'm also an iOS Developer who has never cleaned house on her machine.  You might guess where this is going.

Spirit of Marie Kondo, I summon thee.

 

 

The Purge

This is what I did today to destroy my disastrous digital diaspora. Follow my easy steps and maybe you, too, will find 80G more available space!!!

1. Download and install Disk Inventory X.  Feel the power that this brings to your fingertips.
   
   

   Observe your disk usage, particularly under ~/Library/Developer. Stifle the bubbling rage at how many gigs have silently blossomed, mushroom-like, up over the past few months, just for using XCode actively. Feel stupid for not following this more closely earlier. Note that I only use Disk Inventory X to browse disk usage, and I did all my deleting at the command line.
   
   

2. Follow all the steps on this excellent blog post for exactly this problem.
   
   

   When it comes to the Simulators step, make a copy of the device_set.plist XML file. Edit it to remove all the < 9.XX simulators that you have installed. Move all those 9.XX mentioned devices into a folder, then remove all the rest of the them.  Shrug at this, since you can always reinstall simulators.
   
   

3. Remove recent mobile-sync backups. Open iTunes -> Preferences -> Devices. Lol @ device backups still there from 2013 and devices you haven't seen since before you were married. Delete those old backups.
   
   
4. Remove recent mobile-sync backup files via this link.  Feel your system getting cleaner, closer to god.
   
   
5. Clear your Downloads folder, you filthy animal. 
   
   
6. Keep pouring through Disk Inventory X's listing and start to remove files out of spite.
   

   ## probably out of date anyway
   [nataliepo]: rm -rf android-sdks/
   
   ## wow, that was a dark time
   [nataliepo]: rm -rf apportable/
   

   

7. Clean off your Desktop. Don't delete that folders of gif's you're saving for a rainy day, ever.
   
   
8. Empty your Trash, just to check that box.
   
   
9. Change your wallpaper, change your life. Here's mine (by Beth Hoeckel).

   

   
   
   
10. Go for a run, and think about the weight of your digital obligations lift high into the atmosphere! Or order a double cheeseburger and a beer for lunch to bask in your temporary smugness. And ponder why you still use typepad.com for your blog...

Update

My friend @jakie said that Disk Inventory X caused a heap of problems for him when he used it to remove files, so, don't do that! I stuck to rm -rf at the command line and just used the app to visually inspect disk usage.