Guide

How to clean up your Mac Desktop

Turn on Stacks to group Desktop files by kind, change where screenshots are saved, then file or trash the rest.

The built-in way

Turn on Stacks

Click the Desktop, then choose View › Use Stacks (or Control-click the Desktop and choose Use Stacks).
Files gather into piles by kind. Choose View › Group Stacks By to group by date or tag instead.
Click a stack to open it and file what is inside.

Stacks only change how the Desktop looks. The files are all still in the Desktop folder.

Another way

Line up what stays

Choose View › Clean Up By › Kind to put the remaining icons in neat rows.

Another way

Stop the pile-up at the source

Screenshots are most of it for many people. Press ⇧⌘5, click Options, and save them to another folder.

With Omaculate

Let Oma do it, and check her work first

Omaculate can look after the Desktop with recipes: screenshots into a folder, old files into an archive. Your Mac asks once to let Oma into the Desktop. The free version tidies one folder; Grand Oma looks after as many as you like.

Recipe: Move screenshots into a folder A screenshot on the Desktop is moved to Desktop/Screenshots, as it arrives.

Questions

Do Stacks move my files?

No. Stacks are a view of the Desktop. Turn them off and every file is back where it was.

Does a cluttered Desktop slow down a Mac?

Not in any way you would notice on a current Mac. It mostly slows you down when you look for something.

More guides

Let Oma have a look at your Downloads.

Free for one folder. Everything free for 3 days, then Grand Oma is $14.99, once.

Coming soon to the Mac App Store Needs macOS 15 Sequoia or later