Tidy and find

How to keep a Mac desktop tidy automatically

Updated 25 October 2026 · 3 min read

Stacks, Sort By and a different screenshot folder keep a Mac desktop usable. Here is how each works, and how Orrel files screenshots and invoices off the desktop with a preview and undo.

On most Macs the desktop is where screenshots land, where files get dragged "for now", and where downloads end up when a browser asks where to save. The result is a screen of icons you have stopped reading. macOS has a few built-in tools that help, and they are worth setting up before reaching for anything else.

Turn on Stacks

Click the desktop, then choose View › Use Stacks, or Control-click the desktop and choose Use Stacks. macOS gathers files into piles by kind: Images, Screenshots, PDF Documents and so on. Click a stack to fan it open. To group differently, choose View › Group Stacks By and pick Date Added, Date Modified, Date Created or Tags.

Stacks are the quickest win because nothing moves. The catch is the same: the files are all still on the desktop, so the Screenshots stack grows forever and you still have to sort it some day.

Sort and clean up the icons

If you prefer seeing every file, Control-click the desktop and choose Sort By › Date Added or Kind. Show View Options (⌘J on the desktop) lets you shrink the icon size and grid spacing so more fits. Sort By keeps icons in order as files arrive, which is tidier than Clean Up, which only arranges them once.

Stop screenshots landing there

Screenshots are the main source of desktop clutter. Press ⇧⌘5 to open the Screenshot toolbar, click Options, and under Save to choose Documents or Other Location to pick a folder such as Pictures/Screenshots. Every screenshot after that goes there instead. You can also choose Clipboard if you mostly paste screenshots rather than keep them.

Give "for now" a home

Much desktop clutter is files you are working on this week. A folder called "This week" on the desktop or in the Dock, cleared every Friday, catches most of it. It is a habit rather than a tool, but it is the one that lasts.

How Orrel does it

Orrel's Tidy screen treats the desktop the same way as Downloads. It looks only at loose files on the desktop, not folders, and proposes moves from three templates you switch on or off.

• Screenshots. Filed into a folder per month and renamed after the words on screen, so Screenshot 2026-10-13 at 09.41.11.png becomes something like 2026-10-13 Design review notes.png. The text is read on your Mac with Apple Vision.
• Invoices and receipts. Recognised from the text inside them, then filed by year and named by date, vendor and total.
• Everything else. The Downloads template puts installers, archives, documents, images and media into their own folders.

You see the full list of moves first, and any run can be undone from History. A waiting period, from an hour to a week, keeps files you are still using where they are. Tidying can run automatically while Orrel is open, or on demand from the menu bar or Shortcuts.

Because the text in screenshots is read and kept, you can find one later by what it showed. A search for screenshots with wifi finds the one with the network password in it.

Where Orrel stops

Orrel does not replace Stacks; you can use both. It does not arrange icons, and it has no custom rules, so a file that matches none of the templates stays where it is. Naming a screenshot after its text works well for documents, chats and settings windows and less well for photos or images with little text, which keep a plain dated name. Orrel tidies only while it is open, and it never deletes anything.