I don’t think it’s safe to say that not everyone agrees on the best way to manage their computer’s Trash folder. Some prefer to let it sit there until their computer screams at them about storage, while others empty it every day. I’m somewhere in the middle, but I try not to let it go too far. And I think I found the best tool for the job a few days ago: Bananabine.
When the data stored in your Trash folder exceeds a certain threshold, Bananabin surrounds itself with animated, buzzing flies that you can chase away with your mouse. That’s it. That’s the app.
You can configure the theft threshold from the application icon in the menu bar; the three options are Janitor Mode (10MB), Recycler (1GB), and Garbage Collector (10GB). The app is free at the moment, while it is in beta. Leon Schrijvers, one of the developers of Bananabin, said The edge via email that they plan to charge a one-time, as yet unspecified fee for the final version.
Schrijvers added that they are still working on some bugs (heh). Flies won’t appear if you keep an iCloud Trash, nor if you keep the folder on an external drive. Additionally, it only works for macOS Sonoma at the moment, although they plan to add support for macOS Ventura later.
Please note: Bananabin requires Accessibility and Full Disk Access permissions to work. Schrijvers explained:
For BananaBin, we need accessibility permission to read the bin’s position in the dock. As for full disk access, we need it to be able to calculate the disk space occupied by the Recycle Bin. When this space is greater than the configured threshold, flies appear.
If this sounds good to you, you can try the app by going to the Bananabin website (here’s the link again). You need to provide an email address to get a download link.
Updated June 30, 2024, 6:45 p.m. ET: Added additional details provided by app developer Leon Schrijvers.
