Hazel: rule-based housekeeping for OS X

There are lots of “cleaners” out there for Mac OS X. With 10.4 I used OnyX, a UNIX-based GUI that easily let me clear caches, purge downloaded files, and clean up other out-of-the-way places in OS X. After upgrading to 10.5 I found Hazel. Hazel cleans based on rules you write. So, if you’re looking to free up space by clearing out your Download folder of items more than 7 days old, all you have to do is write a rule in Hazel and it will automatically delete items in the specified folder that are older than 7 days. If you’re a fan of iTunes’ smart playlist you’ll quickly take to Hazel.

I often save documents to my desktop with the intention of moving them later, but then never do. I also have the habit of following strict naming conventions with my documents. These habits lend themselves wonderfully to Hazel. For example, I wrote a rule in Hazel that said ‘if there is a document that contains “safety” in the file name and has the extension .doc anywhere in my (jgalante) users folder, then move it to the “07-08 Safety Notes” folder in Documents’ (see screenshot). Now when I’m taking notes at the Safety committee meeting and I save to my desktop, Hazel autmotically moves the document to my Safety folder.

That’s a pretty simple example of what Hazel can do, but it gives you an idea. You can also use Hazel to automatically apply color labels, comments, and other metadata to files and folder. Noodlesoft, the makers of Hazel, have a great website and are actively creating a community where people can share their rule recipes and tips (the import/export feature of Hazel makes sharing very easy). Hazel is still young, but it’s robust and with an active community behind it I can see this becoming as popular and powerful as Quicksilver.