---
title: "Read Disk Housekeeper's savings history · MacMelon"
description: "Disk Housekeeper keeps a readable history of space a clean saved. Learn what the history means, and what the Trash and purgeable space still affect."
url: "https://macmelon.com/use-cases/read-a-savings-history"
---

# Read a savings history

The savings history is a record of cleans on your Mac. It is not a benchmark, and files still in the Trash are not free space yet.

[Disk Housekeeper](https://macmelon.com/apps/disk-housekeeper) keeps a readable [savings history](https://macmelon.com/glossary/savings-history). It is the place to look after a clean when you want to know what changed, instead of trusting a feeling about the disk.

This site does not show a sample history. Yours will name what the app did on your machine.

## Steps

1.  ### Note the menu bar readout before and after

    The free-space readout is the live number. The history is the record of the clean. They answer different questions. One is now. One is what the app moved.

2.  ### Check the Trash before you doubt the history

    Removals go to the Trash by default. A file in the Trash is not free space. If the readout barely moved, empty the Trash only if you have confirmed you do not need the files, or accept that the space is still held.

3.  ### Remember purgeable space

    macOS can count some space as reclaimable later. A clean of caches will not necessarily collapse every category in Storage settings. Read [purgeable space](https://macmelon.com/glossary/purgeable-space) if the two screens disagree.

4.  ### Use the history to decide the next clean

    If DerivedData was most of the savings, you know the next large build will spend that space again. If node\_modules dominated, you know which projects to leave alone next time.

## Before you start

-   Do not treat the history as a promise of future savings. The next clean finds what is on the disk then.
-   Do not compare your history with a number on this website. There is not one.

## Questions

Where do the numbers come from?

From cleans Disk Housekeeper performed on your Mac. The site does not ship example totals.

Why is free space lower than the history suggests?

The Trash still holds removed files until you empty it. Purgeable space and snapshots can also make the Storage window look different from the menu bar readout.

## Apps

[Make room for what matters. Clear clutter with confidence. ### Disk Housekeeper](https://macmelon.com/apps/disk-housekeeper)

## Related guides

[### How to free up disk space on a Mac](https://macmelon.com/guides/how-to-free-up-disk-space-on-a-mac)

## Related use cases

[### Free up space on a MacBook](https://macmelon.com/use-cases/free-up-space-on-a-macbook)[### Set up Autopilot for a watched folder](https://macmelon.com/use-cases/autopilot-watched-folder-cleanup)

## Related terms

[A readable record of the space Disk Housekeeper saved on your Mac. ### Savings history](https://macmelon.com/glossary/savings-history)[Space the system may reclaim, which is not always free for a new file right now. ### Purgeable space](https://macmelon.com/glossary/purgeable-space)[The holding area macOS uses for files you have deleted but not yet erased. ### Trash](https://macmelon.com/glossary/trash)[A notice that free space on the Mac is low, separate from actually cleaning. ### Low-space alert](https://macmelon.com/glossary/low-space-alert)[The system strip at the top of a Mac screen, where status items live. ### Menu bar](https://macmelon.com/glossary/menu-bar)

## Related notes

[Disk Housekeeper Autopilot cleans a folder you choose to watch. It still previews, and it still uses the Trash by default. ### Autopilot is a watched folder, not a timer](https://macmelon.com/blog/autopilot-is-a-watched-folder)