Most Mac users wonder how to clean a Mac computer. That is because, even though Apple's Mac computers are less prone to problems like sluggishness than Microsoft's Windows ones, there is still the chance of a Mac too getting slow due to errors and bugs. But don't worry ' I am not discouraging you, rather I am looking to help. Keeping a few things in mind should help your Mac give you a customized and optimal performance.

First things first. Before going further, you should ensure that you have a backup of all that is in your Mac with the help of a free backup application, downloadable from the internet. Now let's get to it. The first thing to do is to go the activity monitor and get rid of those CPU and memory hogging programs and applications. This you can accomplish by firing up the Activity monitor from the Utilities section under Applications. Then you need to scan for those apps which have the highest amount of CPU usage, for apps which are for Intel and ones which are for PowerPC and finally the apps which are at all running. If yours is an Intel Mac, it is best to have only those apps running which are for Intel. Make a list of the CPU usage/time of the apps and notice if any are not needed at all. If some are eating away at the CPU time too much, then quit them and restart for prompt relief. Another cool way to clean up your Mac is to get rid of unwanted and unused startup programs. These are those programs which start every time you start your computer and run in the background. You can go to System Preferences > Accounts > Login Items tab. From then on, just make sure that you keep only those apps that you need and regularly use. 

This article is written by Jimmy Chadwick, who also writes for mac-how.net, a site featuring various tips on how to make your mac faster, how to clean a mac, how to remove programs from mac, and how to view hidden files on mac.