Let’s say you’ve sent a lot of files to the Trash and you would now like to empty it. You probably know that you can right-click on the Trash icon and choose “Empty Trash” but did you know…yep, you guessed it, there is a keyboard shortcut for that!
Empty the Trash with Finder in focus
This is a general keyboard tip for the Operating System. That is, it applies to the Finder and will have a different effect that the one described here if you use it while using an app, such as Chrome, for example.
Empty the trash with CMD-Shift-Delete.
While in the Finder, or on the Desktop, which is technically a part of Finder, put your thumb on the ⌘ key and while holding it down put your index finger on the ⇧ key and while holding both those down, add you middle finger to the mix by tapping it on the delete key.
Empty the Trash = ⌘ ⇧delete
A small message will pop up asking you are sure you want to permanently erase the items:
Added Option: Permission to take out the Trash
You can bypass the need to confirm that you want to empty the Trash by adding the ⌥ (option) key. It’s a bit of a handful, literally, but it is not too difficult as you can hold the ⌥ key down at the same time as the ⌘ key with your thumb.
Empty the trash without confirmation = ⌘ ⌥⇧delete
