You might be surprised at the amount of space Disk Cleanup saves by emptying the Recycle Bin. By default, Windows allocates up to 10 percent of each drive for the Recycle Bin. This method made sense when drives were measured in megabytes. But these days, you can set the amount as low as 1 percent for a large drive by right-clicking on Recycle Bin, choosing Properties, setting the new percentage, and clicking on OK.