Trim the unused CSS out of a bloated stylesheet

My stylesheet keeps growing every time I add a framework component, and I suspect most of it never even runs on my page.

Intermediate to advancedRead 6 minDoing: about an hour7 steps

What you'll have at the end

A stylesheet with its unused rules removed, and the file size written down before and after.

Before you start

You need

A page whose stylesheet file you can edit directly and reload freely in a browser tab, not a live site you can only view.

Not covered

Setting up an automated build pipeline that purges CSS on every change; this covers trimming the one file you already have open, by hand.

Leans on

7 steps

Slow connections change how your site feels

when the flagged weight turns out to be images or fonts instead of stylesheets, that one names the real download cost and where it comes from.

Checked 21 Aug 2026