Clean Up Your Code by Applying These 7 Rules

Code quality improves when every team member can understand it through reading alone. This approach builds confidence in junior developers and strengthens overall team capability.

1. Remove Unnecessary Code Comments

Clear, well-named code eliminates the need for excessive documentation. A mergeArrays function communicates intent without JSDoc overhead. Developers should understand fundamental concepts like the spread operator, and Git eliminates justifications for keeping commented-out code blocks.

2. Focus on Naming

Naming complexity increases with function complexity. The solution: break multi-purpose functions into single-responsibility units.

function mergeLists(listOne, listTwo) {
  return [...listOne, ...listTwo]
}

function createUniqueList(list) {
  return [...new Set(list)]
}

3. If Statements

Replace verbose conditional chains with array methods:

const options = ['duck', 'dog', 'cat'];
if (options.includes(value)) {
  // ...
}

This reads like natural language: “If options include value then…“

4. Early Exit

Guard clauses prevent deeply nested conditionals:

function handleEvent(event) {
  if (!event || !event.target) {
    return;
  }
  // Your awesome piece of code that uses target
}

5. Destructuring Assignment

Rename destructured properties for context:

const { name: organizerName } = response.data

This prevents ambiguous variable names and clarifies data origin.

6. The Boy Scout Rule

“Leave it better than you found it.” Small incremental improvements prevent accumulated technical debt. Addressing code smells immediately prevents situations where cleanup requires disproportionate effort.

7. Code Style

Establish consistent team conventions using tools like Prettier and Husky pre-commit hooks. Style consistency matters less than enforcing uniformity across the entire codebase.

These principles compound benefits beyond readability—they improve team efficiency, facilitate code reviews, and support long-term maintainability. For deeper exploration, I recommend Robert Martin’s Clean Code.