diff --git a/server/command-line/storage.ts b/server/command-line/storage.ts
index df9acea0..3f9184b2 100644
--- a/server/command-line/storage.ts
+++ b/server/command-line/storage.ts
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ import {Command} from "commander";
 import ClientManager from "../clientManager";
 import Utils from "./utils";
 import SqliteMessageStorage from "../plugins/messageStorage/sqlite";
+import {StorageCleaner} from "../storageCleaner";
 
 const program = new Command("storage").description(
 	"various utilities related to the message storage"
@@ -10,7 +11,7 @@ const program = new Command("storage").description(
 
 program
 	.command("migrate")
-	.argument("[user]", "migrate a specific user only, all if not provided")
+	.argument("[username]", "migrate a specific user only, all if not provided")
 	.description("Migrate message storage where needed")
 	.on("--help", Utils.extraHelp)
 	.action(function (user) {
@@ -20,7 +21,19 @@ program
 		});
 	});
 
-async function runMigrations(user: string) {
+program
+	.command("clean")
+	.argument("[user]", "clean messages for a specific user only, all if not provided")
+	.description("Delete messages from the DB based on the storage policy")
+	.on("--help", Utils.extraHelp)
+	.action(function (user) {
+		runCleaning(user).catch((err) => {
+			log.error(err.toString());
+			process.exit(1);
+		});
+	});
+
+async function runMigrations(user?: string) {
 	const manager = new ClientManager();
 	const users = manager.getUsers();
 
@@ -65,4 +78,46 @@ function isUserLogEnabled(manager: ClientManager, user: string): boolean {
 	return conf.log;
 }
 
+async function runCleaning(user: string) {
+	const manager = new ClientManager();
+	const users = manager.getUsers();
+
+	if (user) {
+		if (!users.includes(user)) {
+			throw new Error(`invalid user ${user}`);
+		}
+
+		return cleanUser(manager, user);
+	}
+
+	for (const name of users) {
+		await cleanUser(manager, name);
+		// if any migration fails we blow up,
+		// chances are the rest won't complete either
+	}
+}
+
+async function cleanUser(manager: ClientManager, user: string) {
+	log.info("handling user", user);
+
+	if (!isUserLogEnabled(manager, user)) {
+		log.info("logging disabled for user", user, ". Skipping");
+		return;
+	}
+
+	const sqlite = new SqliteMessageStorage(user);
+	await sqlite.enable();
+	const cleaner = new StorageCleaner(sqlite);
+	const num_deleted = await cleaner.runDeletesNoLimit();
+	log.info(`deleted ${num_deleted} messages`);
+	log.info("running a vacuum now, this might take a while");
+
+	if (num_deleted > 0) {
+		await sqlite.vacuum();
+	}
+
+	await sqlite.close();
+	log.info(`cleaning messages for ${user} has been successful`);
+}
+
 export default program;