In these busy times, many people believe: if it ain't broken, don't fix it. I believe that too, but it isn't an excuse for not taking action to maintain your database servers and be sure that nothing will break.
Database maintenance is about making your database run smoothly.
PostgreSQL prefers regular maintenance, so please read the Planning maintenance recipe for more information.
We recognize that you're here for a reason and are looking for a quick solution to your needs. You're probably thinking—Fix me first, and I'll plan later. So, off we go!
PostgreSQL provides a utility command named VACUUM, which is a jokey name for a garbage collector that sweeps up all of the bad things and fixes them—or at least, most of them. That's the single most important thing you need to remember to do—I say single because closely connected to that is the ANALYZE command, which collects optimizer statistics. It's possible to run VACUUM and ANALYZE as a single joint command, VACUUM...