diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/worker/Worker.scala b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/worker/Worker.scala
index 8a71ddda4cb5e..3314568dd512d 100755
--- a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/worker/Worker.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/deploy/worker/Worker.scala
@@ -64,6 +64,11 @@ private[spark] class Worker(
   val REGISTRATION_TIMEOUT = 20.seconds
   val REGISTRATION_RETRIES = 3
 
+  // How often worker will clean up old app folders
+  val CLEANUP_INTERVAL_MILLIS = conf.getLong("spark.worker.cleanup_interval", 60 * 30) * 1000
+  // TTL for app folders/data;  after TTL expires it will be cleaned up
+  val APP_DATA_RETENTION_SECS = conf.getLong("spark.worker.app_data_ttl", 15 * 24 * 3600)
+
   // Index into masterUrls that we're currently trying to register with.
   var masterIndex = 0
 
@@ -179,12 +184,26 @@ private[spark] class Worker(
       registered = true
       changeMaster(masterUrl, masterWebUiUrl)
       context.system.scheduler.schedule(0 millis, HEARTBEAT_MILLIS millis, self, SendHeartbeat)
+      context.system.scheduler.schedule(CLEANUP_INTERVAL_MILLIS millis,
+                                        CLEANUP_INTERVAL_MILLIS millis, self, Worker.AppDirCleanup)
 
     case SendHeartbeat =>
       masterLock.synchronized {
         if (connected) { master ! Heartbeat(workerId) }
       }
 
+    case Worker.AppDirCleanup =>
+      // Spin up a separate thread (in a future) to do the dir cleanup; don't tie up worker actor
+      val cleanupFuture = concurrent.future {
+        logInfo("Cleaning up oldest application directories in " + workDir + " ...")
+        Utils.findOldestFiles(workDir, APP_DATA_RETENTION_SECS)
+             .foreach(Utils.deleteRecursively(_))
+      }
+      cleanupFuture onFailure {
+        case e: Throwable =>
+          logError("App dir cleanup failed: " + e.getMessage, e)
+      }
+
     case MasterChanged(masterUrl, masterWebUiUrl) =>
       logInfo("Master has changed, new master is at " + masterUrl)
       changeMaster(masterUrl, masterWebUiUrl)
@@ -331,6 +350,7 @@ private[spark] class Worker(
 }
 
 private[spark] object Worker {
+  case object AppDirCleanup      // Sent to Worker actor periodically for cleaning up app folders
 
   def main(argStrings: Array[String]) {
     val args = new WorkerArguments(argStrings)
diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/util/Utils.scala b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/util/Utils.scala
index 62ee704d580c2..3add43cf2cf68 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/util/Utils.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/util/Utils.scala
@@ -536,6 +536,22 @@ private[spark] object Utils extends Logging {
     }
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Finds all the files in a directory whose last modified time is older than cutoff seconds.
+   * @param dir  must be the path to a directory, or IllegalArgumentException is thrown
+   * @param cutoff filter for files is lastModified < (currentTimeMillis/1000 - cutoff)
+   */
+  def findOldestFiles(dir: File, cutoff: Long): Seq[File] = {
+    if (dir.isDirectory) {
+      val files = listFilesSafely(dir)
+      files.filter { file =>
+        file.lastModified < ((System.currentTimeMillis / 1000) - cutoff)
+      }
+    } else {
+      throw new IllegalArgumentException(dir + " is not a directory!")
+    }
+  }
+
   /**
    * Convert a Java memory parameter passed to -Xmx (such as 300m or 1g) to a number of megabytes.
    */