Thanks for the fast response.
change addresses are *essential* due to the fact that all UTXOs are fully spent when you create a tx that uses them.
I understand that it must fully spend. My question is why does it need to send a new address? Can't it send back to the original address, the wallet's first address?
Your issue with tiny amounts will be undoubtedly due to the way you have received your BTC
It's the reverse. I started out with for example 1 BTC in my wallet and sent out several small payments over a period of several months.
In short you *can't clean it up without paying fees* as you have too many very small UTXOs (lesson to be learned - don't get so many small amounts - they are more of a hassle than they are really worth).
Lesson indeed learned. Would have using the 'sendmany' function prevented this situation?