diff --git a/src/main/scala/com/foursquare/slashem/Optimize.scala b/src/main/scala/com/foursquare/slashem/Optimize.scala
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..61f7b81
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main/scala/com/foursquare/slashem/Optimize.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+/*
+ * Applies some simple optimizations
+ */
+package com.foursquare.slashem
+
+import com.foursquare.slashem.Ast._
+
+object Optimizer {
+
+  def optimizeFilters(filters: List[AbstractClause]): List[AbstractClause] = {
+    filters.filter(f => {
+      f match {
+        //Remove all empty search clauses
+        case Clause("*",Splat(),true) => false
+        case Clause("_all",Splat(),true) => false
+        case _ => true
+      }
+    })
+  }
+  def optimizeQuery(clause: AbstractClause): AbstractClause = {
+    clause
+  }
+  def optimizeBoosts(boostQueries: List[AbstractClause]): List[AbstractClause] = {
+    boostQueries
+  }
+
+}
diff --git a/src/main/scala/com/foursquare/slashem/QueryBuilder.scala b/src/main/scala/com/foursquare/slashem/QueryBuilder.scala
index 91e4317..dd21b35 100644
--- a/src/main/scala/com/foursquare/slashem/QueryBuilder.scala
+++ b/src/main/scala/com/foursquare/slashem/QueryBuilder.scala
@@ -365,6 +365,10 @@ case class QueryBuilder[M <: Record[M], Ord, Lim, MM <: MinimumMatchType, Y, H <
     ()
   }
 
+  /* Optimize the QueryBuilder */
+  def optimize() = {
+    this.copy(filters=Optimizer.optimizeFilters(filters))
+  }
 
   /** Fetch the results with the limit of l. Can only be used on an unlimited
   * query */
diff --git a/src/test/scala/com/foursquare/slashem/ElasticQueryTest.scala b/src/test/scala/com/foursquare/slashem/ElasticQueryTest.scala
index 82dac4e..829ec19 100644
--- a/src/test/scala/com/foursquare/slashem/ElasticQueryTest.scala
+++ b/src/test/scala/com/foursquare/slashem/ElasticQueryTest.scala
@@ -624,3 +624,6 @@ class ElasticQueryTest extends SpecsMatchers with ScalaCheckMatchers {
   }
 
 }
+
+object ElasticQueryTest extends ElasticQueryTest {
+}
diff --git a/src/test/scala/com/foursquare/slashem/OptimizeTest.scala b/src/test/scala/com/foursquare/slashem/OptimizeTest.scala
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4e42dbe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/scala/com/foursquare/slashem/OptimizeTest.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,74 @@
+package com.foursquare.slashem
+import com.foursquare.slashem._
+
+import com.twitter.util.Duration
+
+import org.bson.types.ObjectId
+import org.junit.Test
+import org.junit._
+
+import org.scalacheck._
+import org.scalacheck.Gen._
+import org.scalacheck.Arbitrary.arbitrary
+
+import org.specs.SpecsMatchers
+import org.specs.matcher.ScalaCheckMatchers
+
+import org.elasticsearch.node.NodeBuilder._
+import org.elasticsearch.node.Node
+import org.elasticsearch.client.Requests;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentFactory._;
+
+import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit
+import java.util.UUID
+
+import scalaj.collection.Imports._
+
+import com.twitter.util.{Duration, ExecutorServiceFuturePool, Future, FuturePool, FutureTask, Throw, TimeoutException}
+import java.util.concurrent.{Executors, ExecutorService}
+
+class OptimizeTest extends SpecsMatchers with ScalaCheckMatchers {
+
+  //We test this because the optimizer screwed this up once
+  @Test
+  def testTermFiltersOptimize {
+    val q = ESimplePanda where (_.hugenums contains 1L) filter(_.termsfield in List("termhit", "randomterm"))
+    val res1 =  q fetch()
+    val res2 = q optimize() fetch()
+    Assert.assertEquals(res1.response.results.length, res2.response.results.length)
+  }
+
+  @Test
+  def testTermFiltersMetallFilter {
+    val q = ESimpleGeoPanda where (_.name contains "ordertest") filter(_.metall any)
+    val q2 = ESimpleGeoPanda where  (_.name contains "ordertest")
+    val res1 =  q fetch()
+    val res2 = q optimize() fetch()
+    val res3 = q2  fetch()
+    Assert.assertEquals(res1.response.results.length, res2.response.results.length)
+    Assert.assertEquals(res1.response.results.length, res3.response.results.length)
+    Assert.assertEquals(q.optimize(),q2)
+  }
+
+  @Test
+  def testProduceCorrectListfieldFilterAny {
+    val q = SVenueTest where (_.metall any) filter (_.metall any)
+    val optimizedQ = q.optimize()
+    val qp = q.meta.queryParams(optimizedQ).toList
+    Assert.assertEquals(qp.sortWith(_._1 > _._1),
+                        List("q" -> "*:*",
+                             "start" -> "0",
+                             "rows" -> "10").sortWith(_._1 > _._1))
+  }
+
+  @Before
+  def esSetup {
+    ElasticQueryTest.hoboPrepIndex()
+  }
+
+  @After
+  def esDone {
+    ElasticQueryTest.hoboDone()
+  }
+
+}
diff --git a/src/test/scala/com/foursquare/slashem/QueryTest.scala b/src/test/scala/com/foursquare/slashem/QueryTest.scala
index c7bc7c6..49ed903 100644
--- a/src/test/scala/com/foursquare/slashem/QueryTest.scala
+++ b/src/test/scala/com/foursquare/slashem/QueryTest.scala
@@ -99,7 +99,6 @@ class QueryTest extends SpecsMatchers with ScalaCheckMatchers {
   }
 
 
-
   @Test
   def testProduceCorrectSimpleQueryStringContains {
     val q = SUserTest where (_.fullname contains "jon")