macbook storage

I don't understand. I have a practically brand new macbook. Running High Sierra. Memory 8GB. It says: 251GB Flash Storage. Time Machine runs off of a 1 TB external HD. icloud is turned on and everything is checked (saying I have 77.75GB free). Optimized storage is completed. And it says I'm running out of space. I run Adobe Creative Cloud (and deleted the applications I don't use). I have thousands of pictures but they all say they are stored on the cloud. What else can I do? Why is my new macbook running out of space? I don't have much else on it other than the photos and the Adobe products. I spend 1400 on a computer, I expect more than this.

Should this be happening? I thought the point of the cloud was to store files that weren't recently opened on it and save your computer storage? Which it says it's doing...