Systems and methods for adapting garbage collection (GC) operations in a memory device to a pattern of host accessing the device are discussed. The host access pattern can be represented by how frequent the device is in idle states free of active host access. An exemplary memory device includes a memory controller to track a count of idle periods during a specified time window, and to adjust an amount of memory space to be freed by a GC operation in accordance with the count of idle periods. The memory controller can also dynamically reallocate a portion of the memory cells between a single level cell (SLC) cache and a multi-level cell (MLC) storage according to the count of idle periods during the specified time window.