Found a weird trick that finally cleared my 20,000 unread emails

I had this problem for years where my inbox just kept growing and growing. Every time I tried to clean it up I'd get overwhelmed after like 10 emails and give up. Last month I tried something totally random based on a tip from a guy on Reddit. I just started searching for the oldest unread emails first and deleting them in big batches without even reading them. Turns out 90% of those old emails were newsletters, old order confirmations, and random notifications that I never needed anyway. I cleared out about 15,000 emails in one afternoon by just deleting anything older than 6 months. Has anyone else tried a "delete first, ask questions later" approach with their inbox?

2 comments

2 Comments

barnes.jamie15d ago

Are you worried you might accidentally delete something important though? I get that old newsletters pile up but Ive had a few times where an old email had a receipt or login info I needed later. Would rather spend the time sorting carefully than risk losing something I might actually need.

barbararamirez15d ago

Tbh have you actually needed any of those old emails in the last year? I had the same fear at first but when I actually stopped and looked, nothing older than 6 months was stuff I ever went back to look for. Like receipts and login info usually end up on the vendor's site anyway so you can just pull it from there if needed. How often have you actually dug through years old emails to find something important?