Email Housekeeping

Question:

My email messages are piling up… and about to lose memory. Is there a way to delete in groups as opposed to doing it individually?

Answer:

I have the same problem. I need to clean up every once in a while.

Depending on what program you use, the procedure may be different. Let’s use Mozilla Thunderbird as an example. What I do is double click on the top of the DATE column  (where the title of that column is) and that action arranges all the emails chronologically. If you click the title (DATE) again, it reverses — with the oldest on top and the newest at the bottom. I then decide that all emails past (say 2019) are all useless. Then I

  • choose all the emails earlier than 2019
  • hold shift
  • scroll down all the way to the bottom (still holding shift)
  • then (while all the old emails are selected) hit the delete key
  • depending on how many you select, it will take a few seconds or even minutes

Then I do the same with the names of the people who delivered the email. I double click the title (CORRESPONDENCE) and the emails are alphabetically arranged. It’s easier to delete once you group the emails according to people who have any relevance in your life. Do this with the rest of the columns.

After you are done deleting the emails, remember that they are still in your TRASH folder(s). Before you delete your trash, delete your JUNK folder first because you will transfer your JUNK to your TRASH so you need not delete TRASH twice. Right click on that/those folders and select EMPTY FOLDER.

I hope this helps.

Raoul