Last August I used this illustration:
I talked about the gazillion emails I had in my inbox and said I was going to try to delete more emails every day than the number that came in. If it happened, it happened…I wasn’t going to stress about it.
Instead I got in the mood and cleaned them out. Since then I have been keeping less than ten messages in new mail, and doing about the same in my old mail. It’s been about five months now, and I hope the habit sticks. Fingers crossed!
Has anything like that ever happened to you?
January 4, 2021
I once had close to 7000 emails on my iPhone
And iPhone wouldn’t let a person do an easy mass delete at the time.
I had to do some research and found a way around it, but honestly it took forever. Big groups of emails would suddenly delete but it took quite a while.
Since then, I don’t let it get that high and iPhone has also made it easier to delete them. I even installed a “Unroll” me app, trying to get rid of some of these unwanted emails. It’s helped some but not a lot. I’m ready to delete “Unroll”! Lol!
It’s a big job to keep on top of them. Some are easy, but some I want to save so put them in different folders for later. Or if I think an article might be useful in a post, I try to put ia link to it in a draft post.
Oh, I am still not admitting how much stuff I have saved! Actually, should not say saved, though most of it I do consciously not want to delete. But I forget and don’t delete a lot of stuff I don’t want. And I work on it every so often. That being said, I have emails from my nephew that died a bit over a year ago, and I am so glad I have them. I can go and read some of them and it is almost like visiting with him again…But I do need to do a lot better with things.
I save a lot of email from friends and family, but I put them in different folders. That helps a lot.
I don’t have as many emails as you and Cindi… but I surely do have to many for the self proclaimed minimalist I like to be!
the ‘written word’ has always accumulated like rabbits here. on paper AND the computer.
and now it’s the new year and I’m anxious to do a clearing out!
It’s a big job… some things are worth reading, but there’s not time for everything
I went through laptop some months ago – mainly looking at “folders” – some I didn’t need anymore ’cause I knew they were old as the hills. And then some of the extns that gmail uses – I seem to quickly look at something – and say “i’ll look properly later” and some weeks later it’s drifted down to #54!
And it’s not just computer things – but my art supplies. So instead of keeping scraps, I put them in the recycle bin! or if it’s a bit of string or fabric into garbage! AND then I get RUTHLESS – and I don’t seem to miss whatever…
Later this month, I’m going to open up my “suitcases” – I used to have 3 and it’s down to 2 (#3 has other things in it) – but I need to make some big decisions …what to keep, and if I keep – how to have them not just be in a suitcase. (I’ll explain that in a later blog post…but for now, the latches are shut, and the suitcases are all safe)
Decisions like that take a lot of time! But every little bit helps.
I have also cleaned my inbox. Most of what I get is from stores and the occasional email from family or friend. It feels good to have cleared out a lot of mail that I have no idea why I kept it:) Now if I could just get motivated to do the same with my photos. . . 🙂
I usually don’t try to toss out photos, but I do name them and put them in dated folders, especially the ones from the land. I also put key words on them which help when I want to look them up again.
I’ve never been that popular! (*smile*)
That said, the contents of my junk drawer multiply like crazy. Annoying for sure, but I have to be in the mood before I begin to purge. Then, watch out!
Being in the mood is essential for me. There are plenty of things I could toss or recycle, but now my usual recycling places are closed because of Covid. Like you, sooner or later the mood will strike, there’s no hurry.
I confess! I have useless emails on my laptop, my PC and my iphone. What a mess! But like you, I think I can delete regularly, and cut it down to ten or so on my laptop, and delete everything else. All I need to do is try, eh?
Every little bit helps. 🙂
I have a habit of saving emails that I want to get back to later for one reason or another. More often than not I never do and they accumulate fast. Good job cleaning yours out.
I put the ones I didn’t want to delete in folders so they would be out of the way but still available if I ever wanted to get back to them. That’s enough to make me happy.
I have (or used to have) tons of emails never opened on my phone. Since then …after I cleaned them out, I delete them or mark them as spam, and only email family. I don’t list email addresses on my blog to eliminate that chore any more. Life is too short.
I get a lot of newsletters, often with topics I want to read about. I look them over, read some, delete some, and save some in folders. It’s a compromise that works for me.
when i was in the workforce, a huge HR compnay, we had to stay on our emails, save the ones we needed and delete delete… that habit retired with me, so no problems with emails. I have both emails on self delted anything over 30 days in the trash, in case i forget to dump the trash and i found in my phone that emails deleted have an extra place to delete… with gmail delete on one device deletes all devices. my web mail that is my business i have to delete them on all 4 devices.
I mostly use my Mac Mini, bugt I can read my mail on my iPad or iPhone too. With AOL and gmail I can delete them on one device and they’re gone.
I can’t image having that many emails on my devices. I deal with them twice a day, and I have two email accounts.
I subscribe to a lot of digital newspapers and magazines and they send me notices. I could tell them not too, but it’s a good way of quickly seeing what the current issues are and deciding which ones I’m interested in.
I strive to keep clean mail box(s). Can’t stand clutter. Even on the computer. -smile-
I’m good at tuning out clutter when I’m working on something that has grabbed my attention. 🙂
When I was doing my mum’s probate, I accidentally sent a very rude email to one of the beneficiaries. Luckily he couldn’t get really angry about it because he was due to get a large sum of money!
I always keep my email totals to a maximum of twenty or so. I wouldn’t like to be drowning in hundreds of them!