Since our last thread was up to 7 pages, I thought I'd start a new one!

I deleted 535 sent emails from my work email yesterday. Still have hundreds in there but I made a major dent. Very pleased.

I deleted 375 yesterday. Making good progress. I need to delete or save to documents, some "sent" one's also, as I save those for backup purposes.

Good idea, Chef! I closed the other one and put a link to this thread.

Speaking of which, I need to get back in here, I was offline for a few days and need to catch up!

I haven't deleted 535 e-mails, but did get rid of about 200 last week.

My son has been receiving the SAT question of the day from the College Board. He was using it to prepare for the SAT. He has now taken that test, but still has state tests to pass, so I've kept them. They seem to accumulate faster than we can go through them. Once they are all gone, that will be another 100 or so deleted.

My policy is to delete some e-mails without reading (they go into the junk e-mail folder). Others I usually delete as soon as they have been read. If there is back-and-forth correspondence with someone, I save just the last one, which includes all the previous ones, so get rid of a lot of clutter that way.

While I've been jobhunting, I've saved everything, so as to have proof/reference if needed. But I've also printed out all of the letters/e-mails I've sent to companies, to have paper backup if necessary, since to collect unemployment benefits, I have to show I am looking for work.

It's a good idea to copy e-mail addresses from messages into your Rolodex or other record, but once you've done so, the e-mail can go.

All in all, the fewer e-mails the better, because it's less to scroll through. I keep my "sent messages" until the issue at hand is done, then get rid of those, too.

If you get anything on a regular basis (the GON newsletter comes to mind), read it and then delete it, unless there are sections you want to keep, in which they can be saved in Word, or somewhere besides your e-mail system - or you can print a hard copy for a binder if appropriate.

The question to ask ourseves is, "Does whatever this is need to be saved in any form?" Usually the answer is No.

I'm new here..hi everyone. I deleted 2200 emails in order to start my new year off right. This is the first time in over 2 years I've had a clean email folder. Everyday I read and delete and it feels great.

Carol, Welcome and BRAVO! That's fantastic. Feel great, doesn't it?

Carol: Woooooooo woooooooo!! (That's out GONer cheer.) Congratulations! That's a big accomplishment.

Simplicity: Don't worry, it's not a competition. Clearing away what you don't need is the aim here.

Way to go, Carol! What a wonderful way to start the year!

Another comment on regular e-mails: You can have too many. If they keep piling up because you can't get around to reading them, delete them and start fresh. If you still can't keep up, it is time to unsubscribe. If you find that certain e-mails don't contribute to your life, unsubscribe.

I once signed up, for not more than a day, for some type of chat-room e-mail where I kept getting comments all day long (didn't realize that's how it would work; it's not like the GON Forum). Every time I turned around, there was another e-mail about herbs, the topic of the group. It was most distracting. I unsubscribed in a hurry.

E-mail can be handy, but like anything else, it can take over. I don't want to have so many messages that I can't get through them in a day.

The other thing you can do is politely request of your friends and family to not send you forwarded emails such as jokes or cute puppy pictures.

I have a problem too with a lot of jokes coming through. When I receive them I look at them and then delete them right away. There is no reason to keep them.

This thread prompts me to go through and clean out my e-mail account! I see a ton of excess in it that needs to go.