Digital Cleanup; simple and quick email decluttering

A good start begins with yourself

You can achieve a significant impact in little time by decluttering your mailboxes, both professional and personal. And, measuring is knowing! What does this action yield? During the ‘Digital Cleanup,’ track how many emails you, your team, or your organization declutter. You’ll be surprised how quickly the steps below can contribute to sustainability. Want to see the CO2 impact of your mailbox? Calculate it with e-missions (opens in new tab)!

5 simple and quick steps to declutter your emails

1. Get rid of email waste

• Go to your deleted items/trash bin.
• Note how many emails are currently in the trash bin.
• To note the MBs per folder, go to ‘properties’ and/or ‘folder size.’
• Select ‘empty trash bin’ and confirm with ‘permanently delete.’

2. Identify your largest emails and delete them

• Sort the emails by size using the bar above the inbox.
• By sorting your emails by size, you’ll see the largest emails (with attachments) at the top.
• Decide what you no longer need and delete it or archive it elsewhere.

3. Find your oldest emails and remove them

• Sort the emails by date using the bar above the inbox (from oldest to newest).
• The oldest (forgotten and unnecessary) emails will now appear at the top.
• Delete what is no longer relevant or archive it elsewhere.

Tip: In Outlook, you can also use Auto-archive to automatically move emails to an archive or the trash bin (under file, options, Auto-archive).

4. Delete unimportant emails

Search suggestions:

• Names of former colleagues.
• ‘Newsletter,’ ‘payment request,’ ‘automatic reply,’ ‘confirmation,’ ‘registration,’ ‘coffee,’ ‘tea,’ ‘lunch,’ etc.
• Delete what is no longer relevant and unsubscribe from newsletters you no longer read.

5. Record your score and empty your trash bin again

• Go to your ‘deleted items’/‘trash bin.’
• Note how many emails/MBs are now in the trash bin.
• Select ‘empty trash bin’ and confirm with ‘permanently delete.’

The digital cleanup suggestions above are steps at an individual level. For tips you can implement with your organization, visit https://www.digitalcleanupday.org/ (opens in new tab)

As a final point: Devices like phones, laptops, and servers also deserve a long, refurbished life until they are ready for recycling.

Congratulations on your steps toward greener IT!

* https://www.computable.nl/2023.