One of the questions people often ask in my course on digital clutter is how to clean up a Gmail inbox. Here’s the process I walk them through! This month, get 26% discount on my course with code BACKTOSCHOOL2024!
Who needs an inbox makeover?
In conversations with friends in real life and students within my Course on digital clutterThe number one issue is almost always the email inbox. Many people have thousands of unread emails (from ads and newsletters to spam and oversubscriptions) and use their inbox as a filing cabinet for years The value of communication. Finding anything involves a lot of scrolling and stress. I ask them why they don’t have their inboxes cleared and they say they have no idea how to do that.
A few weeks ago, I had this exact conversation with a friend and I told her, “give me 5 minutes to go through your inbox and I’ll completely clean it out.” Once I explained that emails aren’t deleted, they’re just archived and searchable forever, my friend handed me her computer and I got to work. Here are the steps I took to simplify and streamline her inbox and make it look as beautiful as possible!
You probably already know that cleaning up your Gmail inbox can help you stay focused, reduce stress, improve your productivity, and reduce your digital footprint. So I’m going to show you how I recommend cleaning it up!
How to clean up your Gmail inbox
Step 1: Open Quick Settings
Click the gear in the top right corner of your inbox and open quick settings. Here, we’ll proceed along the way. Disable Chat and Meet (unless you use them regularly). I think they just clutter up the screen!
Change the density to compact. You’ll be able to see more at a glance than with all the attachments cluttering the screen and all the extra white space.
Step 2: Keep your theme simple
I’m a big fan of the classic white theme, because of its minimalist style! Of course, if you like an elegant theme, go for it.
Step 3: Change the inbox type to multiple inboxes
This step accomplishes two things: First, it turns off all those cluttered promotions, forums, and social media tabs. While I think Gmail designed these to be useful, it just means you have more places to look for important messages! With one streamlined inbox, you won’t have to click through multiple tabs, and all your messages will be in one neat email list.
The second goal is to create a secondary inbox where all starred messages will be placed, called THE STARRED INBOX. This area separates important emails that require your attention at the bottom so you can clearly see what needs follow-up. Everything else gets archived!
Here’s how to set it all up:
Step 4: Customize your inbox settings
In this section:
- Copy the “is: starred” text from the first section so it looks like the one above (it may already be there for you!).
- In the “Multiple Inbox Position” area, select “below the inbox” for the location of your Star Box.
- And finally, turn off important bookmarks. They’re just visual clutter.
Step 5: Clean up the sidebar
Clean up your Gmail labels by deleting the ones you no longer use. You can also collapse the main menu by tapping the three horizontal lines in the top left corner.
If you have more than one email address or Gmail account, repeat this process for any others you have so your inboxes look consistent and have similar functionality.
How to bulk delete emails in Gmail
Now we should have your inbox set up to be as minimal as possible! The next step is to do a mass archive of everything to clean up your inbox = the fun part!
Archive vs. Delete
Before we get to the bulk deletion step, we need to discuss the difference between archiving and deleting.
When you Delete an email goes to the trash and is automatically deleted from your history forever in 30 days.
When you ArchiveYou’re telling Gmail, “Remove this email from my inbox, but leave it in my All Mail history forever.”
I’m a big fan of Archive because you never know when you’ll need to check an email or look for something you thought you didn’t need. Archive everything! The only time I use the delete button is if someone sends me a batch of large files, like high-resolution photos, that will clog up my storage. So in our case, we’re going to do a massive archive! This provides peace of mind for those who are nervous about deleting unnecessary emails.
Step 1: Start by starring all important emails
If there’s something in your inbox that you need to respond to or follow up on, use the star feature to flag it. This will save it for later in your newly created “Star Box,” where all emails marked with a star will appear.
Step 2: Select all the messages in your inbox and archive them!
If you have a lot of emails, look for the blue link that will allow you to select them all.
NOTE: This process may require several attempts, especially if you have thousands of emails.
Step 3: Clean up your Gmail storage by deleting all emails that contain large files
There is an easy way to find out what the largest files are in your account. Just click on the three lines at the far end of the search bar and you will see a detailed search window open.
Find the “SIZE” line and type in different “Greater than” amounts depending on how much you want to delete. Start with a larger number, like 25 MB, and then when you’ve deleted all the emails with large attachments, you can reduce the number to a smaller number, like 15 MB, until you’ve freed up some storage space. Delete any unwanted emails with large attachments that you no longer need.
NOTE: You can use this same search window to find emails from a specific date, sender, or subject line.
Step 4: Unsubscribe like crazy!
As new emails arrive in your inbox, unsubscribe anything that doesn’t bring you joy on a regular basis! Be RUTHLESS! If doing it in the moment isn’t an option, you can also create an unsubscribe tag and do it in bulk once a week. Create an unsubscribe tag and add it to a single email that you plan to unsubscribe from when you have a few extra minutes of time. Just don’t forget to implement this step!
My YouTube video on bulk deleting emails:
How to organize your inbox
For a ton of tips on how to keep your inbox organized, check out this post: How to Organize Gmail
Check out my free workshop!
If you need a more detailed, step-by-step tutorial on all things email, plus all the other ways to organize the digital clutter in your life, check out my Free workshop:
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