How to clean up email

[darkskys]

I’m looking for a way to clean up one of my inboxes. Problem is, there’s a lot of things I need to unsubscribe. Do this manually is almost impossible. I’m using gmail and I’d like to preserve this address.

I don’t have any issues with creepy or malicious emails it’s just a bunch of noise I’d like to remove. Any tips?

[chemistk]

I've never had luck with unsubscribe tools.

The best practice for any email inbox is to start organizing early and be careful about what gets directed there. Since that's long past, I would (and have for a few addresses - mostly family members') start slowly unsubscribing from each of the sites you're getting email from, one-by-one. After I've unsubscribed from each service, I'll do a mass-search for all emails from that site and then delete them all. It's an easy way to keep track of what you've deleted.

The process takes time, but you can know that each site is being removed. Some take a try or two and sometimes you'll get emails from sites that sell your data - the key is not to get frustrated.

As you're doing this, start building an organization system with folders/labels. Setting up auto-sorting rules is really helpful, too. Soon, much of your inbox will auto-sort itself by category and you'll be able to focus on what's important while quickly removing junk.

Perhaps others will have insight into using third party tools, but like I said I've never had luck with them.

[reeshau]

Sounds like you are looking to prevent future emails, not clean up past ones?  Gmail has a filter function, and you can automatically take action on emails based on sender, subject, etc.  You could delete them, move them to Spam, or their own filter, for example.  Once you set it up, it will keep funning until you change or delete the filter.

[LightStache]

I've had the same Gmail for 15 years at least. A few years ago the list-based emails had gotten pretty bad so I spent a month diligently hitting the unsubscribe link at the bottom of most emails. Since then it's been pretty manageable to click unsubscribe when a new one pops up, maybe twice a month.

Maybe 5% of the list-based emails don't have an unsubscribe link. That pisses me off so I'll happily tag those as spam and let the Gmail filters handle it.

[bacchi]

The "unsubscribe" link at the top of gmail works well for me.

[Syonyk]

I don’t have any issues with creepy or malicious emails it’s just a bunch of noise I’d like to remove. Any tips?

Just start doing it.

It's a perfect time of year to start, because literally everyone with your email address is going to spam you for Cyber Monday sales.

Pick a day.  Say, tomorrow.  Then every email from that day on gets processed.  Either unsubscribe and delete, turn off whatever sends it from their website, or it's one you care about.  Just keep doing this daily for a month, and you'll have solved most of it - and the bulk of the work will be for the Cyber Monday sales stuff.  You'll get something from everyone!

I did this a couple years back and it's been well worth the effort.  I now get a dozen or fewer emails a day, and half are ones I just can't figure out how to turn off - no, eBay, I really don't care that there's a delivery update with an updated delivery date.

[Sibley]

There's no easy way that I'm aware of. First, the more legit sources the unsubscribe generally does work, so try it. Also use the unsubscribe gmail button. Otherwise, it just takes time. You can try sorting by sender. You can try applying "rules" (I use them in Outlook, assume gmail has a similar function). I think often you can apply a new rule to the existing inbox. If gmail does the sort by sender, try that then you can batch delete. If you're sure that there's nothing in the accumulated inbox you want to keep, just delete everything and clean it up on an ongoing basis. That's probably not the case though.

Longer term though, you need to change how you manage your inbox. If you don't, you'll end up with this exact problem in a year or two. It may take some trial and error to figure out what works for you.

[darkskys]

Thanks for all the tips. I spent quite a bit of time unsubscribing today. I will just keep to it.

[chasingsnow]

Ive used unroll me before as a way to mass unsubscribe and it worked really well. I now keep everything in folders and I either delete or sort it immediately into the folder.

[Rosy]

I'm doing already what everyone has suggested - unsubscribe as they come in, the promotions tab works well for that too.
But I always thought I'm just a dumb boomer for not finding a better way to sort my e-mails.

Ive used unroll me before as a way to mass unsubscribe and it worked really well. I now keep everything in folders and I either delete or sort it immediately into the folder.

@chasingsnow - where do I find the unroll me button?

[darkskys]

I'm doing already what everyone has suggested - unsubscribe as they come in, the promotions tab works well for that too.
But I always thought I'm just a dumb boomer for not finding a better way to sort my e-mails.

Ive used unroll me before as a way to mass unsubscribe and it worked really well. I now keep everything in folders and I either delete or sort it immediately into the folder.

@chasingsnow - where do I find the unroll me button?

Pretty sure they were referring to this: https://unroll.me/

[chasingsnow]

I'm doing already what everyone has suggested - unsubscribe as they come in, the promotions tab works well for that too.
But I always thought I'm just a dumb boomer for not finding a better way to sort my e-mails.

Ive used unroll me before as a way to mass unsubscribe and it worked really well. I now keep everything in folders and I either delete or sort it immediately into the folder.

@chasingsnow - where do I find the unroll me button?

Correct

Pretty sure they were referring to this: https://unroll.me/

[cool7hand]

Elbow grease

[gooki]

I'm doing already what everyone has suggested - unsubscribe as they come in, the promotions tab works well for that too.
But I always thought I'm just a dumb boomer for not finding a better way to sort my e-mails.

If it helps you're not a dumb boomer. I'm a gen younger than you and refuse to waste my time sorting emails. Keep unsubscribing, and make the most of gmails search if you need to find an email.

[use2betrix]

Each year I make a conscious effort over “Black Friday” to unsubscribe from everyone I don’t want emails from. That week period around Thanksgiving is always packed with advertisements. I still make somewhat of an effort throughout the year, particularly the more annoying/frequent companies.

[leevs11]

I’m looking for a way to clean up one of my inboxes. Problem is, there’s a lot of things I need to unsubscribe. Do this manually is almost impossible. I’m using gmail and I’d like to preserve this address.

I don’t have any issues with creepy or malicious emails it’s just a bunch of noise I’d like to remove. Any tips?

Pour a glass of your favorite alcoholic or non alcoholic beverage and start unsubscribing manually. It takes a while, but is so satisfying when you are done. Then stop signing up for crap.

[Syonyk]

Then stop signing up for crap.

If only it were deliberate. :/

Basically any purchase, on eBay, independent web stores, anywhere, leads to me being on more lists - though most of them do behave with regards to unsubscribe.  On some of them, even if you untick the "send me marketing crap" box, you still get gobs of post-purchase "Are You Happy?  Review It Now!" spam.  Solo Stove is among the worst about that I've seen...

[LightStache]

Then stop signing up for crap.

If only it were deliberate. :/

Basically any purchase, on eBay, independent web stores, anywhere, leads to me being on more lists - though most of them do behave with regards to unsubscribe.  On some of them, even if you untick the "send me marketing crap" box, you still get gobs of post-purchase "Are You Happy?  Review It Now!" spam.  Solo Stove is among the worst about that I've seen...

Then stop buying crap. :P

[Miss Piggy]

If you want to preserve your existing email address (understandable), while not getting more and more new unwanted subscriptions added to it, here's an idea: Set up a second email address you can start using for new online purchases. All your junk will go there. Keep the original for your family/friends/preferred mail.