Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ‘abandon’ my email address

86 replies

Lemonylemony · 04/09/2020 12:16

I’ve had the same email for about 15 years since I left uni. It is completely out of control. I miss emails because they are buried in tonnes of mailing list crap. No amount of unsubscribing, filtering and streamlining I’ve attempted over the last few years have helped. I currently have over 65,000 unread messages.

I’m considering just starting a new email and leaving this one. Change my address with the companies/services I actually need to and go from there. AIBU? Or should I be devoting hours/days to clearing it out?

OP posts:
Badbadbunny · 04/09/2020 14:24

That way, you don't have to keep signing in and out of different email accounts

You don't have to do that anyway. You can set up multiple email accounts in your "email" app on your phone or in outlook on your laptop so you can see all your emails within a single app/program, so no signing in/out all the time.

Desperado24 · 04/09/2020 14:28

I use this and it’s been brilliant for me.

unroll.me/

AndAnotherUsername · 04/09/2020 14:42

20,272 unread gmails here. Important stuff gets ignored all the time. I sort it out every couple of years and never subscribe to anything so not sure how this happens.

bluezzzzz · 04/09/2020 14:46

I use Gmail as my main one and outlook for anything else. Have now started a third one for household bill related things eg..gas,electricity, insurance. It definitely helps to have more than one email address.

QuestionMarkNow · 04/09/2020 15:06

I would keep the older email though to use for any shopping etc... so any 'junk' emails always arrive on that old email and the new one only has he important stuff on.

MulticolourMophead · 04/09/2020 16:22

[quote Desperado24]I use this and it’s been brilliant for me.

unroll.me/[/quote]
Not available in the UK/Europe.

DaughterX · 04/09/2020 16:26

I use gmail for my proper emails that i don't want to miss, and an entirely separate web- based one for mailing list offers and routine things etc (Amazon order confirmations etc)
I just delete all the crap every so often and check it once a day (notifications off) to make sure nothing gets missed. Unsubscribing works to things i did actually subscribe to.

ChangeThePassword · 04/09/2020 16:26

Not available in the UK/Europe

Only if you tell it that's where you are Wink

yeOldeTrout · 04/09/2020 16:28

I have no trouble keeping my (3) personal + 1 work email inboxes in good order. Am #baffled by you lot with thousands unread. Delete or deal with it. Daily. I'm itching to sort out your email boxes.

cologne4711 · 04/09/2020 16:32

I had around 8000 emails in my inbox and got it down to half that by doing searches on certain things and then deleting everything that came back. For example, my son used to play football about 8 years ago so I searched on football and deleted everything. Same with his old school (I did scan for anything I might want to keep like reports). And various other things.

It is worth doing - a big email box is actually a massive eco-sin. I learnt that about this time last year and it was that information that prompted me to delete loads of rubbish. I had thought that the data centres were run off solar power in the US deserts, but it appears not.

cologne4711 · 04/09/2020 16:33

Am #baffled by you lot with thousands unread. Delete or deal with it. Daily. I'm itching to sort out your email boxes

My husband is like this. Loads of unread emails. Either read it or delete it! Grrr.

Ugzbugz · 04/09/2020 16:38

Just delete all of them and start again???

Jojobythesea · 04/09/2020 16:40

I had to abandon an old email for exactly the same reason. SO annoying.

flirtygirl · 04/09/2020 16:55

This whole thread is making me feel weird.
How/why does thousands of emails happen? Do you not know how to click delete?

MrsExpo · 04/09/2020 17:01

I have two, regularly unsubscribe from stuff and delete everything unread daily. But to have 65K unread emails is insane. Just block delete them all and start again. How on earth do you keep track of the actual important things?

lifesalongsong · 04/09/2020 17:08

@flirtygirl

This whole thread is making me feel weird. How/why does thousands of emails happen? Do you not know how to click delete?
I was wondering exactly the same thing. How on earth does this happen? If you get emails from places you don't want block the address the next time you get one then search that sender and delete all the old ones, it might take a little while but it's pretty simple.
LolaSmiles · 04/09/2020 17:22

This whole thread is making me feel weird.
How/why does thousands of emails happen? Do you not know how to click delete?
I delete on my phone but for some reason it only deletes them from my app but doesn't delete them from my email fully. It annoys me because I end up doing the job twice, only on the computer there's hundreds by the time I sign in.

RandomLondoner · 04/09/2020 17:36

This is a bit like suggesting that the solution to a messy house/car is to get a new house/car. (Assuming the new one were somehow free, of course.)

It will only be a matter of time until you are in the same position again.

A better idea would to learn how to use technology so you don't have the problem in the first place. Learn how to search, sort and mass delete. Learn how train your spam filter. Have a habit of never giving your email address to anyone who doesn't need it, and in those cases opting out of all spam.

Assuming you are using a good email system, say gmail, I'd guess you could identify and get rid of 99% of the unread emails within half-an-hour. (You could just deleted the entire contents of you inbox, give you were going to discard the email address anyway. That should take about a minute, I guess, though it's not something I've ever had to do.)

After the one or two minutes a day dedicated to getting rid of emails by archiving or deleting, the only emails I have left in my in-box are ones that I've left there to remind me to do something, typically not more than five.

MrsSwears2Much · 04/09/2020 17:38

@Justreadingtheforum3
That is AMAZING!! I'm stealing your email organisation technique!!!

Justreadingtheforum3 · 05/09/2020 07:16

[quote MrsSwears2Much]@Justreadingtheforum3
That is AMAZING!! I'm stealing your email organisation technique!!! [/quote]
The email to say there was a reply dropped into my "otheremail" box Grin

nosswith · 05/09/2020 07:51

It may the best answer to have a new email address and start afresh. It does baffle me how you can get to such a state of 65,000 unread messages though.

RhubarbBikini · 05/09/2020 07:56

I wouldnt mind being able to run away from my work inbox. I recently came back from a nice relaxing week off to find 750 emails in my inbox.

Sootikinstew · 05/09/2020 08:00

I use this regularly www.cleanfox.io/en/

Sootikinstew · 05/09/2020 08:01

@RhubarbBikini

I wouldnt mind being able to run away from my work inbox. I recently came back from a nice relaxing week off to find 750 emails in my inbox.
Well you are popular Hugo, I'm not surprised 😜
Smallsteps88 · 05/09/2020 08:06

I currently have over 65,000 unread messages.

Shock that makes me feel a bit shaky! Grin

I have 9 email addresses, some going back 20+ years, and I have.... 0 unread emails!

In your shoes I would abandon the email address but I would need to get it shut down or something. I couldn’t cope knowing it was still out there. Grin

Swipe left for the next trending thread