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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Emails - do you delete them?

32 replies

brusselsprouting · 07/03/2022 13:19

Talking to a friend earlier and realised I may be in the minority with what I do. They delete all emails after they have read/dealt with them. I simply read them then leave them - partly in case I need anything from it but also pure laziness.

So AIBU to not delete all my emails?

YABU- delete them when done with them
YANBU- read then keep them

OP posts:

BeyondMyWits · 07/03/2022 13:24

I have a few folders in my email... one for receipts, one for holidays, one for to be kept.

Read email, move to folder, or delete, or deal with it (then move to folder or delete). If it can't be dealt with yet, leave in inbox. Only things in my inbox are current things that need sorting.

OmgIThinkILikeYou · 07/03/2022 13:25

At work I keep everything, I use my deleted box as storage too and never perm delete anything. I just chuck stuff I have sorted into folders.

IHopeYouStepOnALegPiece · 07/03/2022 13:25

I’m awful for doing this. My personal email account at one point had 73,000 unread emails (got that down to 0) and Lord only knows how many read ones. It’s utter chaos and as much as I try to be more organised I just can’t!

Work email is the same but it actually isn’t so bad, for example last week my boss said “damn we need a receipt for this table bought in 2019 and I’ve long deleted it” and I’d pulled it up in under 2mins so it does have its plus sides!

TeenPlusCat · 07/03/2022 13:41

@BeyondMyWits

I have a few folders in my email... one for receipts, one for holidays, one for to be kept.

Read email, move to folder, or delete, or deal with it (then move to folder or delete). If it can't be dealt with yet, leave in inbox. Only things in my inbox are current things that need sorting.

I'm the same, except I have loads of folders - around 40.

I get stressed if my inbox is so long I have to scroll to see it.

TheHoptimist · 07/03/2022 13:52

My DH has never deleted an email- he has millions unread going back to 1995
He intends to gift them as an archive to the nation (I think that is a joke)

Pootles34 · 07/03/2022 13:55

I keep mine in 'correspondence' folder because I worry I might need them. Unfortunately a colleague recently told me how bad this is for your carbon footprint - I had no idea! So now I do try to delete the unnecessary ones (in a chain for example) but still have far too many.

lljkk · 07/03/2022 13:56

I file emails I might need to refer back to
I keep emails I need to still action (or I might not find again, and NEED to keep the info)
Everything else is deleted
So my inbox is a kind of todo list

No idea how others feel like they are coping, keeping lots of irrelevant items

My boss deletes some but mostly none. I watch my boss 'search' to find messages from me. This can take a long time...

ReeseWitherfork · 07/03/2022 13:59

Work emails.... I only delete years later.

Personal emails... Yes, delete delete delete. Also unsubscribe. It reduces carbon footprint to do so. Every little helps.

Pamparam · 07/03/2022 14:00

I don’t delete and I’m crap at filing too. But starting to feel guilty about the environmental impact of the data centres storing the newsletters I received in 2012 😬

IsDaveThere · 07/03/2022 14:03

It makes my teeth itch having loads of emails in my inbox, I couldn't cope with 73,000 unread ones!! How can you be sure you haven't missed something important in amongst that lot?

My work email is a lot better organised than my personal email, my personal one does have 60 or 70 in there but work, nope - file them in another folder or delete.

I have also recently discovered the snooze function in outlook, now I just snooze loads of things and it makes my inbox lovely and tidy until they all 'unsnooze' a few days later

Infinitemoon · 07/03/2022 14:09

I have 12,000. I have deleted them all in the past buy lost one I needed. I really can't sort them now there are too many.

NeilBuchananisBanksy · 07/03/2022 14:16

What is the carbon footprint issue? I'd never associate it with an inbox?!

Lubeyboobyalt · 07/03/2022 14:20

I keep them - often handy when I need to refer back to or remember when something was

eg knowing if my hoover is still in warranty
double checking dates of hotels booked

Pootles34 · 07/03/2022 14:23

I don't fully understand it, but I believe it's because your emails are stored on a server somewhere which is obviously running on electricity. It seems to be a bit uncertain how bad an issue it is, but there's a piece on it here

irregularegular · 07/03/2022 14:23

Yes I immediately delete everything that I don't need to keep. I almost always keep my in-box to a size I can easily view on one page. My in-box acts as a kind of immediate to-do list, so I don't want anything cluttering it up and confusing me. If I am not going to deal with an item quickly (or if I want to keep it for other reasons) then I will put it in a folder. Making a note on a to-do list if need be. I certainly have old saved e-mails in a folder that I don't want to keep any more, but not in my in-box. I couldn't cope with that!!! Different people work in different ways though. I voted YANBU but you are not being U if it works for you!

nearlyspringyay · 07/03/2022 14:24

Depends - work I delete but never delete my deleted folder to cover my own back, I look a clean inbox.

Hotmail - it's a mess, I have a mass delete from time to time.

MyCatEatsPrawnCrackers · 07/03/2022 14:25

I read and delete. Anything that needs saving, I archive y and I have about 12 emails in there. Same with texts and WhatsApp messages : I read and delete. I hate clutter!

ReeseWitherfork · 07/03/2022 14:26

@NeilBuchananisBanksy

What is the carbon footprint issue? I'd never associate it with an inbox?!

All of those emails are saved in a data centre somewhere in the world, churning up lots of electricity. Even sending emails adds to carbon footprint. It seems so weird, but if everyone in the world stopped sending (and keeping) so many emails, and did things like send links over attachments, we'd collectively make a difference.

EricScrantona · 07/03/2022 14:26

At work my emails are perfectly organised and stored.

My personal email has over 40k unread which are all spam. I check them a few times a day and read/action the important ones leaving the rest. It's such an insignificant thing that I simply can't be bothered by it.

irregularegular · 07/03/2022 14:26

*I keep them - often handy when I need to refer back to or remember when something was

eg knowing if my hoover is still in warranty
double checking dates of hotels booked*

These things I would save in a folder. But that doesn't mean I don't delete anything. And they would not stay in my in-box.

BarbaraofSeville · 07/03/2022 14:27

@NeilBuchananisBanksy

What is the carbon footprint issue? I'd never associate it with an inbox?!

Storage. All those emails, along with all those photos we all have in our google/iclouds require enormous servers to store them.

I don't delete any emails, because like a PP, it's useful for finding receipts etc. But 99% of the emails I receive are marketing crap that I don't want and don't sign up to, but still receive because I don't go through all the cookies settings every time I look at a website.

BeingATwatItsABingThing · 07/03/2022 14:29

I have to have 0 unread emails. I can’t cope with more than that and have to sort them immediately. I delete most of them immediately but need to keep receipts/confirmations/etc.

MarchFourth · 07/03/2022 14:30

Keep them, because otherwise future historians/nosy parkers won't have much material to write your biography with.

Topseyt · 07/03/2022 14:32

I keep some while I need them (e.g. holidays I have booked but not been on yet, an appliance I have bought that is still under guarantee, anything else I have ordered that is yet to be delivered). All are deleted once no longer needed (i.e. we are back from said holiday, the items have been delivered unharmed etc.).

Other obvious spam, advertising, phishing shit is deleted, blocked and/or unsubscribed from as I certainly don't want it clogging up my email box.

Cas112 · 07/03/2022 14:32

I delete none important ones, keep important ones

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