Today I need YOUR hints!  You know where I am NOT organized at all? In my email inbox!  Which is weird because I am super organized about my files on the computer. Folders for everything, clean desktop.  But for some reason, I cannot get my head around a good email system.  I make the folders, but then I never move emails.  I just “search” when I need to, which works, but then I have so many emails that I just never delete!

Ok, mine isn’t THIS bad, but it’s pretty bad!  A few weeks ago I started tackling moving emails I need / want to save to folders.  I decided my next course of action was taking my email OFF lists so I don’t get a ton of emails that I usually never open.  Here are the steps I took:

1.) ANY social media site (Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter) I turned OFF my email notifications.  NO NEED to get these emails!  I check these sites regularly and can click on notifications to see who’s tagging me, who’s pinning my stuff, who’s tweeting to me! Then I searched those emails and deleted all the ones that were just sitting in my inbox – 99% that I never even opened!

2.) Stores – going through my emails I asked myself – which ones do I REALLY read and use the coupon / sale deal?  Not many!  Off with the email lists with those too!

3.  Other notifications that maybe I used in the past – but don’t need anymore I.E. – TRULIA!  I loved this when we were house hunting.  They would send me emails of houses I marked as “favorites” to alert me of any price changes or sale news.  They also sent me new listing in the zip codes and price ranges I had checked off.  Great, right?  When we first bought the house, I kept the notifications because I liked seeing what was going on in our neighborhood.  Now it’s time to stop – I’ve become an email hoarder!  I love when they email me that my house has been bought. I KNOW! I bought it!

This is as far as I have gotten, but obviously an area I need help in!  How do you keep your emails organized? Any tricks or systems that work for you?  How many emails are “too many” to have in an inbox?  Have you ever just wiped the whole slate clean? Leave a comment and help me out.

Until then – here is my motto: