Top email tips Cleaning up your email

An example of the box you'll see

If your inbox is growing unwieldy, it’s time to clean it up. Select Tools > Options from the top menu, then click on the Maintenance tab at the top of the Options box. Click Clean Up Now.

The Compact option removes redundant information (such as messages marked for deletion) from your mail and keeps Outlook Express running faster, so try that first. 

Unfortunately Outlook Express is short on automated tools to make this process nice and easy, but here are some quick maintenance tips to get rid of old messages:

• Click the Find icon in the main toolbar, and set Received before to a date six months ago, say. Click Find Now. Press Ctrl+A to select all the messages, and press Delete.
• If there are any old messages you want to save, use the scrollbar on the right to scan through the emails before you hit the Delete key. If you see one, hold down the Ctrl key and click on the message once. This will uncheck it without losing your current selection.
• If you’re worried that you’ve accidentally deleted a vital email, simply check your 'Deleted Items' folder and the message should still be there. 
• To finally clear everything select: Edit > Empty ‘Deleted Items’ Folder but make sure you're 100% sure you want to do this as there's no going back afterwards.