[Macworld.com]

Kelly Turner's inbox is jammed with 37,000 messages. So you can imagine she'd be interested in hearing how Macworld readers manage files, e-mail, snippets, and other electronic clutter. [more]

[dux5]

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What strategies have you developed for dealing with cluttere-mail or otherwise?

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Same as yours -- without the color coding.
I guess the March issue will be one to take to heart.

[Schneb]

Folders.
A good folder organizational structure can solve a multitude of ills. Although, I must say, I do not have THAT many emails.

[earthsaver]

My worst offense in Mail is not keeping my Sent mailbox clean. I've got 2000 messages there now. My preference is to only hold onto messages that connect with unresolved issues. If I've gotten a response or closed a topic with the recipient, the email is usually no longer necessary.
Outside of email:
- I keep almost all of my files in an ordered hierarchy of folders, know where to find just about everything, and can access a file with just a few key presses with LaunchBar. Rarely do I have to use Spotlight to search for anything.
- I keep my Desktop icons sized to the max at 128 pixels, which prevents me from storing too many files there. Right now there are a few more than usual (13). I keep all of my Web downloads in a Downloads folder on the Desktop.

[kwill]

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What strategies have you developed for dealing with cluttere-mail or otherwise?

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My primary E-Mail application is Eudora, although I use Mail for select recipients. Eudora receives text-only messages with a low attachment size threshold; this requires a manual "Fetch and Delete" action if I choose to accept it.
Both applications use extensive filters and folders. Eudora is more robust, supporting subfolders (Clients: Name A; Name B; Suppliers: Printers, Software; etc.) By means of Stationery, some filters can trigger semi- or total-automated responses. Spam that makes it past the server-side filter goes through client-side exclusions and are trashed. Items that survive spam filters and are not moved to any of the designated folders wind up in "unknown junk."

[kellie]

Much like Joe, I rarely keep anything in my inbox. Anything that remains in there is a to-do item. Something that requires me to follow up or something that I will need to reply to when I have more information, for example.
I have an extensive system of folders that begin with high-level categories and go down to fairly granular items. When an item comes to my inbox, I read it and then either trash it, file it, or keep it in my in-box as a to-do item.
My productivity is inversely related to the amount of clutter in my life -- from my living room, to my desk, to my inbox. I don't think I could get anything done if I had that many emails in my inbox!

[Nobody]

Eudora. Just use Eudora to search in seconds in 1 GB mailboxes. Amazing!

[kieran]

I never use my inbox. I use Apple Mail and just have a smart mailbox which lists all mail from my various accounts, including sent mail - organized by thread, from the last two months. I also use address book colour coding to sort work stuff from personal.
The inbox just languishes in a big mess - but at least I don't have to see or deal with it. I'm sure it's happy.

[iamac]

I've bought into David Allen's Getting Things Done system, not just for e-mail and computer clutter, but for my whole process of, uh, getting things done in my life. And even if you don't want to run your whole life based on this system, he has some great, simple principles of organization to apply specifically to your e-mail inbox. If your goal is to empty your inbox and have a better idea of where each e-mail should go (and to be able to discern, at a glance, why you kept that e-mail from three years ago), I highly recommend the GTD system.

[rgetter]

I really sympathize with Kelly and will share her frustration at reading through dozens of tips telling us how we should have been doing things all along (and not after we've collected 37,000 messages).
One "spring cleaning" trick I use is to sort my mailbox by sender or subject. That way I can go through and quickly delete those 147 Netflix noticesI've let pile up over the past few years. The same trick will also let me see patterns in the messages and create folders and rules that will sort stuff in the future.
Being traumatized by a few experiences where an e-mail exchange from several years before suddenly suddenly became critically important once again, I tend to be an e-mail pack-rat. The shareware e-mail archiving tools I found (for Entourage), were not as useful as I hoped. The technique I came up with involved creating a renamed copy of the MS User database, switching over to that account and deleting all the newer mail. In my case, "newer" meant anything younger than three years. When I was sure it was all there, I switched back into my real e-mail account and deleted all the messages that were older than three years. Now, if I need to search my archives, I just switch to the "archive" account. I've done this a couple of times now for different date ranges and it seems to work pretty well.
Good luck!
Ric Getter

[alansky]

The biggest problem with your "one folder holds everything" system (non-system) is that Entourage must remain happy and healthythat is to say, fully functionalin order for your data to be available. In my experience, Entourage's mail database has been known to get corrupted, resulting in a failure of the program to open. Rebuilding the database is not possible when the database is so affected, so the only way to protect your Entourage data from the same fate is to back up your Microsoft User Data folder every day.
Other than that, any way that anyone wants to "organize" their data is their own business. As long as you can find what you want, when you want it, there's no "right" answer to this question. Personally, I always give my files meaningful names and file them using a simple, logical system of folders and subfolders. The most important thing, however, is backing up your data. No matter how it's organized, if you can't find what you're looking for and don't have a backup, you're out of luck.
But wait! Here's the number one clutter-cutting tip of all time: Throw stuff out! Or, if you must, archive your really old mail in mbox format. Saving a lifetime's worth of clutter is pretty ridiculous, no matter how you organize it.

[ZardoZ]

I've used Entourage, Eudora, Outlook, Outlook Express on Macs and PC's for years. And I lost emails on all of them. Now I use Gmail. You don't even need to waste time creating heirarchial folders and synching with each computer... you just use Google's built-in searches to find what you're looking for. The best part is platform independence, and you don't need to back up. You just have to put up with the Google ads and Big Brother watching over your shoulder. I also use Yahoo mail, but Gmail is much more stable, and attaches, sends and receives in the background. The coolest feature is integration with Google desktop search, so you can find files on your local computer and search email messages at the same time. You can even find files stored on other computers you use... I've pulled several documents back from the dead this way.

[Rhywun]

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Here's the number one clutter-cutting tip of all time: Throw stuff out! Or, if you must, archive your really old mail in mbox format. Saving a lifetime's worth of clutter is pretty ridiculous, no matter how you organize it.

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I disagree. Space is so cheap there's really no need to throw anything out. I can't remember how many times I found some bit of information I needed from some old throwaway email I would have normally deleted.
My advice is to not waste time sorting and categorizing. I just dump all my old mails into a single "Archive" folder. Spotlight finds anything I need there very quickly. It's only a few thousand emails, so maybe my system would collapse under tens of thousands of messages but it works so far.

[Yuri1]

Allume Systems has a Universal binary version of a suite of apps called Spring Cleaning v.8 available now. One of the many uncluttering apps it contains is called Mail Cleaner. You can toss all your email attachments without having to erase the email! Works with Apple Mail program, Eudora, and Microsoft Entourage.
Chances are you normally save the attachment to a relevant folder, but this leaves you with the space-wasting duplicate still attached.
BTW, one of the other apps goes through your HDD, finds all your Universal apps and allows you to delete the PowerPC code to slim down file size and (I presume) improve performance further.