A mailbox with ten thousand messages is hard to use. The real mail gets lost, and the program slows down.

You can clear it in a few minutes. Do it in this order.

1. Empty the Junk folder first.

Junk is the easy part, because nothing in it should matter.

Look through it once for anything real. Then empty it.

In new Outlook, select the Junk Email folder and choose Delete all. In classic Outlook, right-click the Junk Email folder and choose Empty Folder. In Thunderbird, right-click the Junk folder and choose Empty Junk.

Microsoft also deletes junk on its own after a while, around 14 to 30 days depending on the version, and you cannot get it back afterward.

2. Clear the Deleted Items folder.

Deleting a message only moves it. It still takes up room until this folder is emptied.

Right-click Deleted Items (Trash in some programs) and choose Empty Folder.

3. Find spam in the Inbox by sender.

Spam repeats. Sort the Inbox by sender, or type a sender's name in the search box. Everything from them comes up in one list.

Click the first message, hold Shift, click the last one, and delete. Or press Ctrl and A to select the whole list, then Delete.

In Outlook, Shift and Delete together skips the Deleted Items folder and removes the messages for good. It will ask you to confirm. Use it only when you are sure.

Do this for the five or six biggest senders first. That usually clears most of the pile.

4. Mark as you go.

Before you delete a big batch, mark one message from that sender as junk or block the address. That is what keeps the next batch from arriving. See Part 3.

5. If the mailbox is huge, use the website.

Your email provider has a webmail site. It is often faster to log in there, select all, and delete, than to do it in the program on your computer. Programs that use IMAP, which is most of them now, sync the change back, so the computer shows the cleared mailbox when you reopen it.

If you use POP, which is older, your computer holds its own copy, and clearing the website will not clear the program. If you are not sure which you have, ask me before deleting.

6. Do not delete what you cannot replace.

Before any big delete, scroll the list and look for the messages you would miss. Receipts, tax records, anything from a doctor or a bank. Move those to a folder first.

A big cleanup is a good time to check your backup too.

If the mailbox is bigger than you want to take on, call me. I will do it with you on your screen.

Tomorrow: Part 5, When It Will Not Stop.