Keeping Your Inbox Clean

Since incoming mail remains in your inbox until you delete or save it, it is possible to accumulate hundreds of messages. It is important to keep your inbox clean, however, because a large inbox:

Reduces performance--It takes longer to read in large lists of messages when you start an email program. It also requires more time to move between messages.
Consumes disk space--Email messages take up computer disk space. Because thousands of people have Uniform Access accounts, even a big disk drive can quickly be filled.

It is essential that you delete or save messages when you are finished reading them. Doing this keeps your inbox manageable and conserves system resources.

University of Washington Computing & Communications
Windows on Computing, No. 13, May 1993
newsltr@cac.washington.edu