Clean up your Outlook! Quick tips to refresh your space

Topics

• Delete your largest items
• Delete your oldest items, and use filters to further narrow results
  • Filter for items you were CC’d on
  • Filter to items with attachments
  • Filter to unread/read
• Delete unused folder contents, auto-email folders, or rule-based folders’ contents
• Empty deleted items folder

Delete your largest items

Go to File –> Cleanup tools –> Mailbox Cleanup –> Set size filter and click Find

When the advanced search opens, add any additional filters and search. When you’re ready, click the top result, use Ctrl+A to select all results, right-click, and Delete. You may need to repeat the “Find Now, select all, delete” process depending on how many results you have.

Delete your oldest items

Similar to above, just change the “size” find option to the “days old” option.

Because you have delete in “batches,” it may be quicker to filter your main view as opposed to using the cleanup tool.

From your main Outlook screen, go to view –> view settings

Click “filter”

Configure settings for your filter, such as only messages you were copied on, or those with attachments. Click OK when ready.

Select all results (Ctrl+A), right-click and Delete.

Delete all of a certain folder’s contents

Click Folder –> Delete all to delete all items in a folder (perhaps you had a temporary project-based folder or a rule that sent generic or auto-emails to a specific folder).

Empty your deleted items folder contents

Now that you’ve filled your deleted items, let’s empty it too!

Go to File –> Cleanup tools –> Empty Deleted items folder –> Yes