The Best Time to Clear Out Your Gmail Inbox Is Now! Here’s How to Do It Easily

The estimated reading time for this post is 7 minutes

Unless you’re a devout member of the Zero Inbox Club, your Gmail inbox may be cluttered with emails you don’t really need. Now is the best time to clear unwanted emails out of your Gmail inbox.

Why now? Well, you’re right, there’s never a bad time to clear out your Gmail inbox. But now is an especially important time to tackle this task.

Beginning June 1, 2021, Google no longer will offer unlimited storage in Google Photos. Instead, photos added to Google Photos after then will count against the free storage in your Google account. If your Gmail inbox is stuffed with useless emails, then it’s taking up storage that could be used for your future photos in Google Photos and/or documents in Google Drive.

Sure, you can pay Google for extra storage space. But you may not have to if you take a few minutes to clean out your Gmail inbox.

Fortunately, clearing out your Gmail inbox can be done quickly and easily, with a few handy dandy tricks. No need to go through your emails one by one. You can delete them in batches to make the job much simpler.

Note that the easiest way to clear out your Gmail inbox is by using the browser version of Gmail. These tricks won’t work in the Gmail app on your phone or tablet.

Check out => Empty Email Inbox: Win or Fail?

How to See How Much Storage Your Gmail Is Using

You may be curious how much of your Google storage your Gmail account is using. There’s an easy way to find out.

First, open Gmail and log into your account. Scroll to the bottom of your inbox to see how much Google storage you’re currently using.

Click on the arrow to open the Google One page that shows you how much storage you have and how much is being used by each Google service you’re using.

If your Gmail inbox is quite full, you may be using a lot of storage that can be freed up for Google Photos or  Google Drive.

How to Clear Out Your Gmail Inbox the Easy Way

Google has made clearing out your Gmail inbox easy. You just have to know how to do it.

The key to clearing out your Gmail inbox is to find emails that are taking up a lot of storage and delete them. Whether you have emails from a newsletter you should have unsubscribed from years ago (NOT The Wonder of Tech, of course) or a friend who sends you every photo they’ve ever taken, emails can use up a lot of space.

Time to clean!

Deleting in Bulk

One of the handiest ways to delete massive amounts of emails in Gmail is to delete them in bulk. You don’t have to select emails individually. Just a few clicks and you can eliminate all emails in a group.

To bulk delete Gmail messages, choose the messages you want to delete. Choose by category, sender, keyword, or emails with attachments (more on this below).

Check the box above the messages on the left side.

All of the emails on the screen will be selected when you check that box. If you just delete those email messages, then you will have deleted the 50 messages shown on your screen. That could be time-consuming if you have thousands of unwanted messages you want to trash.

Instead, click the option at the top of the messages that says Select all messages that match this search.

Click on the trash can icon above the messages. Confirm your selection and poof! All of your messages will be deleted.

Note that if you’re deleting tens of thousands of messages in bulk, you may have to try this several times. It should work all at once, but sometimes you need to repeat the steps to make sure all of the selected messages are moved to the Trash folder.

Selecting Messages to Delete

You don’t have to go through your inbox to find messages to delete. You can search for them easily by using Gmail’s search box (above the messages), or by using Gmail’s categories.

Search for Emails with Attachments

Emails with attachments often use a lot of storage space. Your friends may send you photos and videos attached to emails. Store these videos and photos in other places so they don’t take up space in your Gmail account.

You can search for emails with attachments.  To find emails that have attachments, search for => has: attachment. The search results will show messages that have attachments. You can further refine the search to show attachments that are photos, PDF files, etc.

After you’ve made sure you’re not deleting your only copy of a treasured photo, you can trash all messages with attachments. Do a bulk delete of messages with attachments as described above.

Other Searches

You can clear out your Gmail account by searching for messages by keywords, from a particular sender, by date, by subject, or by size. Search by keyword in the search box above your messages.

Or search for messages:

by subject => subject: [words you’re searching for in the subject line]

from a sender => from: [name]

according to date => after: [date] or before: [date]

by size of message => size: [number of bytes]

For a more complete list of search terms, check out Gmail Help Search Terms.

Clear Out Categories

On the left side of your screen is a list of categories Gmail automatically sorts your messages into. An easy way to delete messages is to choose categories of messages and trash them all.

You can start with categories such as Promotions or Social. If there aren’t any messages you need to save, you can clear out these categories. Do you really need Facebook notices from 3 years ago? Or emails telling you about special deals that expired in 2015?

Choose all of the messages in Promotions and/or Social (see above for how to bulk select all messages), then click the trash can icon at the top of the messages. You’ll be asked to confirm your bulk deletion.

Click the OK button. If you have a lot of messages you’re deleting, you may have to wait a few minutes before deleting more emails.

After the messages have been moved to the Trash, Gmail will show you a confirmation that the messages are in Trash with an option to Undo.

So if you’re feeling remorseful, you can change your decision easily.

Don’t miss => Gmail Undo Send – Saving You from Your Mistakes

Spam Folder

Open your spam folder and check it to make sure all of the messages in there are in fact spam. Move any to your inbox that aren’t spam.

You can delete all of the messages in your spam folder by clicking the option at the top of the messages that says Delete all spam messages now.

You’ll see a confirmation asking if you want to continue. Click OK to confirm. You’ll be richly rewarded for your efforts by words of encouragement from Gmail.

Emptying Trash

After you’re done clearing your inbox, you may notice that you haven’t gained any space in your Google account. That’s because the Gmail messages you’ve deleted are in your Trash folder. Your Trash folder is a part of your Gmail account so you haven’t yet completely cleared these messages you’ve deleted.

Learn more => Think You Deleted Your Photos? Photos You Send to Trash May Still Be on Your Phone

If you do nothing, they will stay in your Trash folder for 30 days and then be deleted automatically.

That 30 day grace period can give you time to retrieve any messages you want to keep. But if you’re sure about your decision to have a cleaner Gmail inbox, you can empty your Trash folder at any time. Scroll down on the left side of the screen to find Trash. You may have to click on the More option to find your Trash folder.

Click Empty Trash now to clear out your Gmail account and gain space for future emails, Google Photos, and Google Drive.

Your Thoughts

Are you a member of the Zero Inbox Club? Have you cleaned out your Gmail account in preparation for Google Photos no longer allowing unlimited storage? Do you have any tips for clearing out your inbox?

Share your thoughts in the Comments section below!