Sort out a Hotmail Inbox

Windows Live Hotmail is one of the world's largest online email servers, and is growing everyday. If you're the recipient of plenty of emails from family or plenty of notification messages from Facebook, your inbox can fill up fast. So how do you sort out your mixed up mess of messages so you can find what you're looking for? Follow these simple tips and tricks to a clean, organized inbox.

Steps

  1. Sort out what you do and don't need. Do you get plenty of email adverts from that Be a Successful Player on Neopets account you had years ago, or any junk mail from old fan clubs which you don't pay attention to anymore? Unsubscribe to these messages by looking down the bottom of the message, there should be a link to unsubscribe to the emails. This will stop you from receiving unneeded clutter which you probably won't even read anyway.
    • Use Hotmail's sweep menu. This is an easy way to move and delete larger groups of mail.
  2. Make some folders to organize the messages you do need in. To make a new folder, look down the bottom of the navigation panel to the left. There should be a link that says, 'Manage Folders'. Click the link. You will be redirected to another page. Up the top of this page, simply click 'New Folder' and type in a title. Good titles for folders are 'School', 'Work', 'Family', 'Friends' etc. To sort a message from your inbox into a folder, highlight the email and up the top banner where it says "New" "Delete" "Junk" etc, click the "Move To" button. This will bring down a drop down box which will show all the folders in your Maintain an Empty Email Inbox (Inbox Zero). Select the folder you would like to move the message to, and the message will automatically reappear into that folder.
  3. Don't sign up for advertorial email notifications if you join a website! If there is a box on an online sign up form that asks you whether you want to receive emails about special offers, do not say yes! This provides a major source of clutter to your inbox, and especially after working hard to clean it, it is very unrewarding. If you do accidentally agree to sign up for email newsletters or notifications, unsubscribe or mark it as junk so it gets sent to your Junk folder instead of your inbox.
  4. Style your inbox to suit you! To change how your inbox looks, press the 'Options' button on the task bar on the top of your inbox. Here, you can choose plenty of different themes of different colors! If you would like to have a better view of your emails in a side preview, or if you would like to have a different colored inbox depending on the weather, this is the perfect place to make your inbox truly yours!



Tips

  • Try not to clutter your inbox with folders! This will make things more confusing. Instead of naming a folder for each person, for example "Annabelle" and "Mary", why not have one folder for all of your friends?
  • If there are any unneeded emails, just delete them! There is no reason to keep junk mail! Keep the space used to store junk email free for other important emails which you'd like to keep.
  • Have a folder for notifications from Facebook or Myspace, so they aren't left around in your inbox.

Warnings

  • It's a good idea to print out any iTunes receipts or online username/passwords for websites that get emailed to you and then delete them from your inbox. If somebody hacks into your account, they would have access to all of those emails, and could hack into your facebook or YouTube account using the 'Thanks for Signing Up' emails easily. And if you get sent iTunes receipts, they say your home address, and so if somebody finds those emails, they would have access to your home address!
  • Do not open any images from unknown senders. They could send a virus to your computer, or be harmful!
  • Watch out for online predators. If you receive any emails from somebody you don't know, do not open it, even if the subject seems nice!
  • Be careful for what you sign up for - some spam emails clutter your computer.

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