How to clean up your Gmail inbox
A full Gmail inbox can usually be cleared in under an hour with a few searches. Here's the free way, step by step.
Rather not do it by hand? InboxBuddy is now in early access: it’s being built to clear repetitive junk into a restorable vault while keeping HMRC, tax, invoice and receipt emails safe — and you review the plan first. Nothing is on sale yet.
Join early access1. Clear the Promotions and Social tabs
Search category:promotions, tick the select-all box, then click "Select all conversations that match this search" and Delete. Repeat with category:social. Deleted mail sits in the Bin for 30 days, so you can undo mistakes.
2. Delete old mail in bulk
Try older_than:2y category:updates or older_than:1y is:unread. Before deleting, check the results for anything you need, such as tax, bank, insurance or receipts.
3. Free up storage: find big attachments
Free Google accounts get 15 GB, shared between Gmail, Drive and Photos. Search larger:10M or has:attachment larger:5M, then delete the big ones you don't need. Empty the Bin to free the space straight away.
4. Stop it filling up again
- Use the Unsubscribe link Gmail shows next to the sender's name on marketing emails.
- Create a filter (Settings › Filters) to auto-archive or label newsletters you want to keep but not see.
- Report obvious spam rather than just deleting it.
5. Protect what matters first
Before any big clear-out, search hmrc OR "self assessment" OR invoice OR receipt, select the results and add a label (e.g. "Keep"). Then exclude them from deletions by adding -label:keep to your searches. See how to find every HMRC email.
Rather not do it by hand? InboxBuddy is now in early access: it’s being built to clear repetitive junk into a restorable vault while keeping HMRC, tax, invoice and receipt emails safe — and you review the plan first. Nothing is on sale yet.
Join early access