Going to work on Monday morning and looking through the barrel of 487 unread messages is just not a fun experience.
Sure, with enough free time on your schedule, you can cut through the brush, deleting the emails you don’t need and preserving the ones that are most important.
but who has the time?
and patience? Is there an app to clean email?
yes, there are a handful of good ones! In this article, I have selected my favorite email cleaner apps that will help you clean your email inbox 😃
what is an email cleaner app?
Email cleaner apps include several features and functions that share a common purpose: to make sure your inbox is neat, clean, and organized.
These are some of the functions that you will generally find in email cleaners:
- automate. Automatically classify new emails into different folders and categories, or delete messages that meet certain criteria.
- delete/archive. email cleaner apps usually have some kind of feature to help you delete or archive emails faster or in bulk.
- organize. with a good email cleaner app, you can stay more organized (and do it more conveniently). for more help, check out our guide to organizing gmail.
- unsubscribe. most of us have a handful of email newsletters that we really like to subscribe to , and dozens of reminders to sign up. email cleanup apps often automate and simplify the unsubscribe process.
Some email cleaners are specialists and do something extraordinarily well. others are more complete, with all the tools you can imagine (and more).
best email cleaners
Now let’s get to the real meat of this article: the best email cleaning apps available.
Which apps have the most potential to revolutionize your inbox and help you get closer to inbox zero?
1. trimbox.io.
trimbox is a simple gmail plugin that makes keeping a clean inbox as easy as checking your email.
comes right into your gmail inbox and tags every email on the mailing list with an unsubscribe button. whenever you see the button, just click it once and trimbox will automatically unsubscribe you from the mailing list.
if you want to delete all old emails from that mailing list, just click the button once more and trimbox will automatically delete all emails from that sender in your inbox.
Because trimbox lives right in your inbox, you don’t have to remember to navigate to a separate site to clean up your email. this makes trimbox very easy to adopt as a simple daily routine, so your inbox stays clean forever.
2. clean email.
clean.email is another great email cleaning application. it’s about getting rid of the emails in your inbox that you no longer need.
whether they are old, full of extra files, or not relevant to your current work, clean.email will help you remove them quickly and efficiently.
It also has built-in tools to help you group emails together, label them properly, and archive them if you want to review them at a later date or store them permanently.
3. email.
with mailstrom, you can connect your gmail, outlook, or yahoo! account and delete thousands of unnecessary emails with just a few clicks.
You can easily filter messages based on factors like sender, date sent, and size, and remove entire categories of messages.
You can also unsubscribe from all those pesky sales and marketing lists you ended up on.
4. unwind.
If you’re interested in finally unsubscribing from all those pesky newsletters, unroll.me might be the best email cleanup tool for the job.
Once you link your email address, you’ll get an almost instant breakdown of all the subscriptions you currently have. from there, you can unsubscribe from anything that is no longer relevant to you.
plus, it’s completely free, so there are no downsides.
5. clean fox.
cleanfox is a similar app designed to help you steer clear of unwanted newsletters and marketing emails.
With just a few clicks, you can clean your inbox of old emails that have no value and ensure you receive fewer such emails in the future.
6. healthy box.
There’s also sanebox, an email management tool that’s compatible with virtually any email service. With it, you can connect all your email accounts and create settings for organizational purposes.
Once you establish your priorities and habits, sanebox will help you stay organized and provide daily summaries that will keep your inbox clean and easy to manage.
7. triage.
triage bills itself as “first aid for your inbox”, giving you the opportunity to easily sort through your old and persistent messages with simple gestures. in a matter of minutes, you can delete months or even years of old messages.
The only drawback is that the app is only for iOS devices, so it’s not universally useful.
the value of “clean” email
You may be saying to yourself, “Okay, but how important is a clean inbox, really? Don’t geniuses thrive under pressure? I heard Einstein was really messy…”
yeah, okay, there are some dubious scientific claims that smart people are messier.
but that’s not a good justification for taking a disorganized approach to your email inbox.
With the right email cleaner app, you can enjoy a ton of benefits, including:
less spam and unwanted messages.
Get rid of marketing clutter and messaging from brands you forgot about long ago. These messages don’t need to clog the flow of your inbox, and with the right email cleaner, you can keep them to a minimum.
prioritization, organization and hierarchy.
Which messages are more important than others? who needs an immediate response and who can wait a few days? I’d be lying if I said email cleaner apps have all the answers, but they have some of the answers: they’re great at reprioritizing and establishing hierarchies.
inbox zero?
Dare we mention the holy grail of inbox management? zero inbox? Swirling rumors suggest that some people, both blessed and lucky, may eventually get to zero messages in their inbox, a perfectly clean platform ready for whatever comes next.
I’m exaggerating, of course; For some people in some roles, inbox zero is a distant dream. but a good email cleaner app can help you make it happen.
Ultimately, all of this means:
- time saving. You don’t have to waste time manually unsubscribing from email lists, sorting through your emails, and trying to figure out your priorities. much of this happens automatically, so you don’t even need to think about it.
- best approach. you may not realize it, but your cluttered inbox could ruin your focus and productivity. with a cleaner inbox, you have a much better chance of performing at your best.
- less stress. your cluttered inbox is stressing you out, whether you realize it or not. once it’s clean, you’ll feel like a huge load has been lifted off your shoulders.
- no tasks or missed messages. have you ever lost a sale or lost track of a task? on your to-do list because it got buried in your inbox? I have. I bet you do too.
once you’ve used one of these email cleaners to clean up your inbox, it’s time to implement methods to keep your inbox under control.
After all, email is a major source of stress and lost productivity for millions of people.
But it’s much easier to manage and much more in control when you can view your email activity. this also helps manage email overload.
so what next?
Try email scanning. is an analytics tool designed specifically for gmail that lets you review average email response time, busiest times and days of the week, and dozens of other variables.
Once that’s in place, you can learn more about your email habits and work to correct them to maximize your productivity.
do you want to start? It’s totally free to get started. sign up for a free trial today and see what you’ve been missing.