# How much stuff is in your deleted e-mail folder? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 13, 2004, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-stuff-is-in-your-deleted-e-mail-folder/244955 "2004-05-13T14:17:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Casey1505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2004, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-stuff-is-in-your-deleted-e-mail-folder/244955/1 "2004-05-13T14:17:32Z")
Just curious. I have 3 in my personal account’s folder, and 3335 in my work e-mail account’s folder. I’ll think I’ll see how long I can go without deleting the work one. Nine more hours until vacation… ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2004, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-stuff-is-in-your-deleted-e-mail-folder/244955/2 "2004-05-13T16:31:09Z")
Zero. I have Outlook set to purge the “Deleted” folder upon closing the program. ---
**Author:** ![Severian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@Severian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Severian)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2004, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-stuff-is-in-your-deleted-e-mail-folder/244955/3 "2004-05-13T17:10:32Z")
There are three items in the Deleted Items folder right now, but like **Chefguy** I have it set to empty the folder upon exiting Outlook. I’ve got 88 items in my Inbox and 6,252 in Sent Items. ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2004, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-stuff-is-in-your-deleted-e-mail-folder/244955/4 "2004-05-13T18:03:45Z")
My e-mail trash is empty – I got a copy of Beagle this morning, and I always purge the trash after deleting such messages. 9,717 messages in Sent Items. That’s from March 1998 – although I do purge in there occasionally: messages setting my e-mail lists to nomail before vacation and the like. But otherwise I am an electronic packrat! ---
**Author:** ![larsenmtl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d78d45/32.png) [@larsenmtl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/larsenmtl)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2004, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-stuff-is-in-your-deleted-e-mail-folder/244955/5 "2004-05-13T18:12:15Z")
399 in trash. I accidently emptied it last week, I was heart broken. I use it as a filing system, so that I can look stuff up later. Great system, huh? 247 Sent. 8 inbox. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2004, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-stuff-is-in-your-deleted-e-mail-folder/244955/6 "2004-05-13T21:25:21Z")
Being a Eudora user rather than an Outlook user, I have a Trash folder, not a Deleted Email folder, and mine is set up to auto-delete when I quit the program. Twenty pieces in there right now. That’s since about 3 PM this afternoon. ::brings up Eudora stats page:: I received 122 emails today so far. Four personal, two political, two work-related, and 114 pieces of spam. All total, I currently have 34,151 pieces of email in Eudora, broken up into 24 mailboxes. ---
**Author:** ![eman77](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f04885/32.png) [@eman77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eman77)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2004, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-stuff-is-in-your-deleted-e-mail-folder/244955/7 "2004-05-13T21:52:54Z")
Currently 8112 in the deleted folder with 36 unread items. This is only from 10/30/03. I think I have had well more than 50 thousand deleted items since I learned how to use the computer. Mostly spam by the way. ---
**Author:** ![chique](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@chique](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chique)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2004, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-stuff-is-in-your-deleted-e-mail-folder/244955/8 "2004-05-13T23:51:49Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Zero. I have Outlook set to purge the “Deleted” folder upon closing the program. Same. But I do have 465 emails in my inbox. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Call\_me\_Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Call\_me\_Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Call_me_Frank)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2004, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-stuff-is-in-your-deleted-e-mail-folder/244955/9 "2004-05-14T03:44:08Z")
I clear my deleted emails within seconds of deleting them. I get some small amount of satisfaction from the fact that I don’t even get a chance to see spam before it’s gone…most of the time, anyway…