The majority of your email does not matter. Personal messages are one thing, but most email is automated notifications. How many of those do you need an indefinite record of? Account signup verification, order confirmation, document sharing links, terms of service updates, the mass email goes on and on and none of it matters after the first time you read it.
So trash it.
Trash lasts at least a month, if not longer. If you need it back you can find it. If it's been so long that it's deleted, either it doesn't matter or there'll be some other way to get the information back.
If something had important information attached, like a document or a calendar event, save it elsewhere. That's the better way to find it anyway. The email is just the delivery mechanism, and an extremely poorly organized one at that.
You have better things to do than trawl through an archive of tens of thousands to find the emails which actually matter.
- Rew
Nightly Notes
There was a time when I had a single digit number of non-trashed email, for multiple months. While receiving dozens a week.
Simpler times.
I wish I could get away with this for all the things I have to do.
- Rew