How to declutter a Hotmail inbox

Log into Hotmail in the usual way. If it doesn’t appear automatically, click the Inbox link on the left to display your inbox. It’s important to understand that the Sweep tool supports Hotmail’s junk mail filter, rather than replacing it. As such, it’s a good idea to stay alert for any spam that turns up in the Inbox folder. To do this, click to place a tick alongside one or more junk messages in the inbox and then click the Junk link at the top. The message will be duly shifted to the Junk folder.

Now click to mark one or more emails that are not spam but are simply old or otherwise unwanted. Click to open the Sweep dropdown menu and choose the ‘Delete all from’ option. A confirmation box will appear. Note that this includes an ‘Also block future messages’ box: if you tick this, then emails from the marked recipients will no longer make it through to your inbox (we will explain how to reverse this in just a moment). The Sweep menu also has a 'Move to' option: this can be used to sort emails into specific folders, rather than simply deleting them. When ready, click 'Delete all'. The process will take from a few seconds to a few minutes, depending on how many messages need deleting.

If you inadvertently marked a sender’s emails to be blocked in the future, this can be undone. Click to open the Options dropdown menu at the top right and choose More options. Now click the ‘Safe and blocked senders’ link under the ‘Preventing junk email’ heading. Select the misidentified email address from the Blocked senders list on the right and then click the Remove from list button.