If your inbox feels like a never-ending avalanche of spam, newsletters you never read, and old conversations you don’t need, you’re not alone. A messy inbox isn’t just annoying—it slows you down, makes it harder to find the stuff that matters, and can even open the door to security risks like phishing scams.

The good news is that cleaning up your inbox doesn’t have to be a chore. With a few smart steps and some good new habits you can cut the clutter, block the junk, and make email start working for you again instead of against you.

In this post, we’ll share simple ways to tidy up your inbox, reduce spam, and keep things running smoothly—so you can spend less time deleting and more time doing.

In the meantime, if you need Microsoft email (Exchange) or Office setting up, get in touch with us

Step 1 – make sure your email address isn’t public

This is more of a preventative step to stop future spam but important nevertheless

1. Do a Google search for your email address in quotations. If you find it, remove it from the public web page (if it’s your website) or make a request to the site owner that it be removed. Also, ask Google to remove the result (use the three dot menu)

You should also of course check if your email address has been in a data breach. If the answer is yes, you should probably consider changing your password sooner rather than later. Go to the ‘Have I Been Pwned’ website

Step 1b – if you have to have your email address visible on a website, try using HTML encoding or Javascript Obfuscation

The code on your site would look something like this making it much harder for data scrapers to grab it (this example is HTML character encoding):

<a href="mailto:&#;&#102;&#111;&#64;&#101;&#120;&#97;&#109;&#112;&#108;&#101;&#46;&#99;&#111;&#109;
&#105;&#110;&#102;&#111;&#64;&#101;&#120;&#97;&#109;&#112;&#108;&#101;&#46;&#99;&#111;&#109;

Alternatively, can you include your email address as an image?

Step 2 – clean your inbox

1. Go through your spam folder and mark anything that you find in there that shouldn’t be there as ‘trusted’ or ‘not spam’
2. Then go through your inbox carefully. Anything that is spam, mark as spam and move to your spam folder
3. Go back to your spam folder and search for the word ‘unsubscribe’. Open each unsubscribe link in turn and unsubscribe from the mailing lists
4. Do this every day, or a bit of it every day, or at least as often as you can

Over time you’ll reduce the amount of spam you receive and your spam will be less likely to end up in your inbox

Can’t be bothered with the steps above? Just dump your old email address

Might sound drastic but it’s quite liberating and stops spam instantly

1. Setup a brand-new email address for yourself
2. Setup an auto-responder on the previous email account, something like ‘This email address is no longer used or monitored. Instead use the following <new email address> to get in touch with me’. Spammers don’t send emails personally so they’re unlikely to get your new email address from the auto-responder
3. Go through your old website accounts and update them with your new email address
4. Email your important contacts to tell them you’ve changed your address

Hey presto – no more spam

Need help setting up a new email account? Get in touch

If you’re tired of battling spam and juggling multiple inboxes, Microsoft 365 is a game-changer. It’s not just email—it’s a complete productivity suite designed to keep your business running smoothly. With Outlook, you get powerful spam filtering, smart rules to organize messages, and built-in security features that help protect against phishing and malware. No more wasting time digging through junk mail or worrying about suspicious links.

But that’s just the start. Microsoft 365 brings everything together—Word, Excel, Teams, OneDrive—so your emails, files, and conversations all work seamlessly. Need to share a document straight from your inbox? Done. Want to schedule a meeting without leaving your email? Easy. It’s all about saving time and reducing stress.

Whether you’re a small business or a growing team, Microsoft 365 gives you the tools to stay organized, secure, and connected—without the headaches. If you’re ready to take control of your inbox and boost productivity, we can help you get set up quickly and easily.