Too Many Emails, One Simple Solution

My email inbox used to be OOC–out of control. I didn’t think I had many subscriptions, but with our on-again, off-again internet access as we travel the country, I couldn’t consistently check, answer, and delete. The emails were multiplying like rabbits, even though I was manually unsubscribing and deleting as fast as I could. Like rabbits, people!

That’s when I discovered Unroll Me. (It’s FREE, so keep reading.) My email inbox was full of ads, alerts, Simple Homemaker contacts, Travel Bags contacts, business, and personal messages. I couldn’t find the good stuff amongst all the ads! Now my email inbox contains this:

• Simple Homemaker emails (comments, questions, contact form)
• Personal emails from family and friends
• The Travel Bags emails (our family’s travel blog)
• Stephen Bautista Music emails (my husband’s music)
• One daily email containing all my subscriptions and advertisements

It’s no longer overwhelming, so I can manage it on a daily or bi-weekly basis. And if I don’t have time to read the Unroll Me daily email, I delete it, knowing I haven’t lost any personal emails or messages from you terrific people. Oh, so happy!

Here’s how Unroll Me works:

When Unroll Me and I first hooked up, UM scanned my inbox. It then listed all my subscriptions and gave me a simple option for each: roll it up, unsubscribe, or leave in inbox.

Here’s what that means:

For the sake of example, let’s say I’m subscribed to my family’s travel blog, The Travel Bags…which I am. I like to know what we’ve been up to.

Roll it up: If I choose this option, my messages from The Travel Bags will show up with all my other rolled up subscriptions in one email a day. ONE, people. Not 10. Not 100. One. I scan the single daily email and click on whatever I want to read. When I’m finished, I delete ONE email. If I get behind and, for example, don’t read emails throughout the entire month of December (oops), I can go in and delete 31 emails, not 310, not 3,100, 31.

Unsubscribe: If I don’t really care about the Bagasao family’s music missionary travels throughout the country and I don’t want to be subscribed to The Travel Bags anymore (heaven forbid!), I click unsubscribe and UM unsubscribes for me. This alone is well worth setting up a UM account. No more pesky unsubscribing! No more, people! Imagine the freedom! I thought I didn’t have very many subscriptions, but UM has unsubbed me from over 150 lists. Insanity.

Leave in inbox: If I want to make absolutely sure I get each and every update from The Travel Bags as soon as it comes out, I leave it in my inbox. All subscriptions left in the inbox continue exactly as they always have. Of course, that’s what I do with my subscription to The Travel Bags. Grin.

Are you afraid of committing to an unsubscribe or roll-up? UM keeps track of all your unsubs, roll-ups, and inbox emails and lets you change your mind at the click of a button. No commitment necessary!

Every day (you choose morning, afternoon, or evening) Unroll Me sends me the collection of the day in one email. At the top, it shares how many new subscriptions it has found. If it finds new subscriptions and you haven’t subscribed to anything new, it’s because it’s finding emails from addresses it hasn’t yet seen since you hooked up with Unroll Me. It encourages you to quickly tidy your inbox by rolling up or unsubscribing right away, and gives you an easy link for doing so.

Oh Unroll Me. I love your efficient, tidy ways!

One quick note on Unroll Me that may confuse you. My UM account states that I have well over 100 subscriptions. I absolutely do not. Many companies will send emails from numerous different addresses. Each one is considered a subscription and needs to be rolled up. That’s why you may have to roll something up more than once. I’ve never had to unsubscribe more than once, however.

There is an itsy bitsy teeny tiny learning curve–really tiny. Give it a go for a couple weeks and see if you love Unroll Me as much as I do. If you don’t, we can still be friends.

By the way, I don’t get paid for telling you this. Your clean inbox is my reward. Grin!

Click here to get started on your clean inbox.

Now that I have a clean inbox, I love reading your comments! Share your tips for managing emails.