IT TechTip: Takin’ Out the Trash in Outlook

Did you know that if you delete a a mail message in Outlook, it’s not necessarily gone from the system? The message is simply moved to your “Deleted Items” folder. Over time, your “Deleted Items” folder can become very large, and take up precious space on the mail server.

One way to think of it: You’ve got some really old potato salad in back of your fridge that you finally get around to relocating to your kitchen garbage can. It then sits in your kitchen garbage can, festering, until you take it out to the curbside trash.

Here’s how to take out the festering trash in Outlook:
1. Open Outlook. Go to the Tools menu and select the Empty Deleted Items Folder option.
2. You will be prompted to confirm that you want to permanently delete all the items in your Deleted Items folder. Click Yes.

Bonus Round:
Automatically Empty the Trash every time you exit Outlook:
1. Open Outlook. Go to the Tools menu and select Options.
2. Click on the Other tab
3. Check the “Empty Deleted Items Folder upon exiting” box. Click on “Advanced Options” button.
4. Check or uncheck the “Warn before permanently deleting items” box. If you leave this box checked, Outlook will prompt you to confirm the deletion every time you close outlook.
5. Click OK.