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Many employees have a limited size on the Outlook mailboxes. Getting constant messages that say you're exceeding your allotted size and have to clean up can be both frustrating and annoying. Below are a few tips to assist you keep your mailbox in order.

1. Your mailbox consists of all your outlook folders not just your Inbox. Filing email into different folders won't reduce the amount of information you have in your mailbox.

2. Keep your Deleted and Sent items washed. Sort by date and then delete everything that is older than specific period time. The length of time you keep email will depend on the kind of work you do.

3. Schedule a set time to clean up your Outlook to be sure it happens. If you book time on your own calendar every week to do some basic housekeeping, you will discover it easier to keep an eye on things.

4. Tidy up as you go. All email ought to be done and filed, deferred by flagging, delegated by sending it to someone else, or deleted. You should attempt to handle email as little as possible, so try applying among the four D's as you go along so it doesn't turn into a big job later on.

TIP: You need to only have unread mail in your inbox. The perfect inbox can be an empty one.

5. Create a rule to file newsletters or other email you do not read immediately to make them easier to find, read and delete. Be careful about creating a rule to file mail from specific people. It is very an easy task to forget you created the rule and then wonder why they never send you anything. If you get monthly email giving you point balances, make a rule to have these items go automatically into a dedicated folder. It really is then very easy to organize by date and delete all but the most recent balance.

6. Don't duplicate email. Having multiple copy of a message is a quick way to fill your mailbox. If exactly the same message belongs to several department or project assign it categories.

7. Work with a category for mail items which you feel you really must keep. This will enable you to avoid accidentally removing vital messages when you are cleaning up.

8. Create a category for mail items you only want to hold on to briefly. If you create a search folder to find these items, it is possible to organize them by date and clean them out regularly.

9. Send a link instead of an attachment. If your document is saved on the server and you also want to share it internally, send a web link to the document instead of sending an attachment. Outlook Mail 365 will also help to avoid document version confusion.

10. Save attachments and then remove them from email you wish to keep. Attachments take up a huge amount of space. Don't keep them in your Outlook. Right-click on the name of the attachment and choose Save As or Save All Attachments.

11. Sort mail by size and delete the biggest items. If you want to free up space quickly, organize any folder - including search folders - from largest to smallest and delete the biggest messages. You can organize any folder by clicking on the word "size" near the top of the size field. If you can't see a column called size, try expanding the width of one's message pane to allow you to see more headings.

12. Archive email that you are feeling you absolutely have to keep with OneNote. If these are personal messages, you can develop a Sky Drive account and save them to a notebook that's stored in the cloud.

These 12 steps could be small, but the effect they will have on a cluttered mailbox will undoubtedly be huge. Work smart not hard.