Joe Kissell , Macworld.com
We’re nearing the end of our e-mail-cleanup challenge. So far, you’ve reduced the volume of incoming mail, created a filing system, and started using a simple process to deal with the new messages you receive. But what about all those messages still in your inbox? It’s time to take care of them now.

Apply the rules

If you’ve set up rules to process incoming mail, you can apply those same rules to the existing messages in your inbox. You may be surprised at how many old messages those rules will file away for you in a flash. First, go to your inbox and choose Edit: Select All. Then, in Mail, choose Message: Apply Rules. In Entourage, choose Message: Apply Rules: All Rules.

Deal with the backlog

Of the remaining messages, the older ones are less likely to require your active attention than the newer ones. Click on the Date Received or Date Sent column in your inbox to sort the messages by date, and skim over them beginning with the oldest ones. But be realistic. If a message has been in your inbox for more than a month without a response from you, the sender has probably forgotten about it. You can save yourself some time by moving all of these ancient e-mails into Filed (deleting truly unnecessary messages along the way).
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