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How to declutter your inbox

It's a problem for many of us - we have so many unread emails in our inbox we don't know where to start to get rid of them! KARE 11's Ellery McCardle talks with decluttering pro Laurie Wrobel about how to begin the process.

MINNEAPOLIS — You hear that 'ping' noise and you see it glaring back at you on your phone or computer: a new email is in your inbox, adding on to the many you already have.

It's a problem many of us have, including in our own KARE 11 newsrooom.

We asked our colleagues to send us their inbox number and we got a range of answers, from zero to 143,000, which is how many unread emails KARE 11 reporter Lindsey Seavert has in her inbox.

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She said she gave up deleting emails after she had her second child. She was too busy to keep up.

"I had to neglect something in my life and it wasn't going to be my job, it wasn't going to be my family and my other responsibilities, so it was going to be my poor email," she said.

When you tell that 143,000 number to Laurie Wrobel, of Twin Cities-based Clutter 911, she will gasp.

"That would just be overwhelming and daunting to me, it would make me twitch," said Wrobel. 

Everyone is different in how many emails they'll let pile up in their inbox.

Wrobel says decluttering any email mess can happen, but it might take some people longer than others to sort through.

Wrobel says to start, organize emails into folders.

"Be specific as you can be, but don't have 10,000 folders either," she said.

Also, unsubscribe from shopping and newsletter emails, and social media notifications, which is an easy way to get rid of the junk. 

"Social media apps, all those notifications that just cause a distraction and they're there and you really don't need them," she said.

If you need to delete a bunch of emails, she suggests taking ten minutes each to do that.

"I tell my clients, the less we touch something the less it's going to cost you," said Wrobel

In this case, the more time you spend having to go through emails, the less time you have to do something more fulfilling.

Another way to avoid building up emails, is to deal with each email one time only.

We asked you, what's your number of emails in your inbox? You can see some of the responses from our #Sunrisers below! 

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