Empty the Deleted Items folder

When you delete messages in Outlook, the messages are moved to the Trash folder. Items in this folder continue to take up space on your computer's hard disk and — if your account is set up to leave copies of the messages on the mail server — in your account mailbox. To free up some disk and mailbox space, you can empty the Trash folder.

If you have multiple e-mail accounts, you will have a Trash folder for each account.

1. Hold down CONTROL , and then in the folder list, click the Trash folder.

2. Click Empty Folder.

   Notes: 

   • Some kinds of e-mail accounts, such as Windows Live Hotmail accounts, automatically empty the Trash folder at predefined times.

   • With some email accounts you can set up a schedule in Outlook to empty your Trash folder regularly.

   • IMAP accounts offer multiple options for how deleted items are stored and displayed. To set your preferences, on the Tools menu, click Accounts, and then select the IMAP account in the account list. Click Advanced, click the Folders tab, and then next to Trash, select the options that you want.

See also

Create, change, or delete a schedule

Move or copy a message between folders

Move or rename a folder

About Time Machine backups and Outlook