# The Ideal Email Folder Structure – The Sweet Setup

<https://thesweetsetup.com/the-ideal-email-folder-structure/>

- Host: [thesweetsetup.com](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/hosts/thesweetsetup.com/)
- Saved: May 21, 2024 (2024-05-22T00:38:38Z)
- Record: https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/3bf1aaedadef/
- JSON: https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/3bf1aaedadef.json

## What Jamie wrote

It has been years since I have given much thought to how I use folders in my email, but seeing this article brought it to mind. I generally agree with this article to not create a ton of folders like most people (including myself) did decades ago. But I also don't recommend just using Inbox and Archive as this article suggests. 

Here is my approach: **use folders for retention and workflow reasons, and never for topics**. Here is how this looks for me:

- **Auto Replies**: I create mail rules that catch things like Out of Office messages and I route them here out of my normal workflow.
- **Scratch**: This is like my desktop but for email. Items go here if it is something that requires action but I cannot get to it quickly, and for some reason doesn't go to OmniFocus.
- **Save**: I put receipts and things in here, and this folder automatically deletes after 365 days.
- **External**: I have email addresses on GMail and iCloud, and they autoforward to this folder. I don't intermingle them with normal mail since nobody should be sending to those addresses.

I also use Sanebox which manages a separate set of folders that I don't really interact with directly.

## Facts

- Kind: [Page](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/kinds/page/)

## Appears in

- [WT289: Weekly Thing 289 / Queueing, Counting, Mapping](https://weekly.thingelstad.com/archive/289/), Notable

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## Elsewhere

- Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://thesweetsetup.com/the-ideal-email-folder-structure/