Clean up a Large Google Workspace Mailbox

This process is for anyone who has thousands of messages in their Inbox and would like to organize them.

1. Click on the 1-50 in the upper right and switch the sort to Oldest so that the oldest emails show up at the top. Make a note of the year of the oldest email.
   
    
2. In the search bar, type: in:inbox before:2009/1/1 (or whatever date you choose) to find all messages prior to that date (this example will show 2008 and before).
   
    
3. Click the checkbox at the top to select all messages shown on the screen.  Then click the message “Select all messages that match this search” to mark ALL the messages.
   
    
4. Label the selected messages as 2008 (or whatever you choose) and click “create new.”
   
    
5. Select all the messages again, then click “Select all messages that match this search” then select the Archive icon.
   
    
6. All Emails before January 1, 2009 are now moved from your Inbox to a ‘2008’ folder. Repeat this process as needed.