Hands down, one of the best features of Gmail is the ability to archive messages. In the past, if you wanted to keep an email message, you had to put the message in a folder (or sub-folder) that you created to store messages. Finding messages that you saved often turned out to be a chore and time consuming, especially if the message got parked in the wrong folder. If your message applied to move than one folder, you had to create a copy and file it.
Why Should I Archive Messages?
- When you ‘archive’ a message, Gmail puts the message in ‘All Mail’ – a holding place for all of your messages. All messages held in ‘All Mail’ are searchable using the search feature. This search feature leverages Google’s strengths in search for your email. All you have to do is type a word or a name and Gmail will display all messages that have been archived that have that word or name in it.
- Gmail users are given 25 Gigabytes of storage. That is years of storage for the average user so there is no need to delete messages!
- Deleted messages are only kept in the trash for 30 days and then the message is gone for good.
- Archiving messages is a great way to clean up your inbox and keep messages for future reference!
How Do I Archive a Message?
- When you are looking at your Gmail inbox, you can archive a message by clicking on the check box to the left of the message you want to archive. Once you click on the check box, the archive button appears at the top of the inbox as a button with a folder and an arrow on it.
- You can also archive a message that you are already looking at by clicking on the archive button at the top the screen.
Ultimately, archiving messages save you time and energy. Gone are the days of searching through multiple folders to find a message. Gmail’s archive function gives users a Google-like search function that makes keeping and finding messages a breeze.
Besides Archiving Messages, What Else Can I Do To Organize My Inbox?
Gmail has a great function called labels. Labels are the new way of ‘foldering’ messages as labels help you to organize messages into categories. These labels can only be seen by you and more than one label can be assigned to a message if need be. Labels can be assigned easily to an email message by clicking on the 
button at the top of the screen and following the drop down menu instructions. Labels can be created via your inbox or when a specific message is being viewed. Here is an example of what labelled messages look like in an inbox:
