Are you a deleter??

@mommyboo (13174)
United States
January 31, 2010 3:13pm CST
No really, are you? I have friends who delete everything, perhaps every day they delete all the email they don't need, they delete all the texts they get that they don't need, they go thru and delete people from social sites that they don't talk to regularly. However, these people find themselves making such a habit of deleting that occasionally they delete something important and it's not retrievable. THIS causes a lot of stress and sometimes crabbiness to occur, and then of course since I'm such a nice person, I often helpfully suggest maybe that they stop deleting everything by habit. Myself - I am not a deleter. If I actually DO delete something/somebody etc, I make DOUBLY sure that it's something/somebody that isn't necessary or relevant, something/somebody I will have no regrets about deleting 2 minutes from deletion, 2 months from deletion, 2 years from deletion. It's that measure twice cut once rule of thumb that contractors swear by, and trust me, it makes sense in this arena too. SO. Are you a deleter? Why or why not?
4 people like this
27 responses
@donsky14 (5947)
• Philippines
31 Jan 10
No, I'm actually more of a keeper. lol. Its hard for me to just delete something, specially if its something memorable.
1 person likes this
@donsky14 (5947)
• Philippines
1 Feb 10
Exactly...its just so hard to let go of memories.
@mommyboo (13174)
• United States
1 Feb 10
I'm the same way about email and texts. One of the reasons I feel this way is because one of my kids accidentally deleted some messages - and the only reason I got upset was because they were texts from a friend, the last contact I had had before the person was killed in an accident. It's things like this that make me wonder how some people hold such little regard for things that MAY be more meaningful than they originally think. It didn't matter the content of the texts, just who they were from....
@madteaparty (2748)
• Japan
31 Jan 10
I'm more like the opposite kind of person. I tend not to delete old e-mails, so my e-mail accounts get really packed. Same with people from social sites. I don't talk to more than half of my friend list, and sometimes I delete that kind of people, but that doesn't happen often, and I usually just let them stay there.
1 person likes this
@mommyboo (13174)
• United States
1 Feb 10
Never know who might pop up out of the blue. I have a few friends who are like that, they are kind of peripheral - I don't get contacted directly by them very often but now and then they will post on a status or a comment on my wall and it's nice to see. I do think I need to do something about automatic deletion of things that go to spam (which I never look at anyway) and the boatloads of notifications from different places. I suppose I could turn them off lol.
@max1950 (2306)
• United States
31 Jan 10
yup im one of those guys, i dont like clutter of any kind, anything i want to keep i put in my saved mail and then only important stuff. after i read my mail bam it's either all gone or 99 % of it...most times 100% gone
1 person likes this
@mommyboo (13174)
• United States
1 Feb 10
I think the best way to control clutter is to keep it out to begin with. If you don't get a lot of spam, then there's nothing to delete!
@sacmom (14192)
• United States
3 Mar 10
Hi mommyboo. I'd have to say I do a little of both, though I don't normally make it a habit of deleting things. As it is, my email box (at least the one that I use for mylot) is filled with notifications that I haven't gotten around to yet. Oh, and I have a ton that are bookmarked as well. I just can't seem to find the time to get to them and when I do I end up going for other discussions that catch my eye because I figure I can always get to the other ones on a later date as they're already saved anyway. LOL Okay, so I usually delete them after I respond to them. However, there have been a few instances where I've saved discussions I've responded to. They were really helpful and I wanted to hold onto them for future reference. One thing I don't bother to delete are people from my friends list, whether it's on mylot or elsewhere. Okay, so there was one person on here, but I figured it was justified. And I did give it some thought before I actually did it. So, it's not like I just jumped right in and did it. Something I do delete are pictures off of my memory card. I have to, to make room on there as it's the only one I have. However, I try to be picky about it. After all, I want to keep the ones that I really really like on there. These are just a few examples of what I do and do not delete. There's probably more, but I can't think of anything more at the moment. LOL Happy mylotting!
@Natara (169)
• Canada
31 Jan 10
I am VERY careful when I delete things especially when i'm around important documents. Generally I keep things for a while until I really need to clear out some space, and then I start deleting things to make finding things easier. And also to give myself some more room.
1 person likes this
@mommyboo (13174)
• United States
1 Feb 10
Very wise, I think. If I feel I might need something, I don't just get rid of it. I can't count the number of times I have given my friend phone numbers or emails over and over because she 'deleted it without thinking' instead of saving it to her address book!
@Tallygirl09 (1380)
• United States
31 Jan 10
I get at least 100 e-mails a day in part because I have a web business and if I kept all the e-mails, I'd quickly go insane! What I do is review it once and if rubbish like spam, I delete it. And I might block e-mails form that source to help prevent future spam that will need to be deleted. If it's from a friend or family, I have an e-mail folder just for them and in it goes. Those I rarely delete. I do go thru the folders and delete what isn't relevant or needed anymore about once a month. And yes, very rarely, I have deleted something I didn't mean to. But what you might not know is that even when you delete something from your pc or laptop, it is in most case retrievable by those who know how. I even had an older pc that had crashed and wasn't working at all BUT in the hands of an expert (not me) I got e-mails off it from my Dad to me that I had deleted and now that he's gone to heaven, I wanted to have them. So depending on how important the information is, I save or delete. I like to be organized and I have many folders in my e-mail system kinda like a filing cabinet so that helps alot. I think I'd suffer from information overload if I didn't have at least some kind of system! Be Well!
@mommyboo (13174)
• United States
1 Feb 10
LOL! I agree about the email, I do delete anything spam OR I reroute it to spam if it's from a source where I get a monthly or weekly newsletter that I actually WANT and it just brings other spam from other sites with it. I guess my problem is really text messages. The inbox for those is small and I have had trouble saving them sometimes, my phone will tell me it's saved but when I try to find them later, it tells me my 'saved' folder is empty. I'm still not sure what the deal is with that....
@laglen (19759)
• United States
2 Feb 10
I am a deleter. I hate clutter. I do look closely before I delete though. If there is any chance I might need it, I save it. So I help this with folders. If I havent opened that folder in two years, I will then delete the folder!
@dawnald (85129)
• Shingle Springs, California
2 Feb 10
I'm a packrat. Sometimes I think being a deleter would be easier. Until I need whatever it was...
• United States
23 Feb 10
I am the same way you are about deleting I wait and make sure that I am absolutely positive that noone is ever going to need it before I go deleting it which usually means I am overloaded with a bunch of crud that maybe should be deleted but hasnt gotten deleted yet
@Iram786 (498)
1 Feb 10
I wouldn't say I was a 'deleter' but I do delete emails that I don't need, people I don't talk to and all the rest of it. I'm not obsessed with deleting things... but once or twice I did delete something by accident that I wasn't able to retrieve again which sucks ):
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
3 Feb 10
I didn't used to be a deleter, but I am now. The reason that I've developed this habit is because I joined several yahoo groups that are high traffic and I don't want to take the time to read all of the messages that I receive so I just opt to delete the majority of them. I've never (insert knocks on wood here) deleted anything that is important. I am able to avoid this for the most part based on the fact that I read the subject line of every email that I receive before I delete any of them.
@nocturn98 (956)
• Venezuela
1 Feb 10
I am guilty of this. I am a deleter. I delete useless shortcuts on my desktop, forwarded emails, cookies, temporary files... I delete everything that I think I won't be needing anymore. Even if it has become a habit, I'm always careful of what I delete.
• India
1 Feb 10
Hi There.Nah,i am a deleter at all. I am a keeper.:)I dont delete any emails or meassages from anywhere not even spam. Currently i am having more than 5,000 unread messages in my yahoo email account. Now you must be thinking that how lazy i am na!But all those unread messages are none of my interest,they are forwarded messages,whichever is important i only read them.
• Singapore
1 Feb 10
I do not delete my things. because my phone gets a quite large memory, i keep all my massages. Just like my grandma who always keeps her all the things in her house,i always think MAYBE these things will be used in the future!!But my mother is a deleter. She throw all the unnecessary things! We always quarter because of this. I win at the most time.Becuase i have my grandma on my side!! lol
• Philippines
1 Feb 10
Well, I do consider my self as a deleter. I don't want my message box to be fulled with things that do not interest me. I want it clatter-free, and organized. But, of course, I see to it that, my important messages and those that interest me will not be deleted.
• Philippines
1 Feb 10
No. Actually I'm a keeper LOL! I actually seldom delete messages on my phone and email.
@danitykane (3183)
• Philippines
1 Feb 10
hi mommyboo! With computer files like emails and attachments I don't usually delete them right away even if it was just a junk. I set time when to delete all unnecessary emails so that I can scan all my files properly. With text messages (sms) I always delete unimportant messages right away and save some important or special messages.
@chriszh22 (432)
• China
1 Feb 10
Hey mommyboo, I think few people don't delete something that they don't need anymore, that'll be a mess when you try to find something you need among so many useless things. I'd rather call it as update, we should update our contact list, our desktop from time to time, delete things or contact you don't need anymore. For the office computer, I delete as less as possible, and won't completely delete the files at all in case I would need it sometimes later. I still remember I was too quick to delete the files of my wife and she always shouted at me...those days won't back again as I won't touch her files without her permissions. lol
@dhs1008 (100)
1 Feb 10
i read back my e-mails and messages before i delete. i may miss something important and deleted those. i make sure every important detail is kept safe. i put them in a different folder so i wont be looking for them. im a fan of nice messages, if someone sent me a very nice message i dont usually delete them, ill be reading them someday. every time i read nice messages i get to smile and felt happy just by reading and seeing them.
@Mady2791 (545)
• United States
1 Feb 10
No, I'm not. I think it's habit have acquired from my husband that's that doesn't delete anything and also from work because you never know when you are going to need those emails to cover your behind :(