If you're using Outlook or Outlook Express and want to empty your "Deleted Items" folder it's pretty easy. Just right-click the Deleted Items bin, click Empty Deleted Items Folder. That'll do it. Most e-mail clients work in a very similar fashion—if they use a recycle bin type folder like Outlook Express does.

However—if your e-mail program doesn't have that handy little right-click-and-empty feature there may still be hope. Go into the Deleted Items folder (or the equivalent for your software) and hit CTRL-A. That should select everything in that folder. From there, just hit Delete.

What if you want to keep your deleted stuff that's less than, say, one week old? Well, you can do that too. Click the oldest message and scroll down to the last one you want to remove. Next, hold your Shift key and click the message. Everything between the first e-mail you clicked and the last should be highlighted. A quick little tap of the Delete button and it's all over.

Finally, if you haven't emptied that deleted item folder for awhile, remember that it can get HUGE and take up a ton of hard drive space. So, empty regularly—and be careful not to delete important stuff (like this newsletter :-)