The good thing about Gmail is that Google has a built-in
archival system that you can take advantage of when you are ready. Of
course, before you can archive you have to identify exactly which emails
currently residing in your inbox qualify for the procedure. The
simplest approach is to use the power of search - something Google is
very good at non-coincidentally.
Search and identify
For this example, let's archive messages in my inbox more than 30 days old. Using some keyword searches we can get a list of email messages received before a specific date. In the search box at the top of your Gmail page type a search in this format:before:yyyy/mm/dd
And, to further limit our search, specify that we are only searching the inbox:
in:inbox
The entire search string will look something like Figure A.
Figure A
Now that you have a list of results matching your search criteria, you can start the archive process. First check the Select All check box as shown in Figure B. That check box only accounts for the messages that manage to fit on the first page, so you have to click the link that says: Select all messages that match this search, to select all of the messages in the list.
Figure B
Click the Select All check box and the Select all messages that match this search link
Once you have made those two selections, all that is left to do is the archiving. For that you click the Archive button, shown in Figure C. When you click the button you will get a warning message, click OK to complete the process.Figure C
You will now have less clutter in your Gmail inbox. If you ever want to find emails you have archived, they are now located under the All Mail label.
