When sending an email to more than one person, you should know why you include others before hitting send. Do all the recipients need to take action or just one of them? Do all the recipients know each other? This is what CC and BCC were made for. Tap or click here to learn about proper email etiquette. A home is the most significant investment most people will make. There’s a lot of information surrounding your home, and you’re probably using email to keep track of most of it. But things can get lost in the shuffle of your daily messages. You can get things under control by creating an email address just for your home.
A new home for your home
Managing all the emails related to your house can be exhausting. You’ll see your inbox fill up with messages related to utility bills, brokers, repair work invoices, mortgage payments, insurance, inspectors, banks, cable bills, moving companies, plumbing, landscaping, contracting and other services. RELATED: 10 hidden Gmail features you should be using Throw in the spam you’ll get related to your home from real estate companies, local dentists, cleaning services and others and your inbox will see no end to the clutter. Creating an email account specifically for your home will help rein in all the correspondence related to it. It will be easier to manage and track those messages, plus it will ease some of the burdens on your primary inbox. Let’s say your bathroom needs a renovation, and you can’t remember the contact information of that contractor you used years ago for the kitchen. Look through your home’s inbox to find that last invoice from the guy. Plus, all the contacts you need to keep in touch with regarding your home are in one place. A dedicated home email address can be shared with others in your household. You and your spouse can co-manage those messages from anywhere without having to sort through each other’s inboxes. And if one person can’t log in for some reason, the other still can.
Where to begin
The first step is to organize the emails you already have so you can forward them to the new email account. You’ve been getting house correspondence in your personal inbox for years, and you don’t want to lose any of it.
Search your inbox and label all the relevant emails for your new home email address or create a folder for them. This also gives you a chance to delete the ones you don’t need anymore. Use a distinctive name for the label or folder as your address, so you don’t get it confused with anything else.
You can write to your contacts informing them of your new email address, but this can be extremely tedious. It’s easier to set up automatic forwarding for specific contacts, sending those messages to your new inbox.
Here’s how to set up automatic forwarding for contacts using filters in Gmail:
Open the Gmail account you want to forward messages from.Click the checkbox next to the email you want and click the three dots at the top of the page.Click Filter messages like these. Check that the sender’s address is in the From field.Click Create filter, then Add forwarding address. Enter the address of your new home inbox and click Next, then Proceed.You’ll need to confirm the forwarding request in your inbox.
You can set up a rule in Outlook to forward specific email messages:
Open the Outlook account you want to forward messages from.Go to Settings > View all Outlook settings.Select Mail > Rules > Add a new rule.Enter a name for the rule.Open the Add a condition dropdown menu and select From. Enter the email address you want to forward to your new inbox.Open the Add an action dropdown message and select Forward to. Enter the address of your new home inbox and click Save.
Creating a new account
There are many options for free email accounts. We’ll show you how to do it with two popular services, starting with Gmail:
You’ll need a Google Account to sign up for Gmail. Go to the Google Account creation page. Follow the onscreen instructions and enter the requested information such as first name, last name, new username and the new password, confirming each screen. You’ll need a phone number to verify your account. This is an excellent example of two-step verification. Tap or click here to learn more about this vital security feature.Once you’ve verified your account, you’ll get a form requesting personal information and a recovery email. Accept Google’s terms of service and you’ll have your new Gmail account.
Here’s how to set up a new Outlook email address:
Open a web browser, go to the Outlook.com sign-up screen and select Create free account.Enter a username and password, then select Next. Be sure to use a strong and unique password. A password manager can be a huge help here.Enter personal information on the following screens, including your name and birthday.Complete the CAPTCHA.You’ll get a welcome screen, and you can now use your new email account.
Once you have your new email account, you can further organize your messages into folders/labels such as Utilities, Bills, Mortgages, Insurance and more. You may also like: Tired of all the junk in your inbox? Create a burner email address
