A client asked: “Is it possible to send all of email from 3 different accounts to Gmail? Is this a good idea? How do I manage this deluge of email in one place?”
Yes, it is a good idea, in my opinion, to have all your email in one place. It’s just much simpler to see and manage it all. In fact that’s exactly how I manage 5 email addresses. I selected Gmail as my new email “software” since it has really fast search capabilities (which allow me to find the email I’m looking for quickly) and offers over 7500 MB of email storage for free. Here’s what I do.
Gmail: Basic Setup
I changed all my POP accounts to merely be forwarders. (Ask your web developer or web hosting company how to do this.) Each forwards ALL email (spam and everything) to my Gmail account. I l let Google handle the spam, since they do it so well with it. So now ALL MY EMAIL is in one place — Gmail!
Then, I went to Gmail Settings and setup the various “Send mail as” account on the Accounts and Import page. I setup Larry@SigmaWebTechnologies.com, Larry@RECSWUSA.org, etc.
In the General tab, I setup an email signature for each address. And at the bottom of this tab, changed Attachments to Advanced.
Then I went into my Outlook Express account setup and changed the incoming server name to mail.xyz.com so that OE didn’t pull my mail any more. (If you’re new to changing Outlook Express’s Account Settings, see this article from Microsoft.)
OK, so at this point, everything is coming into Gmail and messages I send out (new or replies) are sent under the appropriate email address with my signature for that email address at the bottom of the message. Progress!
ALL of my email is handled in Gmail — forget having local email software! I set up my phone to receive and send email from Gmail, too (leaving a copy on Gmail, of course!).
Managing the Mess
Then I color coded about a dozen key items, using Labels. The truth is, I’m a poor user of Labels, mostly just to give me a quick visual indicator of what areas of my life have email in my Inbox. Labels, and a “filing system” (subfolders), aren’t really needed in Gmail since the Google search engine (which powers the Gmail search) is so powerful and fast. I now have 5300 MB of email stored there. . . and a full search for a term takes less than 5 seconds. (More info on using Labels from Gmail’s official blog.)
All the efficiency experts say to keep you Inbox at zero — empty; but I never seem to get close to that. Whatever!
Handling all the old, archived mail
Now for the cool part 
I setup a Filter in Gmail (more info at Colored labels with filters)that looks for email sent from 
my Outlook Express. You can change your name on this account to Old Stuff if you want — that make’s it easy to find those emails.
I setup a Label named zzOld Email. The zz makes sure that this “folder” stays at the extreme bottom of my list, where it’s available but not in the way.
Then I sent ALL the email that was on my computer to my Gmail account, sending it from Old Stuff (or whatever name you setup in your filter). I started this process late at night, and just let it roll.
When I got up in the morning, Gmail had ALL my email, past, present, and future. (Now hide your OE icon, as you won’t need it anymore.)
The last part: Backing up Gmail
But what if Google loses all your stuff?? Unlikely, yes. But if this is a concern, download and install (Windows only) the free Gmail Backup at www.gmail-backup.com. The first download (again, do this at night, or over several nights!) is big, as it takes everything and stores in on your (external?) hard drive. Then I try to remember to hit the Gmail Backup icon every week or so. It goes fast at this level. I choose not to leave it running all the time. .. why waste my bandwidth on something so trivial during the day while I’m working?
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