Email bankruptcy means clearing out an entire email account which has become unmanageable and starting it all over again. It is similar to financial bankruptcy that involves writing off all the losses and stating all over again.
Starting afresh has big risks as we are losing all the important messages and useful data. Email bankruptcy seems like an extreme action to be taken but it also is a freeing experience from the accumulating stacks of email.
While declaring email bankruptcy, the first step would be to gather all the email address from your existing email folder and save it into the Bcc field addressed to you. The next step would be to select numerous emails to move them into trash and clear off your inbox. Usually a message is sent to all the people explaining the problem and informing the closing of the email account. The faster but less thoughtful option is to merely delete all the old messages and start over like nothing ever happened.
The best way to avoid email bankruptcy is by keeping up with your emails. If you are overwhelmed by increasing number of email in your inbox, make sure you first reply to the most important messages. People may consider shifting older emails to a different file for storage as an alternative to primary inbox folder but this may have the same effect as an email bankruptcy without completely eradicating older emails.
Email Bankruptcy not only piles unwanted emails but also leads to other grave problems like data redundancy and data inconsistency.