91: Exactly How I Clean My Email List Every Month (& My Unsubscribes Dropped 70%)

🌟 Your List Looks Big on the Dashboard. Who Can Hear You?

Plenty of solopreneurs I meet have an email list sitting there that they haven't touched in a while.

They have a freebie, people signed up, and then the nurturing stopped. Or they only email when they have something to sell. I'm on a couple of lists from huge creators on Instagram, and I only hear from them when they're selling, which is wild to me.

If you have a nagging feeling that you should do something about your list, but it feels overwhelming, I get it. I'm not going to sit here and tell you that starting and nurturing an email list is easy.

What I can tell you is that keeping a list healthy takes me a few minutes a month. In this post, I'm sharing the exact routine I use, the numbers I pulled from my own Flodesk account (including what happened to my unsubscribe rate), and why I'd take a smaller list that gets opened over a bigger one that doesn't, all day long.

💡 Want the whole routine on one page? Download the free takeaway one-sheet for this episode from the show notes. It also gets you on my list for my weekly newsletter, 3-2-1 Create.

💡 Why I'd Trade 124,000 Followers for 10,000 Subscribers

When I told you I was going all in on email and newsletter marketing, I shared that I have around 124,000 followers on Instagram and a list of around 10,000 people. I also told you I'd trade the 124,000 for the 10,000 without thinking twice. I still would.

I see it all the time: random things happen on Instagram, and suddenly somebody is locked out of her account with no way to reach anyone. Blue check, big following, it doesn't matter. I've had women message me asking if I know anyone at Instagram who can help, and the answer is no. If she doesn't have an email list, she also has no way to tell her people what happened or where to find her instead.

If I got banned tomorrow, I would lose every one of my 124,000 followers, because I never owned a single one of them. That is what irks me most about Instagram. They hold the strings and the keys, and it is exhausting and frustrating.

Now compare that with my list. When I send an email, one click of a button, and over half of those 10,000 people open it. Posting to 124,000 people and hoping a sliver of them happens to see it is what's happening to me right now, and the amount of people who see my posts these days makes you wonder what the point is.

Instagram was always supposed to be the front door, a way to get people over to my email list. Somewhere along the way, I left that door open and let it become my whole house, and that was a huge mistake.

It was never about the size of the room. It's about how many people can hear you when you talk. My follower number looks impressive on paper, but when I make a post, a lot of those people can't hear me. So what's the point of the size of the room?

That's where cleaning your list comes in.

🎯 Cleaning vs. Warming: Know Which One You Need

There's a difference between cleaning your list and warming it up, and I think those two get mixed up.

This routine is for a list you email pretty regularly, where the goal is to keep it healthy, bring your open rates up, and keep the email gods happy (Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, all of them). If you haven't emailed your list in a long time, that's a different situation called warming up your list. You'd want to warm it up before you blast everybody on it in one swoop, because the email gods are not going to like that. If you want me to cover warming up a list, send me a DM and let me know.

💡 Why Sending to Everyone Isn't the Kind Thing to Do

Plenty of people on your list stopped opening your emails a long time ago, but they still count toward your total subscribers. Your list looks big on your dashboard while far fewer people are hearing from you.

Inbox providers like Gmail, Yahoo, Apple, and Outlook decide where every email lands based on a bunch of factors, and how people engage with your emails is one of them. Every email you send to somebody who hasn't opened anything in a year, or even six months, can quietly hurt where your email lands for everybody else on your list.

So sending to people who stopped opening years ago doesn't make you nice. It makes your email harder to find for the people who like you and want to open it.

I know that might sting. The women in my intake forms keep telling me they feel annoying emailing their list every week, so removing anybody probably feels uncomfortable too. It feels uncomfortable for me. I hate unsubscribing people, and I cringe every time. But cleaning your list is the kindest thing you can do for the people who want to be there.

The people you let go get a quieter inbox. They were probably never going to open or buy anything, which is likely what they wanted anyway: off your list, they just weren't taking the action. Or they eventually mark you as spam, which I think is one of the worst things you can do to a fellow solopreneur trying to grow a business honestly. Please just unsubscribe.

It's the same reason I trim my fiddle leaf figs back. I cut down the branches, and all summer they explode with new growth. A list works a lot like that.

✅ How I Used to Do It (Low Tech, More Steps)

Before a recent Flodesk update, my method was simpler tech but more steps. I had a recurring alert on my calendar once a month. When it went off, I'd pop into Flodesk, filter my subscribers for anyone who hadn't opened an email in six months, and remove them.

The alert worked because I never had to rely on remembering or being in the mood. This is what I keep telling you about consistency: it's a system problem, not a discipline problem. Without that alert, I would have forgotten, because there's always too much going on. Because I built a system to remind me, it happens.

🎯 What the Flodesk Update Changed

Flodesk just released a deliverability center, and it has a tab for cleaning your list. It does what my calendar alert used to do, except it builds the list of who to clean for me.

Flodesk automatically makes a segment called unengaged subscribers, and the rules are right there for you to read. Someone lands in it if they joined your list more than 180 days ago, got at least six of your emails in the last 180 days, and didn't open or click any of them. That's six months, which is the exact window my old calendar alert used, so I trust it.

The moment one of those people opens, clicks, buys, or signs up through a form, they leave the segment on their own. Nobody gets stuck there unfairly.

Disclosure: I'm a Flodesk partner and affiliate, and I'd tell you about this either way. Paid plans start at $19 a month. Somebody always asks me about a free service, and I'm a firm believer that you have to invest before you're making money on a few key things. Your email list is one of them.

✅ My Monthly Routine in Four Steps

It's embarrassingly simple.

1. Check your unengaged segment. If your platform doesn't have one, build a segment of people who haven't opened or clicked in a number of months, whether that's three or six. I wouldn't go further out than that.

2. Exclude that segment every time you send. In Flodesk, you draft your email, click next, and the sending step shows suggested segments to exclude. The unengaged one is already there, so those people just don't get that email unless you X it out. That's one click.

3. Archive them once a month. Every three to four weeks, I go to all subscribers, pull up just that segment, select everyone, and archive them. Monthly works because the segment is based on six months of silence, so people trickle in a little at a time. I'm never staring at a giant pile, just sweeping up a small one.

4. Optional: try a re-engagement email first. Keep it to two to three emails and one clear button that says, "Keep me on the list." More on that below.

Archive, Don't Delete

Archiving takes somebody off your active sending list but keeps their record and history with you. Archived people don't count toward your plan's subscriber limit, so your list size on paper finally matches the people who are reading. (Flodesk charges per subscriber now. It didn't back in the day, and I'm grandfathered in.)

If you delete someone, they're gone forever, along with every segment they ever opted into. If someone I've archived comes back and opts in through one of my forms, Flodesk reactivates them automatically with all their segments intact. Archiving can be undone, and deleting cannot.

Not on Flodesk?

The same idea works anywhere. Build a segment of people who haven't opened or clicked in six months (or even three), leave them out of your sends, and clear them out once a month. Check your platform's help section too, because many have a built-in version of this now.

Two Caveats

Opens are a rough signal, not gospel. Apple Mail privacy features can make an email look opened when a robot opened it and told no one. I like Flodesk's rule because it looks at opens and clicks over six months instead of judging anybody on a single email.

Cleaning depends on you sending consistently. Flodesk's segment only catches people who were sent at least six emails in six months. If you email once in a blue moon, nobody racks up six, nobody lands in the segment, and your list can look healthy on paper while it isn't doing well. If you send every other week or once a month, build your own segment with a longer window, maybe nine to 12 months, so nobody gets cut before they've had a fair shot. Or email regularly for a few months and then let the automatic segment do the work.

💡 My Numbers (and What They Don't Prove)

I pulled these from my own Flodesk account this week.

• I have just over 10,000 active subscribers.

• I've archived 247 people in total.

• There are 143 people in my unengaged segment right now.

• My unsubscribe rate peaked around 1.2% in the late summer and again in December of last year. Since June 2026, it's been sitting around 0.35%. That's a 70% drop.

• My open rate went from around 50% in the spring of 2025 to the mid 50s through the low 60s this year, an increase of over 5%.

For a list of 10,000, a 56% to 60% open rate every week is something I'm really proud of.

I can't prove that cleaning is the only reason, because I changed a lot in my business this year. But it's the thing I've been most consistent about, and all signs point to it.

🎯 The Re-Engagement Email I Haven't Sent Yet

I'll be straight with you: I've never run a re-engagement campaign. I usually just bless and release. So nothing here is a result I'm bragging about. It's what I would run if I decided to.

I'd keep it small, two to three emails in a workflow over a couple of weeks, sent only to the unengaged segment. The subject line would sound like a full-on real person wrote it, something like "Do you still wanna hear from me?" Inside, one clear button: "Yes, keep me on the list." If they click, they get added to a segment automatically. Anyone who opens gets pulled out of the unengaged segment by Flodesk on its own, and anyone who doesn't gets archived with no guilt trip and no hard feelings.

I did this once, about two years ago, with only one email. One person out of around 500 replied yes, and she was an extended family member, so that was probably not worth it. I think the key would be a very compelling subject line. It's high on my list of things to figure out.

✅ Three Mistakes to Avoid

All three are very avoidable.

Judging somebody on a single email. People miss a week because of vacation, a sick kid, or a crazy month. That's exactly why I like a six-month window and a rule that looks at several emails, so nobody gets cut for being busy.

Only cleaning when something goes wrong. Cleaning your list in a panic is like grocery shopping when you're starving, which my daughter made me do last week, and it was so bad. You'll make questionable decisions, and a monthly habit is so much easier than any emergency.

Cleaning a brand-new list. If you started your list this year, you might open the unengaged segment and find nobody there. Congratulations, you have nothing to clean. Flodesk only counts people who joined more than 180 days ago, so a new list simply hasn't had time to go stale. Your job right now is to get people in and nurture them, not clear anybody out.

💡 Still building your list from scratch? My free mini course, the Email List Starter Kit, walks you through starting your list in five steps with short, digestible lessons. [Grab it here.]

🛠️ Resources & Links

• 🥡 The Takeaway One-Sheet for this episode (the full monthly routine on one page)

• Flodesk (my email platform and the deliverability center that builds the unengaged segment; I'm a partner and affiliate, 25% off your first year): 

• Heartbeat (this episode's sponsor & the platform I use for my membership; code BODEGA for 20% off your first three months, 14-day free trial, no credit card)

• Email List Starter Kit (my free mini course, five short lessons to start your list)

💪 The Routine, Start to Finish

Check your unengaged segment, or build one if your platform doesn't have it. Exclude it every time you send. Archive it once a month, because you can undo archiving but not deleting. If you want to try a re-engagement email first, keep it to two or three emails and one clear button. That's the whole routine, and you can do it in a pretty short amount of time.

If you take one thing away from this post, let it be that a tidy list means you've been showing up, and a few archived people along the way are just part of the process.

This week, put a reminder on your calendar that repeats every month, the way I do. Mine says, "Get rid of people." It's blunt, but it works, and your list stays healthy without you having to remember a thing.

If you know a solopreneur whose list has been sitting untouched for a year, send her this post. You might be doing her inbox a huge favor.

And if you want company while you build habits like this one, come hang out with me in [The Content Coven.]

Do you clean your list on a schedule, or does removing people make you cringe? Tell me in the comments.