Most people delete Outlook email messages by clicking on the Delete command or using the Delete key on their keyboard. However, this doesn't permanently delete the message; rather, it sends it to the Outlook  Deleted items folder. And there it sits in most cases, waiting to be permanently deleted when the user finally gets round to using the Empty Deleted Items command (from the right click context menu). In the interim, hundreds or possibly thousands of emails to be deleted accumulate and take up precious space. If you have a limited size Outlook PST file, this can become an issue as space used for these emails means less space for new or other emails that you want to save. Users can configure Outlook options to automatically empty the Deleted Items folder on exit , but how many people know this or have actually take the time to do so? Then there are folks (like me) who want to maintain deleted emails for a period of time after deletion so clearing the Deleted Items folder on exit isn't an option. If you want to permanently delete Outlook email messages quickly and easily, Microsoft has provided a very simple way of doing so on a message by message or folder by folder basis:

Hold down the Shift key and press the Delete key.

That's it; nothing fancy or complex. When you delete a message this way, it bypasses the Deleted Items folder and is gone for good. If you do this with an Outlook Folder, it permanently deletes the entire folder.