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Your old accounts are a liability. Close the dead ones.
Every account you've forgotten is a door you left unlocked. Here's a one-afternoon cleanup.
That MySpace-era email. The shopping site you used once in 2019. The free trial you swore you’d cancel. Every dead account is a door you left unlocked, and a copy of your data sitting somewhere you no longer watch.
Let’s close the dead ones. One afternoon, done.
Why this matters (the short version)
- Breach exposure. Old accounts get breached constantly. If you reused a password (and you did), one leak becomes many.
- Data sprawl. Every account holds your name, email, maybe a card. Fewer accounts, smaller target.
- Mental clutter. You can’t feel organized while a hundred logins float around unaccounted for.
The cleanup
- Pull your list. Your password manager already has it. No manager? Search your email for “welcome,” “verify your account,” and “your receipt.” Confronting, isn’t it.
- Sort into three piles: keep, kill, not sure. Be ruthless. “Not sure” usually means kill.
- Kill the dead ones. Log in, find account settings, delete. Use JustDeleteMe when a site hides the button, because they always hide the button.
- For the keepers: new unique password, turn on two-factor. Non-negotiable.
The one that gets everyone
Your old primary email. It’s the recovery address for a dozen other accounts, so you can’t just delete it. You have to migrate first. Update the important accounts to your current email, then retire the old one.
Boring? Extremely. But this is the account that, if compromised, hands someone the keys to everything else. Worth the afternoon.