Archive vs. Delete

Everyday I go through lots of email. Both at work and home I get quite a few messages. Nothing of great importance but lots of messages never the less. At work I'm forced to archive most of my email because it could prove to be usefullness in the future. I can think of quite a few times where months after a project is completed someone will ask why it was done a certain way and I'll have to go through my old emails to see why. 9 time out of 10 the reason is because the person asking "why" was the person who told us to do it that way. However, at home, I never really have a need to keep old emails. Most of my email is from friends or family which, although nice to have around, isn't necessary. Still I end up hesitating for a few seconds lately before I archive or delete an email from my personal accounts. In the end I usually just delete all my email messages once they are no longer of use to me. About a year and a half ago I accidentally erased all my emails from the past five years. At first I was terrified what I could have lost but as time went by I don't really feel bad losing all that information. Now I usually hit delete and go on with my day but every time I do I still have a half second of doubt before clicking delete. I guess old habits die hard.