> I promise to myself I will revisit these bookmarks
You won’t. I recognise my previous usage in your words.
Here’s my current usage. Pinboard bookmarks have two states: read or unread.
My read ones all have at least one tag, and usually no more than that. I have about 20 tags and under 200 bookmarks. Once a year or so I do a general cleanup. If I can’t realistically picture a scenario in the next two years where I’ll need a bookmark and remember it exists, I delete it. Be honest. The goal is to keep them to a minimum.
My unread bookmarks I check through the Pinboard-provided RSS feed. That consolidates my “inbox of content” to the same app, making it so I only have one number to manage. Keep that number low. Ruthlessly. Once it gets larger than what you can manage, mark stuff as read until what remains is a handful of the most interesting. Are you facing that scenario a lot? Time to cut some subscriptions. Start with the ones you often mark as read. Are you having trouble deciding what to keep or let go? Lower your RSS reeder’s maximum number of items and old stuff will go just go away! You won’t miss it. If you do, odds are you’ll remember enough to find it again.
The result for me is a selection of content I want but never get overwhelmed by.
Remember you’re running the conveyor belt on yourself. Your bookmarks are piling up because you are making the pile bigger! Stop adding to the pile! Delete all those interesting bookmarks you can leverage but haven’t. You won’t. They have gone over their expiration date of excitement. Next time you feel like adding anything, pause for longer before you do. Is that bookmark really worth adding, or is it the FOMO[1] talking?
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_of_missing_out