I want to totally remove titles of archived items from my 2012 Kindle, not just access to them (done it via my a/c) so all I have left are items I want to keep + my unread list. How can I do this?

Hello friend...

Here, I am recommending you the best possible method to delete books from kindle permanently, Just Follow these steps:

1. Turn your Kindle on. Once you're on your Home Screen navigate through your library until you find the book you no longer want.
2. When you select the book it will give you a list of options -select "Remove from Device." The book will go into your Archive. Files in your Archive are not fully stored on your device, but are there to maintain the record of your purchase.
3. If you want to remove the book permanently you can do that as well. Sign into the Amazon account you have linked with your Kindle and go to "Manage Your Content and Devices." You should be looking at a list of your purchases. Find the book you want to delete and click the button on the left side of the title.
4. From the drop down menu, select "delete." You will be prompted to confirm whether or not you want to delete the file. Click the yellow Yes, delete permanently" button to remove the file from your library.

If you don't get satisfied with the solutions, you can go for the professional help by just visiting here :
www Kindle Com Support

see if this link helps you.
How to locate my kindle archived books on my iPad Google Search

Book Won't Open

Your book won't open on your Kindle (5th Generation), or there's an error when you try to open a book.
Before you perform these steps, make sure that your Kindle is connected to a wireless network. To learn more, go to Connect to Wi-Fi.
There may have been an error with downloading the book. Remove the title from your device, restart your device, and then download the book again.

1. From Home, select the book or content to be deleted and press the left side of the 5-way controller.
2. Select Remove from Device.
3. From the Home screen, press the Menu button and select Settings.
4. Press the Menu button again and select Restart.
5. After your device restarts, navigate to your Archived Items, and download the book again

Make sure you have the Kindle App.
when you display your Library ( items on iPad ) your screen will show something like this ( non grid view)
Notice at the bottom it will say device or cloud.
on device you should be able to,slide book title to the left revealing the word Archive in red banner.
Touch this and it should be sent back to Cloud.

To remove books from ipad:

"In cover view: Tap on the cover for the title and hold it until the "X" appears on the cover. Then tap on the "X" to finish deleting the title. In List view: Swipe your finger across the title toward the left to display the Archive or Delete button. Content that is purchased from the Kindle Store is archived and can be re-downloaded at any time; sideloaded content and personal documents that are not archived in your Kindle Library are permanently deleted. Tap Archive or Delete to remove the book from your Home screen. Archived content will remain in your Archived Items."

Click the Account link top right Amazon home page.
goto Digital Content then click Manage Your Kindle
goto Your Orders on page and find content to delete using Search
click + button next to content and press Delete this Title will remove from Archive

You can easily load all of your books onto your new Kindle. Amazon retains a record of all your book purchases in an archive. When you register your new Kindle (and turn on wireless) it 'phones home' to Amazon and Amazon places an entry on your main menu entitled Archive. Just click on that entry and all of your past book purchases will appear and will automatically be downloaded to the Kindle when you click on them.

However, if your old Kindle contained any books, pictures, or documents that you did NOT purchase from Amazon, those items will not appear in the Amazon archive. You will have to download those items to your new Kindle the same way you installed them on the old Kindle. If the only location of those un-archived documents is the old Kindle, then this will become a two step process because you cannot copy from one Kindle directly to another. Instead you must copy the documents off the old Kindle onto a computer using the USB cable, and then copy the books from the computer onto the new Kindle by way of the USB cable or by email using an authorized email account. (To authorize an email account for sending books to your Kindle, please visit Amazon's "manage my devices" section. If the new Kindle is not registered, or if it is blacklisted, then you cannot use the email method to transfer the books. The only way to install books on an unregistered Kindle is directly via USB cable.)

The Amazon Kindle ebook reader automatically archives your purchased books and content on Amazon.com. When you delete a purchased item from your Kindle, the item is removed from the Kindle and a listing is created in the "Archived Items" section of the device. If you want to view the content at a later time, you can recover it by selecting it from the Archived Items list. To clear the Archived Items list, you need to access your Amazon account from a computer and delete the backups from your Amazon accoun
Read more : http://www.ehow.com/how_8398909_clear-archived-items-kindle.html

This information is copied directly from Amazon's help section.

Remove Items from Your Content Library Permanently remove books, audiobooks, periodicals, and personal documents by deleting them from Manage Your Content and Devices.
Manage Your Content and Devices.

From Your Content, change the Show drop-down menu to the appropriate category, if needed.

Select the title(s) that you want to delete, and then select Delete.

To confirm, select Yes, delete permanently.