As the year ends, we reach a natural checkpoint for reviewing records. Some records must be retained, while others may have reached the end of their useful or required life. Rather than letting paper keep accumulating into the new year, getting rid of old records offers many benefits. We’re sharing our Year-End Purge Shredding Guide, which gives your business a practical way to decide what to review, keep, and securely destroy.
Why Year-End Is a Good Time for a Shredding Purge
- Reduces Unnecessary Data Exposure
Old documents can contain sensitive information, even if a business no longer uses them. The longer those records remain in storage, the longer they remain a potential source of exposure. Year-end purge shredding keeps security tight and helps you stay compliant. - Frees Up Valuable Space
Filing cabinets, storage rooms, and boxes can fill quickly. Eventually, this can create space constraints and a cluttered look. A year-end shredding purge removes records you no longer need to retain, creating room for current business needs. - Improves Organization
Items can easily get misplaced or out of order during the year, especially during busy seasons. Yet when an audit strikes, the last thing you want is to sort through a chaotic mess. Year-end purge shredding forces businesses to review what they have and separate active records from outdated material, so they start the year with a clean record-keeping system that makes future management easier. - Reduces Mental Fatigue
Psychology Today shares that studies have shown there is a direct correlation between disorganization, clutter, and mental health, including depression, anxiety, and stress. Year-end purge shredding declutters not only your space but your mind, boosting productivity and building better habits. - Prepare for the Year Ahead
Lastly, a year-end shredding purge gently nudges you to take stock of the past year. By looking through past records, you can identify areas where improvements can be made. Plus, this is an ideal opportunity to identify weaknesses in your current retention and disposal process.
Your Year-End Purge Shredding Guide
Step 1: Review Your Records Retention Requirements
Before shredding anything, make sure you know which records you need to keep. For example, the Washington State Department of Revenue requires all businesses to keep accurate tax records for at least five years, including gross receipts, deductions, exemptions, and more.
Depending on the document types you have and your industry, different retention periods will apply. Therefore, we suggest reviewing your company’s established records retention schedule before getting started. If you don’t have one, year-end is a good time to develop one with appropriate legal, compliance, or records-management guidance.
Remember, a year-end purge isn’t “shred anything in the filing cabinet that looks old,” but a structured method for getting rid of outdated documents.
Step 2: Identify Confidential Documents Ready for Destruction
Next, identify what is ready to be purged. This may include:
- Old employee records
- Payroll or benefits paperwork
- Customer or patient files
- Financial statements
- Bank records
- Expired contracts
- Old invoices
- Tax-related supporting documents
- Printed emails
- Internal reports
- Strategy documents
- Meeting notes
- Duplicate records
Remember, if a document contains personal, financial, or proprietary information, it needs to be shredded and kept safely stored until then.
Alternatively, if you don’t want your staff debating whether something is confidential enough to shred, adopt a shred-all policy and shred everything that meets the retention schedule. This reduces sorting time and confusion, ensuring everything gets shredded properly.
Step 3: Don’t Forget Hard Drives and Electronic Media
When people think of year-end purge shredding, they often think only of paper. However, it is vital to think beyond just paper to electronic media. If your year-end cleanout uncovers hard drives, solid-state drives, backup tapes, or other electronic media you no longer use, this is a great time to review their contents and decide whether disposal is the right choice.
Step 4: Schedule Professional Purge Shredding
Once you’ve collected everything, scheduling professional purge shredding is the fastest, most efficient next step. Hiring a professional shredding company saves your employees time and hassle while ensuring secure destruction and disposal of paper and media.
We recommend getting a year-end purge shredding when:
- You have accumulated boxes of files
- You do not have or need recurring service
- You are cleaning out a records room
- You are relocating
- You are preparing for an audit
- You are completing a scheduled retention purge
Not sure who to call? CI Information Management handles projects ranging from small-business cleanouts to enterprise-level purge events.
What Happens During a CI Information Management One-Time Purge?
Ordering a year-end purge shredding service with CI Information Management is quick and easy. Simply contact us for a quote with an estimate of how much material you have, such as boxes, filing cabinets, bins, or media. To make it easy, we have a shredding-volume calculator if you need it.
Based on this information, we will provide a quote, and you can schedule a purge for a date that works for your team. Many clients request that one of our shredding trucks come to the office for an on-site paper-shredding purge. CI Information Management securely destroys materials using NAID AAA-certified processes and provides a Certificate of Destruction afterward for recordkeeping, audit readiness, and compliance documentation.
Are you ready to clear out outdated files before the new year? Contact CI Information Management to schedule a one-time purge shredding service for your documents, hard drives, and electronic media.
