A document cleanout can start small. A few outdated folders come out of a filing cabinet, then someone discovers several more boxes in storage, and suddenly there is much more paper to deal with than expected.
At some point, handling everything through your normal disposal process may no longer be practical. A bulk document shredding service is designed for those larger cleanouts, giving businesses a more manageable way to securely destroy a significant amount of confidential paperwork at once.
The Volume Has Outgrown Your Usual Shredding Process
There isn’t necessarily one magic number of boxes that turns a cleanout into a bulk shredding project. A better question is whether the amount of paper can still be handled efficiently through your normal process.
A small stack of outdated documents may be easy to handle internally. Several filing cabinets or years of boxed records are a different story. Office shredders are typically designed to process limited amounts of paper at a time, which can make a large cleanout a slow project.
When the amount waiting for destruction is significantly more than your business normally handles, a bulk document shredding service can address the larger volume as one dedicated project rather than stretching the cleanout over days or weeks.
Shredding Is Taking Employees Away From Their Work
Sometimes the biggest sign isn’t the size of the pile. It’s how much employee time that pile is beginning to consume.
Large-scale shredding involves more than feeding documents into a machine. Someone has to collect the files, move them to the office shredder, process small batches, empty the machine and deal with jams or overheating along the way. Multiply that process across boxes of records, and an office cleanout can quickly turn into hours of additional work.
That’s time employees could be spending on the jobs they were actually hired to do.
Professional bulk shredding shifts the physical destruction away from your staff, making it easier to complete a larger records purge without turning employees into the office shredding team.
The Cleanout Has Spread Beyond One Filing Cabinet
A cleanout also becomes more complicated when records are coming from multiple places.
Human resources may have employee files ready for destruction while accounting has old financial records. There could be archived boxes in storage, paperwork in individual offices and additional files tucked away in cabinets throughout the workplace.
At this scale, organization becomes just as important as volume. Before anything is destroyed, each department should identify records that are eligible for destruction according to the organization’s applicable retention requirements. Records that still need to be kept should remain separate.
Once approved records have been identified, bringing them together as part of one bulk shredding project can create a more consistent process than having individual departments dispose of confidential paperwork on their own.
A Deadline Can Turn a Cleanout Into a Bigger Job
You may have been meaning to deal with those old records for months. An upcoming deadline can suddenly make the size of the project much more noticeable.
Office relocations are a good example. If you’re moving in two weeks, slowly working through dozens of boxes with an office shredder probably isn’t realistic. The same issue can arise during renovations, lease changes, annual records reviews or larger storage cleanouts.
It may also be worth reviewing records before moving them. There’s little benefit in packing, transporting and finding new storage space for documents that have already met their retention requirements and been approved for destruction.
When a large volume needs to be gone by a particular date, arranging a bulk document shredding service can give the destruction portion of the project a clear plan and timeline.
Is Your Cleanout Ready for Bulk Shredding?
A document cleanout doesn’t become a bulk project based on box count alone. If the volume is overwhelming your normal process, employees are losing valuable time, records are coming from across the organization, or you’re working against a deadline, it may be time for a different approach.
Desert Document Shredders can help businesses securely handle larger quantities of confidential records without turning a cleanout into an ongoing internal project. Contact our team to learn more about bulk document shredding service options and find the right approach for your next records purge.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much paper is considered bulk shredding?
There isn’t one universal amount. If your volume of documents is difficult or time-consuming to handle through your normal shredding process, it may be worth considering a bulk service.
When should I schedule bulk document shredding?
Consider scheduling ahead of an office move, major cleanout, records review or other project that will leave you with a larger-than-usual quantity of documents ready for destruction.
Should records be reviewed before bulk shredding?
Yes. Businesses should determine which records are eligible for destruction based on their applicable retention requirements and any ongoing legal or business needs before they are shredded.