Office Clear-Out Checklist: What to Keep, What to Archive, and What to Shred

Last updated: 16/07/2026

Whether you’re moving premises, downsizing, or just tackling the filing cabinets that nobody’s touched in three years, the same question comes up every time: what are we actually supposed to do with all this paperwork?

It’s not as simple as it sounds. Keep something too long and you’re holding personal data you no longer have a legal basis to hold. Shred it too soon and you’ve destroyed something HMRC or a future auditor may need to see. And if anything with names, addresses, account numbers, or medical details ends up in a skip bag rather than a shredder, you’ve got a data breach on your hands.

This checklist is aimed at businesses in Belfast and across Northern Ireland. It won’t replace your legal adviser, but it’ll give you a working framework before you start pulling boxes out of storage.

The Three Piles: Keep, Archive, Shred

Everything in your office falls into one of three categories. Getting them sorted before you start pulling things out saves a lot of second-guessing on the day.

Keep (Still Active)

Documents still in use or within their mandatory retention window. These stay accessible in a secure filing system.

Current employee contracts, HR records, and payroll documents
Active client contracts and ongoing project files
Current insurance policies and warranties
Documents relating to open legal matters or disputes
VAT records less than 6 years old
Corporation tax records (6 years minimum for most businesses)
Current supplier agreements

Archive (Store Securely Until the Retention Period Ends)

No longer in active use, but can’t be destroyed yet. Store these in locked storage or a properly maintained digital archive, and label everything with a review date so it doesn’t just get forgotten again.

Retention periods to be aware of:

Document Type	Minimum Retention Period
PAYE records	3 years after the end of the tax year
Employer liability insurance certificates	40 years
Accident book / incident records	3 years from date of entry
Employee records (after leaving)	6 years recommended
Business contracts (after expiry)	6 years
VAT records	6 years
Company accounts and board minutes	6 years (10 years for LLPs)
Pension records	6 to 12 years depending on type
Health and safety assessments	Duration of risk + 3 years

These are general guidelines. If anything is unclear, check with your accountant or legal adviser before you destroy it.

Shred (Destroy Now)

Any document containing personal data, financial information, or commercially sensitive content that has passed its retention period needs to be securely destroyed. The office shredder isn’t the answer for bulk clear-outs, and the general recycling bin definitely isn’t.

Documents that should be shredded rather than binned:

Employee records past their retention period (CVs, appraisals, disciplinary records, personal details)
Old payroll records and P60s
Customer and client records no longer in active use
Bank statements, credit card statements, and financial correspondence
Supplier invoices and purchase orders past their retention period
Old contracts and agreements
Medical or occupational health records
Any correspondence containing names, addresses, or account numbers
Outdated price lists or tender documents
Printed emails with confidential content
Anything carrying a signature, National Insurance number, or account reference

Don’t Forget the Hardware

Paper is often the focus, but a one-off clear-out usually surfaces old laptops, desktops, hard drives, USB sticks, and phones too. Deleting files or formatting a drive does not make it safe to throw away. Free data recovery software can reconstruct files from a wiped drive, and that’s a well-known fact among anyone who’d want to misuse it.

Old devices need physical destruction, not just deletion. ShredBank’s product destruction service covers hard drives and electronic media alongside paper shredding, all done on-site at your premises so nothing leaves your building in a recoverable state.

Where Clear-Outs Go Wrong

Sensitive documents end up in the recycling. This happens more often than people think, especially when staff are under pressure to clear a space quickly. Unshredded documents in a skip or recycling bag are a data breach, full stop.

Digital backups create a false sense of security. Having a scanned copy doesn’t make the physical original safe to bin casually, particularly if the scan is on an unsecured system or unencrypted drive.

Nothing gets documented. If you’re ever asked to demonstrate compliance, you need a record of what was destroyed and when. A Certificate of Destruction from ShredBank covers this: it’s issued on the day of the shred and gives you a clear audit trail.

The clear-out drags on for weeks. Once documents are identified for shredding, they need to go into a secure container straight away. A box of confidential papers sitting in a corridor or a communal area for three weeks while you get organised is a problem waiting to happen. ShredBank can provide secure lockable consoles for exactly this reason.

How ShredBank Can Help

For a large one-off clear-out, the most straightforward option is ShredBank’s Clear-Out Service. A mobile shredding truck comes to your premises in Belfast or wherever you are in Northern Ireland, the shredding happens on-site while you watch, and you get a Certificate of Destruction on the day.

If the one-off clear-out has reminded you that document management is something your business needs to handle more regularly, a Scheduled Service is worth looking at. ShredBank provides secure lockable consoles that sit in your office and are collected and shredded on an agreed schedule. It removes the need for disruptive clear-outs altogether.