Guide
What to do with the boxes
you cannot throw away.
Whether you have 1 box or 500, these are documents that cannot be binned, taking up space something more useful needs. Working through it comes down to three decisions.
The situation
When nobody knows what is in the boxes
Old documents are usually the residue of a move, a clear-out, a merger or a departed colleague, and they are stacked in a back office, a basement or the corner where a desk should be.
It stays there because nobody wants to make the decision. Throwing it out feels risky, keeping it costs a room, and going through it looks like a week of work.
The method
Three piles, then three decisions
Open a sample rather than every box. A handful will tell you what the rest of them hold.
Records people still ask for
Anything a colleague has looked for in the past year, or would look for if a client rang. Live matters, open projects, current employees, anything a claim or a query could reach.
Records you must keep and rarely open
Closed matters, finished projects, past employees, old accounts. Retention is still running, so they cannot go, but nobody has opened them in years and probably will not.
Records that have served their time
Anything whose retention period has run out. Your own auditors or advisors set that period, so check with them before deciding anything is finished with.
What to do with each
Scan, store or destroy each pile
Each pile has one sensible answer, and all three can go on the same account.
Pile one: scan it
Records people open often, or that several people need at once, are worth having as searchable files. The originals can come back to you, go into storage, or be destroyed once the scan is done.
Explore scanning →Pile two: store it
Boxes you must keep but rarely open are the simplest thing to hand over. Barcoded, shelved, and any single file back at your desk the next working day when it is wanted.
Explore storage →Pile three: destroy it
Confidential shredding, on your instruction, with a certificate of destruction recording the date, the method and the quantity, ready for your auditor.
Explore shredding →If you never want to sort them
Hand the sorting over. Cataloguing lists every folder inside every box against its barcode, so the pile becomes an index and you make the decisions afterwards.
Explore cataloguing →Proof
Why you can trust Cyclone Archive
Facility security
Boxes are held in a security-controlled Dublin warehouse protected by intruder and fire alarms and CCTV, under swipe-card access and a dedicated facility manager.
Confidentiality
Security-screened staff, EN 15713 certification from first collection to final shredding, and files returned in secure bags.
Traceability
Barcode tracking follows every box from your office to its exact shelf position, with a movement history for every box and every file that leaves one.
Irish owned
Irish owned and operated, run from Dublin, with the people who handle your account working in the same building as your boxes.
Waste facility and collection permits NWCPO-08-01122 and WFG-FG-15-0006.
Questions
Common questions, answered
How many boxes?
Tell us how many boxes of documents you have, and collection can be as soon as the next working day.
Prefer to talk? Call 01 814 0734.