How to Spring Clean Your Sensitive Documents

Spring is just around the corner, but it’s never too early for a little Spring cleaning. Whether you need to dispose of old documents or you want to digitize all of your paperwork, this is the perfect time to reorganize your office. At PROSHRED® St. Louis, our goal is to teach everyone about the importance of protecting their information using common organizational practices and secure document destruction services.

What are the Benefits of a Document Cleanout?

Organizing your documents and performing a cleanout can provide some surprising benefits for your office. Along with the refreshing feeling of a clear workspace, organizing your documents can boost productivity, improve your employees’ moods, and give guests a good first impression. When your office is cluttered and filled with unnecessary documents, it becomes easy to lose important information, which can lead to security leaks. One of the best ways to protect your company’s information is by performing regular document cleanouts.

Tips For Spring Cleaning Your Sensitive Documents

While organizing your office and performing a document cleanout provides many benefits, it can also seem like an overwhelming task. It’s difficult to find a good time to perform a Spring cleanup, especially while still performing your daily work tasks, but PROSHRED® St. Louis has a few helpful tips to make your cleanup as easy as possible, from paper shredding measures to digital document storage.

Start with Organization
The first step in any Spring cleanup is to organize all of your documents. One of the easiest ways to accomplish this is by putting all of your documents into clearly labeled piles. You should create piles for the documents you plan to keep, shred, or scan. During this step, you should also review your company’s document retention guidelines, so you know which documents should go in each pile. Creating a strong retention policy will also keep your documents organized in the future.

Scan Documents for Easy Access
After organizing your documents, it’s a great idea to scan some of your documents into digital files. Many companies are fully transitioning to digital workspaces, and digitizing your information will help your company prepare for changes in your industry. Scanning your documents not only clears up space in your office, it also makes information easier to find. Finally, digitizing your documents is a great way to ensure only qualified employees can access your password-protected sensitive information.

Utilize Web-Based Storage Services
With companies like Google, Amazon, and Dropbox offering reliable cloud-based digital storage, it’s become easier than ever to organize your digital information. These services allow your employees to store company documents in an easily accessible location that is protected from viruses and hard drive crashes. Of course, nothing on the Internet is 100% secure, so you should take some simple extra steps to protect your information. Using strong passwords on sensitive documents and creating backup files on your hard drives are simple tasks that will provide extra protection for your company.

Don’t Forget Hard Drives
Even with the increasing importance of computers in the workplace, many companies don’t know how to properly protect the information stored on their hard drives. While deleting files on your desktop can make information harder to find, that information can still be accessed by thieves looking to harm your company. The only way to fully delete the information on your computer is with a secure hard drive shredding service from a reputable company. Whenever you replace your computers, ensure that your hard drives are professionally destroyed by a shredding company like PROSHRED®.

Securely Dispose of Unneeded Sensitive Documents
After organizing and scanning the documents you plan to keep, it’s time to dispose of your unwanted documents. While many offices have small office shredders, they can often distract employees from completing their daily tasks. Even worse, most office shredders use simple strip cutting, which leaves large pieces of paper behind that are easy to reconstruct. To protect your information, you should contact a professional paper shredding company that is trained to securely shred your documents. At PROSHRED® St. Louis, we use cutting edge technology that cuts your documents into unrecognizable pieces that can’t be reconstructed.

Need a Spring Clean? PROSHRED® St. Louis Can Help!

If your company is performing a spring cleanup, then PROSHRED® St. Louis can help you throughout the entire process. Our trained team can advise you on which documents your company should keep or destroy, and our purge shredding service is great for a large one-time shredding event. Our mobile shredding trucks can come directly to your office and dispose of any unwanted documents or hard drives directly onsite. We also provide a Certificate of Destruction after each service, so you have legal proof that your documents were professionally destroyed. At PROSHRED® St. Louis, we want to make your spring cleanup easier than ever.