Updated November 2026 · Southern New Hampshire
How to run an annual document purge at home or in the office
An annual document purge is one afternoon a year when every file past its keep date leaves the building and gets shredded. This post gives you the date to pick, the order to work in, a keep table you can reuse, and what the purge costs for a household or an office in southern New Hampshire.
99¢ per pound at our Tewksbury drop-off, or $20 per large box at 10 boxes and up.
- 99¢ per pound
- Since 2007
- BBB A+
- Certificate on every job
Quick answer
Pick one fixed day a year, pull every file whose keep period has ended under your retention schedule or the IRS periods (generally 3 years after filing for tax records, 4 for employment tax records, 6 or 7 in special cases), and shred all of it in one job so you pay the per-job fees once. New Hampshire Document Shredding charges 99 cents a pound under 10 boxes or $20 per large box at 10 or more, plus $34.90 per job, at its Tewksbury office, with pickup by zone for offices. Our document retention guide has the keep periods for every common record.
Why an annual document purge beats a once-a-decade cleanout
Most homes and small offices don’t purge files. They store them until a move, a death, a retirement or a full basement forces the issue. Then somebody spends a week sorting fifteen years of paper with no idea what can go.
A yearly purge turns that week into an afternoon. Each year you only deal with one year’s worth of expired files, and you already know which ones they are because you labeled them when you filed them. The job stays small, so it actually happens.
The bigger reason is risk. Every expired file you keep is information that can be lost, stolen or exposed and that serves you no purpose. The Federal Trade Commission’s guide for businesses puts it as a principle called “Scale down”: keep only what you need, and if you have a legitimate need for information, “keep it only as long as it’s necessary.” The same logic works at a kitchen table.
It is also cheaper. Our per-job fees of $34.90 are charged once per job, not per box. One purge a year pays them once. Four small clear-outs pay them four times, which comes to $139.60 in fees alone before a single pound is shredded.
Pick a date you will keep
The date matters less than the habit. Choose a day tied to something that already happens every year, so the purge has a trigger. These work well for the customers we see.
Households: after taxes
Try the week after you file your return. Your tax folder is out, you know which year just closed, and the records for older returns are fresh in your mind.
Offices: after year-end close
Once the books for the year are closed and the accountant has what they need, pull the files that just passed their retention date. January, or the month after your fiscal year ends, works for most offices.
Practices and firms: a fixed calendar day
Medical, legal and accounting offices do best with a named day on the compliance calendar, a named owner and a sign-off sheet. The date never moves, and nobody has to remember to start it.
Write the date down now and book it. A purge that lives only as a good intention never happens, and the backlog grows by another year. If you would rather not haul boxes, book an off-site shredding pickup for the same week, so the boxes leave the day you fill them.
The five-step annual document purge method
The FTC’s business guide is built on five principles: take stock, scale down, lock it, pitch it and plan ahead. They map neatly onto a yearly purge, and they work just as well for a family filing cabinet as for a twenty-person office. The diagram shows the cycle.
- Take stock. Open every place paper lives: filing cabinets, desk drawers, closet boxes, the basement, a storage unit. The FTC’s first principle is to know what personal information you have. You can’t purge what you forgot about.
- Scale down. Compare each folder with your keep table. Anything past its keep date goes into a shred box on the spot. Don’t re-read old paper. Check the date and move on.
- Lock it. Put the keepers back in locked storage, sorted by the year they can go. The FTC guide asks businesses to store paper with personal information in a locked room or a locked file cabinet, and that is a good standard for a home office too.
- Pitch it. Shred everything from the purge in one job. The FTC says to dispose of paper records by shredding, burning or pulverizing them before discarding. Keep the Certificate of Destruction with your records.
- Plan ahead. Write next year’s date in the calendar, and from today, label every new folder with its shred-after year when you file it.
An annual document purge at home
A household purge rarely takes more than an afternoon once the first one is done. The first year is the hard one, because you are catching up on every year you skipped. Give that one a whole weekend, and do the closets and basement too.
Work at a big table with three boxes labeled keep, shred and recycle. Most of what you pull out will be one of the obvious kinds: statements, tax papers, medical bills, insurance renewals, pay stubs and a lot of junk mail that never should have been filed.
Recycle the paper with nothing personal on it. Manuals for appliances you no longer own, old catalogs and blank forms can go straight in your town’s recycling. Only the shred box costs money, so keep it honest.
A few household records deserve a careful second look before they go in the shred box. Statements and receipts for home improvements support your home’s basis, and the IRS says to keep property records until the period of limitations ends for the year you sell. Records for an open insurance claim, a dispute or an estate wait until those are closed. Our posts on how to shred old bank statements and how long to keep tax records go through the details.
Bag anything that isn’t paper. Old phones, USB sticks, discs and expired cards don’t go in the shred box. We physically destroy media and quote it per item, so put it in a separate bag and tell us when you book.
What to purge each year: a reusable keep table
This table covers the records that fill most home and small office cabinets. Your accountant, lawyer or compliance officer may set longer periods for your situation, and their answer wins. For a full schedule you can adapt, see our record retention schedule template.
| Record | Purge it once | Source of the period |
|---|---|---|
| Records supporting an income tax return | 3 years after you filed, in most cases | IRS period of limitations |
| Records where more than 25% of income went unreported | 6 years after you filed | IRS period of limitations |
| Records for a worthless securities loss or bad debt deduction | 7 years after you filed | IRS period of limitations |
| Employment tax records (payroll, household employees) | At least 4 years after the tax is due or paid, whichever is later | IRS employment tax records |
| Property records (purchase, improvements) | The period of limitations ends for the year you sell or dispose of the property | IRS records connected to property |
| Monthly statements with nothing tax-related | You have reviewed them and they support nothing open | Your own schedule |
| Anything for an open claim, dispute, lawsuit or audit | The matter is closed, never before | Your lawyer or insurer |
| Patient, client or employee records in a business | Per your written retention policy and any law that applies | Your compliance officer |
The IRS also warns that records you no longer need for taxes may still be needed for other reasons, and that insurance companies or creditors may require you to keep them longer. Check before a big purge. Shredding is permanent, which is the whole point.
Annual purge numbers worth knowing
These figures decide how much a purge removes and what it costs.
- Drop-off Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., no appointment
- Pickup by appointment, priced by zone from $129.95
- Cross-cut shredding and 100 percent of the shred recycled
- A Certificate of Destruction with every job
Running an annual document purge in an office
An office purge follows the same five steps, with three additions: a written policy, a named owner and a paper trail. The FTC’s guide recommends a written records retention policy that says what to keep, how to secure it, how long to keep it and how to dispose of it securely. The purge is just that policy carried out once a year.
The owner
One person runs the purge, signs off each department’s list and books the shredding. In a practice that is often the office manager or privacy officer. In a firm it may be the records clerk.
The hold check
Before anything leaves, the owner confirms no file is under a legal hold, an audit, an open claim or a records request. Files on hold stay put, whatever the schedule says.
The paper trail
A list of what was purged, signed by the owner, plus the Certificate of Destruction. Our page on the certificate of destruction shows what it records.
Health care offices purge under HIPAA. The safeguard standard at 45 CFR 164.530(c) says a covered entity must have appropriate administrative, technical and physical safeguards to protect the privacy of health information. Patient paper stays protected until it is destroyed. A Business Associate Agreement is available on request.
Any business that pulls credit or background reports falls under the FTC Disposal Rule. The FTC’s examples of reasonable disposal include burning, pulverizing or shredding papers so they cannot be read or reconstructed. Landlords, employers, lenders and car dealers all fit.
New Hampshire’s breach notice law, RSA 359-C:20, is written around computerized data that includes personal information. That does not make paper safe to throw away. The federal rules above, and your clients’ expectations, still apply to every printed file in the purge.
Old computers, drives and phones belong in the purge too. Pull them from closets during the take-stock step and send them with the paper. Our page on hard drive destruction explains how we destroy them.
Offices that purge 10 boxes or more usually book a pickup and use our shredding pickup checklist to stage the boxes. For very large volumes, such as a full records-room purge, part of the work may go to a third-party certified plant. A first purge that is really a backlog clear-out is covered in our post on office cleanout shredding.
What an annual document purge costs
A household purge is usually a few boxes. An office purge can be dozens. Under 10 boxes you pay 99 cents a pound, and a full banker’s box weighs about 30 pounds. At 10 boxes or more the price becomes a flat $15 per small box or $20 per large box. Every job adds $34.90 in per-job fees. The chart shows a purge of 5, 10, 20 and 40 large boxes brought to our counter or collected from greater Nashua or Manchester.
| Purge size | Drop-off | Zone 1 pickup | Zone 2 pickup | Zone 3 pickup |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 large box | $64.60 | $194.55 | $224.55 | $264.55 |
| 5 large boxes | $183.40 | $313.35 | $343.35 | $383.35 |
| 10 large boxes | $234.90 | $364.85 | $394.85 | $434.85 |
| 20 large boxes | $434.90 | $564.85 | $594.85 | $634.85 |
Zone 1 covers the Tewksbury area and border towns such as Salem, Pelham, Windham and Plaistow. Zone 2 is greater Nashua and Manchester. Zone 3 is the Seacoast and points farther north. For other towns the zone is confirmed when you book. Pickup prices assume ground-level or elevator access, and a handling fee for stairs is quoted up front.
Look at the jump from 5 to 10 boxes. Five boxes by weight cost $183.40, and ten at the flat rate cost $234.90. If your purge lands around eight or nine boxes, fill the tenth with next year’s junk-mail pile. Offices weighing a yearly purge against a regular service can compare both in our post on one-time vs scheduled shredding. Practices that want to watch can book witnessed shredding at $1.99 a pound with a $100 minimum, plus the per-job fees.
Frequently asked questions
What is an annual document purge?
It is one fixed day each year when you pull every file whose keep period has ended and shred it all in one job. Because you only handle one year of expired files at a time, it takes an afternoon instead of a week, and you pay the per-job fees once.
When is the best time of year to purge?
For households, the week after you file your tax return. For offices, after the year-end close, once the accountant has what they need. Practices and firms do best with a fixed compliance-calendar date and a named owner. The best date is one tied to something that already happens every year.
How do I know what I can shred?
Use a keep table. The IRS says most tax records can go 3 years after you file, employment tax records after at least 4 years, and records in special cases after 6 or 7. Property records wait until the period ends for the year you sell. Businesses follow their written retention policy.
How much does an annual purge cost?
Under 10 boxes, 99 cents a pound plus $34.90 per job, so five banker’s boxes come to about $183.40. At 10 or more boxes, $20 per large box or $15 per small box plus $34.90, so ten large boxes cost $234.90. A pickup adds $129.95 to $199.95 by zone.
Should an office purge once a year or use a regular service?
A yearly purge suits offices that produce a few boxes of expired files a year. Offices that fill shred bins every week from daily work need a regular routine for that paper as well. Many use both: daily paper on a schedule, expired files once a year. No long-term contract is required.
What paperwork should a business keep after a purge?
Keep a list of what was purged, signed by the person who ran it, and the Certificate of Destruction we issue with every job. File both with your retention policy. Health care offices can ask for a Business Associate Agreement before the job.
Do I need to remove staples and folders?
No. Leave staples, paper clips, binder clips, rubber bands and file folders in. Take out three-ring binder hardware and hanging-folder frames. Drives, phones, discs and cards go in a separate bag, and we quote media per item.
Where do I bring my purge boxes?
To 1215 Main Street, Unit 115, Tewksbury, MA, on Route 38 near I-495, Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. It is about 15 minutes south of the New Hampshire line at Salem and Pelham. We have no drop-off in New Hampshire, but we pick up by appointment.
Sources
- Federal Trade Commission, Protecting Personal Information: A Guide for Business (checked November 2026)
- Internal Revenue Service, How long should I keep records? (checked November 2026)
- Federal Trade Commission, Disposing of Consumer Report Information? Rule Tells How (checked November 2026)
- 45 CFR 164.530(c), HIPAA safeguards (govinfo.gov) (checked November 2026)
- New Hampshire RSA 359-C:20, Notice of Security Breach (gc.nh.gov) (checked November 2026)
Book this year’s purge now
Pick the date, pull the expired files and bring every box in one trip, or book a pickup for the same week. We shred it all at our Tewksbury office, recycle the shred and give you a Certificate of Destruction for your records.
Where we shred
1215 Main Street, Unit 115, Tewksbury, MA 01876. Route 38, near I-495. Free parking out front.
Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Witnessed sessions and pickups outside these hours by appointment.
- Drop-off: walk in, 99¢ per pound
- Pickup: from $129.95 by zone
- Witnessed: $1.99 per pound, $100 minimum
New Hampshire Document Shredding · 1215 Main Street, Unit 115, Tewksbury, MA 01876 · (978) 636-0301 · Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.