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[quote=Anonymous]I agree with PPs, but here's how I would think about the steps:

I assume you know roughly what kind of records you're dealing with: if not, flip through them and get a sense.  Are these contracts, HR documents, somebody's archive of birthday cards, or what?

With legal's help, draw up a list of reasons to keep things (e.g., you keep open contracts for different reasons than you keep old, completed contracts) and the types of things your office is likely to have that fall into each category.  Then based on the reasons, decide how long you need to keep each type of thing (e.g., if legal says you can trash contracts older than 5 years then you might want three piles of contracts: open, closed less than 5 years, and closed more than 5 years).

Start sorting, with outsourced help if possible.  Do not actually throw anything out yet.  Then reevaluate your categories, paying special attention to what's in the "leftovers" pile -- can it all be tossed?  If not,  you need more categories and/or to rethink your plan.  You may also find that subcategories suggest themselves as you are sorting.

Come up with a plan for how everything will be sorted and filed going forward, and how old records will be evaluated and discarded on a regular basis.  Your office obviously does not have good document handling habits, so unless you propose and enforce some kind of policy your new system will not last very long.

Present your plan to the boss[es] and get buy-in.  Important areas for buy-in include the decisions about retention, boss' commitment to enforcing your new policy, green light on any filing tools (file banks, website, outsourced help), and green light to trash certain things.  Revise and circulate as needed.

Last, actually scan and/or file, and discard what you've decided to.  (Although yes, you may have had to do some de facto filing as you went just for physical space reasons.)
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