Have you seen the series Hoarders on A&E TV?  The show focuses on those people who are obsessed with hoarding/stashing/saving anything and everything they can because they just never know when they may need that 15 year old Coke can in the corner.  You just never know!

I think a great many people who guard their company's ESI feel just like that.  They want to tidy up to make searching through the needed ESI more efficient and more cost-effective, but first they have to know what is considered 'needed' and what can go out with the garbage.

In Tom Lahiff and Deidre Paknad's article 4 Dangerous Myths about Data Disposal, Debunked, you learn of 4 commonly held beliefs from which many suffer:

Myth 1: We need to keep everything.

Myth 2: Storage is cheap.

Myth 3: There's no way to tell what data is garbage.

Myth 4: It's too hard and it can't be done perfectly.

Do yourself and your company a favor: read this article and learn ways in which to make your life and your working day and lot less stressful and more manageable.  It can be done.