I have a closet that runs the width of my office. It's not too deep, but it's enough to have boxes and boxes in it. The last three places I've moved to (from florida, to california twice back to florida and moved twice), I've always had a closet like that. Last week, I decided that enough was enough, and did the major cleaning. I found papers in there from ten years ago! Correspondances with people who have since passed away, evidence from a life that I no longer have, etc. etc. I took out eight trash bags! The biggest liberating thing, however, was that I had two HUGE subwoofers that I've moved four times so far, and never took them out of the box. I put them on Ebay last week, and they're already sold. I'm heading to the post office to get rid of them today. And, all the hobbies I had, I just freecycled all of them. It took a full two days of intense work to get it to that point.

However, I also still have three huge paper piles sitting on my desk. I wrote on an index card "clean paper pile", and put that in the NA folder. Right now, I have more pressing things. The papers can wait.

The purging was exhausting, but also quite rewarding.

Good luck on your project. Most of us have been there. I think David Allen recommends starting with the most urgent that's visible so you don't get overwhelmed, and make the rest into a weekend project. I didn't do that. I just got right to it, and it feels great!

Lastly, I think this is an ongoing project. The initial purging is the hardest. The rest, can be done whenever you get some free time. I have "Purge bookcase of old books", but it's not like they're in my way. I'll get to them eventually. It's in my "Someday/Maybe pile".

Good luck, and hang in there! And, make sure to have some good music to carry you through. I like Samba for that purpose :)