# What Trash is

Deleting in Nest moves an item to Trash, where it can be restored until it's deleted for good or its time runs out.

Nothing in Nest disappears the moment you delete it. Delete a file or a folder and it goes to Trash, where it waits, restorable, until somebody deletes it for good or the number of days your organisation allows runs out.

**Video coming soon:** A tour of Trash: getting deleted work back, and clearing out what you really don't need.

## How Trash helps

- **Restore an item**: Put a file or folder back in the folder it came from.
- **Restore several at once**: Tick what you need and bring it all back together.
- **Delete one item for good**: Clear a single file or folder you're sure about.
- **Empty your share of Trash**: Remove everything you deleted, leaving colleagues' items alone.
- **Read the list**: When each item was deleted, who added it, and how big it is.
- **Know the time limit**: How long items wait before they're removed on their own.

## A safety net with a time limit

![The top left of Nest with Trash open. Below the header and a Trash tab, the heading Trash reads 7 items. Beneath a Name column with a select-all checkbox are a personal folder named Trade Show 2025, then Scan_0034.pdf, 2027 Budget - Draft v2.xlsx, Carrier Rate Card 2025 - OLD.xlsx and Board Pack - Q2 2026 - DRAFT v1.pdf, all added by Eleanor Whitfield except the Carrier Rate Card, added by Callum Aitken.](https://www.sorviai.com/help/nest/trash/trash-screen.png)

*Folders first, then files. A colleague's file appears here too, because it was deleted from a team folder this person belongs to.*

Trash is a holding area, not a bin you empty by hand every week. Items stay restorable for the number of days your administrator sets, then Nest removes them for good. Until that happens, a deleted file still takes up your organisation's storage, keeps its labels, shares and star, and returns with all of them if it's restored.

What you see here is shared with the people you work with. It holds what you deleted from your own folders, what anyone deleted from the team folders you belong to, and files shared with you that their owner has deleted.

**How long Trash keeps things** explains the time limit and where it's set.

## The two jobs you'll do most

- **Restore from Trash**: Put deleted items back where they were, one or several at once.
- **Delete permanently**: Remove items for good or empty Trash. There's no undo.

## Using Trash sensibly

- **Restore the folder, not the file**: A file deleted along with its folder comes back only once the folder does.
- **Check before emptying**: Emptying is permanent. Glance down the list for anything you'll miss.
- **Don't rely on it as an archive**: Anything left here long enough is removed on its own.
- **Free storage for good**: Deleted files still count against storage until they're gone from here.