The files must have been getting purged as they gathered .The files must have been gathering while being purged all the time .The files must have been gathering without being purged for a short time .The files must have been gathering without being purged for a while .
Why might I have been able to purge so much of the files ?
Files out of the crate , take each file one at a time , identify the treasures , purge the rest , return the file to the crates ( making new folder and using new hanging folder as needed ) , repeat . In 2 hours , I 'd purged about 85 % of that file crate . It 's not immediately obvious , since I had shoved about 30 file folders into two hanging files , and adding 24 hanging files added 3 " to the overall size . So it looks as if I went from 14 " to about 5 " .