There has been increasing concern about the soil metaproteomics in recent years. Proteomics platform in soil is helpful for understanding the biogeochemical cycles of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus and the oxidation of soil organic matter. By analyzing the sources, functions and activities of soil microbial protein, soil metaproteomics can address the issue of different kinds of protein expression and then link protein information with the associated ecosystem processes. However, although the species of protein in soils are very rich, the contents of proteins in soils are usually very low, which dramatically hinders the application of proteomics techniques. A critical step thus is to get a high concentration of protein solution by pretreatment of soil samples. This review summarized some typical methods for extracting proteins from soils and leaf litter in recent years. In addition, the potential directions of improvements for current methods were discussed.