apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

my mom and i share her shredder since i don't really have toooo much to shred. however, i do know that she has burned out two shredders by not stopping every 10 or 15 minutes. she's not the person to buy such a thing very cheap because she values quality and things that last forever, so i don't know if it is the particular one she bought or what, but just to forewarn, you don't want it dying on you.

Just because shredding makes you feel paranoid doesn't mean you shouldn't shred! Always shred!

I shred every day. I keep my shredder in my entry closet and I immediately shred credit card offers & unwanted mail. About every 6 months I shred old utility statements. I cannot stand paper piles. The sound of the shredder has become soothing, and somehow I get pleasure out of "stickin' it to the man" by shredding those credit card offers.

If you want to justify the paranoia, get out a little wastebasket and keep all that junk mail, all those old bills, any of that paper you were going to shred and just fill it to the top.
Then, dump it out all over the floor and pretend you're the shady person who found all of that in the trash behind your house, and see what you can find out about yourself.
You'll learn how much money you make, how many people live in the house and who they are, what your signature looks like, and you'll probably even find enough information to accept those billions of credit card offers without the "real" you ever knowing - until the bills start pouring in.
Identity theft is real enough that that the few seconds it takes to shred stuff is totally worth it.
Plus, shredding is totally fun, especially if you get a shredder that can eat CDs! Just don't wear a tie :)

Perfect timing on this topic! I have a stack of papers I need to shred, but have been on the fence about buying shredder. Do I really need another electric gadget that takes up space? The outlets are full of chargers for PDAs, cellphones....

Any recommendations for a space saving shredders? Arguments against buying one?

You're not paranoid. We had a shredder, but we had so much to shred that we broke the shredder, and when I say we I mean my husband, who apparently wanted a super-sonic shredder that ate gigantic wads of tax returns, but only had a regular-speed one from OfficeMax. So it died (murdered), and we don't shred any more. But we would. Just shred patiently.

I bring it to work to shred it. Save money and space!

I shred, though I'm somewhat lazy about it. But shredding is important.

But I absolutely LOVE Robin's idea of putting the shredder in the entry closet. Love it! I'll move mine when I get home tonight and will begin shredding daily.

Thanks, Robin...

I'm with MCNicole--I shred religiously, but I just bring the documents to work and do it there. I do it regularly enough that it's never more than a few sheets at a time. It (a) saves space in my tiny study and (b) lets me use a big fancy shredder that does a much better job than those can-mounted ones.

I usually bring my shredding in to work, or, if it's just little receipts, I rip them up before tossing. Since my worm bin (compost) uses shredded paper as bedding, I keep thinking I could have a wonderful system of shredding important papers and then composting them and then having a garden sustained by old bills and bank statements. I haven't quite gotten around to making it work, but maybe this summer.

Thats not paranoid. Paranoid is my dad, who rips out the little bit of envelope with the name and address and throws those away seperately. There is always a stack of them laying around. Ridiculous!

There was an Enron type court case here in Australia where the prosecution spent months sticking together shredded paper to build a case for corporate crime. They got a conviction.

A shredder that cross hatch shreds is best. Although the mnaufacturers say leave in the staples and paperclips - don't. They want you to buy a new one!!

Be sensible - not everything needs shredding. Once you clear the backlog, it's not hard to keep up. I have a plastic bin in my cable cabinet and every 3 months or so I shred anything the Tax Office won't need. Although they say keep 7 years, I keep 10. Also given the fadeability of some receipts, you might want to scan & print.

There is another topic that goes hand in hand with this one, and I can't believe it hasn't been touched upon yet. The reason I bought a shredder was for identity theft. Unfortunately I was a victim of some credit card fraud. I soon got a shredder after that and became paranoid if I wasn't shredding something enough.

Needless to say, make sure you aren't just throwing bills away! Shred them!

i don't shred because i keep breaking my shredder.

so i just rip it up by hand and hope that nobody'll be that determined to painstakingly piece together all my credit card offers.

I just rip things up into tiny pieces by hand - good frustration easer!! Keeps me stress free!

I also shred. It's very soothing. And I, of course, got overzealous and shredded too much. I jammed my new toy and was very sad.

But then, I unplugged it and did surgery on it with my trusty letter opener. And I brought it back to life. Happy times--except when my boyfriend sneaked up behind me mid-surgery and said "zzzzt" really loudly. I thought I'd been electrocuted.

But yes; shred! shred! shred!

Reason for my post: I saw the coolest scissors somewhere online, probably on a blog, within the last year. They were intended to be craft scissors--you know, that cut funny edges--but they were being used as a non-electric shredder.

Eco-friendly, space-saving and cheap!

I don't have a shredder, but I do rip up all my mail by hand like shurraycmu. Works great for me.