my first one

15 years ago

I have become the proud owner of my first shredder !

Oh JOY..and i've been shredding..

first..now when junk mail comes in..immediately it goes into the shredder..if it is more than 10 pages..i tear it into smaller sections and shred it..shred it shred it !!

i have emptied my shredder into my compost pile once already..and will do it weekly..

do i worry about the inks..NOPE..I'm not going to even worry about those little celephone windows..they will just add texture to the compost..maybe not food..but bulk..

That will make the soil drain just fine thank you.

It has cut our trash going out probably in half..i've even taken to shredding cereal boxes..and packaging..(no not the plastic ones)

I bought it for 2 reasons..one was cause of our identity getting stolen..2 because of excess paper around here..

Also have begun scanning papers onto discs..that have to be saved for taxes or whatever..will stick them and our tax papers into much smaller containers than the heavy boxes i have now..and shred all that paper stuff and get rid of it..that will be my rainy day work (well snow today still here in Mich) until i get it done.

i have a bunch of blank cd's to put my paperwork onto..i read about doing that this past week in an organizing book i had..scan the important papers ..put on cd..shred...oh the joy of being paper free..when you save everything for 7 years..having it in an envelope rather than a huge huge box..has got to be a GOOD THING MARTHA

Comments (11)

jiggreen
15 years ago
Welcome to the Shredding Fanclub!! I LOVE to shred!!

I find lots of uses for the shredded paper...I put it in my compost pile, I use it for packing material for shipping, I put some in my bird cage (my finches love to use it for their nests) and we used to use it in the bottom of our rabbit cage for bedding. It's also great to use as cushioning for fragile christmas ornaments and I even put a layer of it under my mulch in my garden.

Shred away!
ronbre
Original Author
15 years ago
oh some great ideas..do you shred everything..or are you concerned about the inks?..i've been shredding everything
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jannie
15 years ago
I used to bring my junk mail and old paid bills to work and shred them there.
talley_sue_nyc
15 years ago
One thing to remember about putting stuff on disks--unless you get a REWRITABLE disk, you can only store stuff on it ONE time. That means you will need more disks, bcs you'll probably be scanning stuff in batches.

If I were going to move all my records to disk, I'd splurge for a rewritable. Or, I'd make a folder on the hard drive, and I'd be extra careful to back up my machine's hard drive to some exterior medium (like a portable hard drive, or something)

Also, I'm not sure the IRS will accept scanned documents in the case of an audit within 7 years.

Personally, I just throw stuff away once I don't need it. The very few things I need forever (deed to the house; opening paperwork for savings accounts), I figure I either need the original, or the original is about 2 pieces of paper, and it's easier to keep the hard copy than the disk.
donnawb
15 years ago
I have been putting my stuff on those jump drives. I do keep the things that you need the original tho. Saves so much space.
brutuses
15 years ago
Only because I'm an animal rescuer I mention this to you. If you have pets, be sure to keep the shredder in a closet or unplugged when not in use. It has been documented that cats and dogs have managed to turn on shredders and injure themselves, even killing some. Just thought I'd mention that as a precaution.

I came home one day to find my vacum cleaner running after one of the cats managed to jump on the top of it and hit the on/off switch. LOL Thankfully I arrived home before the motor burned up or God forbid it caused a house fire. I told them the next time they turn it on they better darn well be vacuming the floor. LOL Since that incident, if I leave it out, I make sure it's unplugged.
arizonarose
15 years ago
We don't shred most junk mail...only stuff that has personal info on it. Also, watch out for staples! I ruined my last shredder with a staple. The one I have now does credit cards too, a handy feature!
seattlemike
15 years ago
Just a word of caution....

A couple of years ago I purchased a "medium-duty" shredder and proceeded to attack the volumes of paper accumulated over many years. Unfortunately, I didn't read the manual thoroughly enough and proceeded to burn out the motor. What I missed was a statement that said to shred no more than (don't remember how many) pieces, then let it rest for a while before resuming. I had no one to blame except myself, unlike brutuses, who had a cat to blame. :-)
ronbre
Original Author
15 years ago
Mine shreds 10 sheets, credit cards and cd..i do have a rewriters..and would do them in batches..and of course I would keep the important papers..and scan only the ones that have to be sourced for an audit that are semi important. bank statements are already archived online..as are credit card statements..i'm learning more about what is held in fiels online that i can go back and read..but a lot of my files were not archived on line 7 years ago..also this year we itemized our receipts as we had so many so i could probably scan those rather than save 100's of them.right no i honestly don't feel like scanning anything..just shredding
Irish2
15 years ago
Another shredder here! Some good ideas about using for
omposting/gardens. This is our second one...burned out
the first...ENJOY!
nancyjeanmc
15 years ago
My shredder is one of those wimpy versions...it can only handle five pieces of paper at a time. I was grateful for that, though, when I was in the middle of a huge shredding project. I was going so fast that I almost tossed a bunch of savings bonds in - over a thousand dollars worth - that I thought were in the safe deposit box! I still cringe at what might have been!