My credit union offers the services of a document-shredding company -- gratis. First Saturday of every month, they park their truck in the front lot and people bring their paper. You actually get to watch a closed-circuit TV show your papers being tossed into the shredder and the "confetti" emptied into the back of the truck. I can't remember the last time I fired up my little four-sheet shredder.

That's a great service, Steve. I wish there was something like that in our small town. At my last job, I had a huge shredder in my office. I was doing accounting for a health care company & with HIPAA regulations, we had shredders everywhere. I used to just take my stuff to work with me & shred it there. I don't have a shredder in my office at my new job, so I decided it was worth it to spend $60 on a shredder that could take whole envelopes, etc. It always annoyed me to have that little four-sheet & have to take stuff out of the envelope to shred. I followed the "something in, something out" rule when I bought this new one. The old one was donated to charity so it's not sitting around cluttering up the house.

You're making me think I need a shredder !! I could use the shredded stuff as packing material at my shop, instead of styrofoam popcorn......

My shredder is just a cheap little 4-sheeter, but it's quite useful and I use it frequently.

I have a 5-sheeter, and it's enough. i don't have that much, actually, and I do NOT want it sitting around while I wait for a trip to the credit union's shredder.

That service might be useful if I cleaned out the entire file drawer at once; I can see that being very handy.

And the times that I've purged the bills drawer, I've ended up w/ big piles that took a while to work through. Next time, I'm gonna bring them to work; there's a shredder by the photocopier,a nd I'm just gonna use it.

But for daily use, the little one is OK.However, it's our 2nd one, bcs DH does not get the idea that it will jam; if he busts this one again (he busted it once, and was able to fix it), we're spluring for a tougher one.

I did w/o a shreder for a long time; I just ripped the credit-card offers into three pieces and split them up--each piece into a different trash can (they get emptied at different times)

I also shred at the office. The last time I did a big purge, DH got out the Weber grill and we burned everything. Not my first choice, but he enjoyed it. LOL

DH got out the Weber grill and we burned everything

They really do like to grill everything, don't they? That's pretty funny.

Our shredder supposedly takes 7 sheets, but in reality takes about 4. If it ever breaks, we'll get a more heavy duty model.

Yes, Susan. When I first mentioned buying this shredder, DH wanted to burn it instead.

Hey, it's way more fun to watch a fire than it is to watch a shredder ... :-)

When I'm keeping up with things I shred everything regularly. When I've fallen behind I burn it in the fireplace or in the outside chiminea, depending on the weather.

Since I reorganized my desk area I haven't had a good place to put the shredder and keep it plugged in. I'm tempted to just get rid of it and burn things more often (to-be-shredded papers have a neat little box that contains it well).

we were told not to burn paper in the fireplace bcs it messes up the chimney.

:) my boss's little crosscut shredder stopped turning off when on 'auto' so he gave it to me.

my husband is fascinated by it, loves to feed it, doesn't mind taking things out of the envelopes at all- especially not since I collect those blank credit cards to use as scrapers, glue spreaders, and such, and give him kisses whenever he presents me with some :)

the shredding goes in the compost pile (another reason picking the plastic bits out before hand is a good thing)

which gives me a nice feeling- I'm making roses out of garbage :)

chinacat - I love the image of your DH watching the shredder. :) what a nice system/approach you have.

I have decided to buy a shredder because of the necessity of putting envelopes and paper into a plastic bag for recycling. Before, I'd just rip them up and stick them among the garbage in a trash bag. Now, though, since I saw someone pulling the cans out from the recycling bin at my house, I don't trust leaving anything out there. Since I've already gotten rid of most of the junk paper before I moved, the shredder will basically be used for the daily mail.

Staples has a shredder on sale for $22.96 (regular $38.96). It shreds paper, stapled sheets and credit cards and is medium duty, whatever that means. Do you think this shredder will do the job or should I spend more money ($43.72, regular $68.72) for the model that devours junk mail whole as well as credit cards, CD's/DVD's, staples and paper clips?

I cut up expired credit cards, personal mail, bills with identifying information, credit card offers, etc, then bury them in my cat litter box refuse when I clean the cat boxes. Nobody will want to sift thru cat poo to get a piece of my credit card!

Don't forget to lube your shredders periodically. It's easy to do and they last a lot longer.

marie26, there is a $30 rebate available right now on that more expensive shredder at Staples. I am so glad you mentioned it in your post! Just a few years back, heavier duty shredders like that were closer to $1000. There will be dancing at my house when the junk mail devourer arrives in a few days. 8~)

Btw, Staples delivers any order over $50.

I little cheaper certainly works for the home, just use it often and don't let it build up. I keep mine in the laudry room which you must pass through from garage to kitchen, open mail in laundry and shred as I receive.

I love our 12-sheet shredder!

That's funny about burning it instead, because that's what my DH wanted to do, too! He kept letting it pile up and said that he'd burn it.

I shredded it instead.

Sheryl

I also favor burning. We have frequent fires and generally are looking for stuff to burn. Living on acreage I keep one barrel for yard waste and a cardboard box that holds my shreddables along with butter wrappers, the remains of candles, laundry lint, etc. It's mixed in with my "sensitive papers" and destined to go up in smoke. It's my system and it works for me!

DS just bought me a cross cut shredder with an additional feature that shreds or at least cuts up CD's and software and credit cardsetc.