Shredding documents cheaply?

dekaspace

I had a shredder I got from car boot sale about 5 years ago that worked fine but it broke when I spent about 2 hours shredding stuff during house move.

Its just to shred excess documents such as whenever I report a repair to council they send a 2 page document with the estimated repair date, so if I report 4 things they send 4 letters, I also get junk mail that I want to shred so people can't get my details.

My old one had quite a good size bin, and shredded stuff so it was similar to packaging in boxes i.e thin strips but each one was about a inch.

Cutting documents up by hand is time consuming and easier to miss out certain things.

I was thinking of getting a shredder online but unsure sizes of them, I want one that I don't have to empty if I have only shred a few letters but not one that is expensive.

Caterina

I am lucky to have a woodstove so if I have bulk stuff I burn it, but for day to day stuff I rip the address of the post, or any sensitive details like account number etc, and compost the sensitive bits, then recycle the remaining paper.

monnagran

Just tear the address or any sensitive information off the paper and drop the bits into a basin of water. After a few days sqeeze the water out and you will be left with a grey ball of papier mache. No words will be decipherable. Dispose of that.
It costs nothing.

x

Gers

Just as Caterina says, cut off your address and any other personal identifying details and then recycle the rest of the paper. Cut up the other bits. I remember my DM keeping these scraps and putting them into water making a sort of papier mache stuff to throw out.

I can burn stuff in the garden when the weather allows though I don't use the woodburner as the paper is not good for the flue. Some lovely person on here gave me an unwanted garden incinerator. If you use one check on your council's stance on burning rubbish first.

Gers

monnagran wrote: »

Just tear the address or any sensitive information off the paper and drop the bits into a basin of water. After a few days sqeeze the water out and you will be left with a grey ball of papier mache. No words will be decipherable. Dispose of that.
It costs nothing.

x

Great minds....:rotfl:

moneyistooshorttomention

Just learnt my useful fact for the day:).

That'll be me papier-macheing stuff in future...

dekaspace

That is actually what I do, I cut off things like name and address and for bank statements DWP NI number part, and sort code and account number and dump the usable information in bowl of water and swirl it around.

But its very time consuming if you have more than one or two letters to do, I filled up a carrier bag of letters when I moved here so took ages, if they were shred it would of taken a few minutes at most.

It is interesting though that people have the same idea about putting the sensitive parts in water though, I learned that from noticing soggy letters in bins in past.

chrissy59

i have a shredder and after using it for half an hour it stops so you have to leave it and then come back later. we bought a garden incinerator from aldi bout £15 and just burn them every so often

ERICS_MUM

I've got a pair of shredding scissors. They work as normal scissors but they have 5 blades so the paper is cut into thin strips. I tear the address and any other sensitive details from letters and forms and just shred them with these scissors. I have a shredder too for large docs that need shredding in their entirety. You are supposed to allow time for shredding machines to cool down after several minutes use. If you don't, they seize up after a while.

PasturesNew

monnagran wrote: »

Just tear the address or any sensitive information off the paper and drop the bits into a basin of water. After a few days sqeeze the water out and you will be left with a grey ball of papier mache. No words will be decipherable. Dispose of that.
It costs nothing.

x

I'd go with this. With identifiers cut off, the rest can go in the recycling bin.

An alternative to water goo is to keep an empty bean can in the garden, save up a few of the identifiers you've cut out, then pop outside and set fire to them.

ERICS_MUM wrote: »

I've got a pair of shredding scissors. They work as normal scissors but they have 5 blades so the paper is cut into thin strips.

I've got these too - they were cheap (else I'd not have them, so probably £1).

I rarely use them though as they're "tidied away" so it's a faff and as my shredder still works I just slide those in the slot and when the slot looks a bit full I flick the shredder on to get rid of those bits.

dekaspace

About the recycling bin, I never know to put paper there in not as whenever I open it paper is soaked anyway when it rains (I use communal recycling facilities up the road) so seems like its ruined anyway.

Only reasons for wanting a shredder is to save huge amounts of time and I might miss some important information.