Do you pay for shredding services? How much?

In My Humble Opinion
1

We have a little paper shredder. My wife has become obsessed with the need to sort through the junk mail we receive and carefully separate out name, address, and other info that should be shredded, but we’ve been much less diligent about actually shredding it.

So we’ve piled up 3-4 copy paper boxes worth of shreddables.

Today there was a free community shredding event. She’s been excited about it all week. She took her time getting ready for it today, got all the material out and went through them, talked about how happy she was to finally get this stuff out of our lives, meandered over to the listed address, and found nothing.

Turns out the e-mail newsletter mentions the event was “from 10am-1pm or until the shred truck is full.”

Clearly she should have noted that; if I’d been the one to read about the event, that’s what would have jumped out at me. But she didn’t, and went closer to the 1pm end than the 10am start, and we missed it.

Now she’s very, very disappointed. She wants to get this out of the house, but “can’t face” hand-feeding all that junk into the little shredder.

Is it feasible to pay a commercial shredding service for a few boxes of household shredding? Does anyone do this, or is it just for large companies? How much would such service cost? Obviously if it costs more than a certain amount, I will have to chew and swallow each item personally rather than go bankrupt.

Do any dopers have experiences with paying for shredding, or advice on other ways to deal with piled-up shreddables?

2

The is a local place that will shred 100 lbs of paper for around $20. I used them to get of of 20 years worth of paper this spring.

3

Can you/she be more selective about what truly does and does not need to be shredded?

Over here, random junk mail goes in the recycle bin. I don’t care if my name/address is on it; that info is already available to the general public via any number of sources (starting with the city’s online property tax database).

Credit card offers, or anything bearing an account number? Shred it.

Credit card receipts nowadays generally don’t have your full CC account # on them, typically just the last four digits. I have no worries about discarding them in the regular trash.

I probably discard one small (bathroom-sized) trash bag of shreds every couple of months.

4

What he said. I shred applications from credit card offers, bank deposit receipts, and things like e-mails from friends on sensitive topics that I printed out to read to Mr. S, or invoices to clients that I had to reprint because I made a goof.

As for the current pile, why not just spend 5-10 minutes a day shredding? Or shred during the commercials while you’re watching TV.

5

“Can’t face” shredding a few boxes of stuff? Shredding is fun. I’d be in heaven if I had that much stuff to shred!

6

Put a “tax” on something you like to do. Want a soda from the fridge? Shred 10 items. Also start shredding all new stuff so the pile goes down not up.

-Otanx

7

I took about 40 lbs of my wifes old paperwork into be shredded a few years ago. It was pretty cheap. I took it to a local office supply store.

I actually have property where I could have just burned the stuff. But It wasn’t really worth the time for me to do it.

8

If you want to lessen the shredding load, check out optoutprescreen.com. It’s free. I signed up a couple of years ago and haven’t received any credit card offers since. We used to get these offers almost every day. Whodathunk there were so many different credit cards out there?

9

I don’t understand why people shred stuff that just has their name and address on it. If somebody steals that out of my trash, odds are they know where I live. Since that’s where my trash can lives also.

I only shred, like, credit card offers and those unsolicited checks. Your wife is being paranoid.

10

If you can find out the name of the company that had a truck at the community shredding event, you can probably pay them to shred your documents. Perhaps whoever sends that e-mail newsletter can put you in touch with them.

11

There is a shredding company near me that is fairly large and has lots of trucks coming in all the time. I needed a box of papers shredded so I took it over expecting to pay.

They charged me $3 for certification that it was done (which I had to have, most people don’t) and nothing for the shredding. The woman said they’ll normally do a few boxes for people without charging.

So take it to a shredder near you or if you see one of those trucks at an office and you may find it’s very cheap.

I think those truck drivers like chocolate cookies.

12

For another data point, at work we just got a cold call from a local shredding company. I didn’t need them right now, but for kicks I asked how much it was. The amount of paper that fits in a wheeled recycling bin (apparently about 20 copy paper boxes worth) is $95, $65 for subsequent bins. Keeping in mind that this is for them coming out and shredding it on-site. I’d imagine if you brought a couple of boxes to them, it would be $5ish each.

13

What makes her think that should be shredded? Does she wander around town shredding all the phone books?

Save your money to pay for mental health treatment for her!

14

I always do shredding myself - after all if I am concerned about my privacy, I am not going to give it to a stranger. The only time I would, I suppose, would be if they shredded it in front of me. I find shredding to be calming to me and sometimes even fun. You can buy a cheap, good quality shredder for under $100. I have mine close to where I put my mail and shred it regularly so it doesn’t stock pile. What did you end up doing, sailboat?