Hot Shredder Break

[Chefguy]

As we prepare the house prior to fixing and packing and selling and all that other crap, one of my jobs is to shred any sensitive paper that has accumulated over the past 15 years. Did I mention that my dear heart is a bit of a packrat when it comes to paper? She has tax returns and pay stubs going back to the 80s, 15 years worth of joint account checkbooks, credit card receipts for the same period, etc.

I’ve already filled five 30-gallon garbage bags with just the shredded material, not to mention the other regular recyclable paper. And this is after tearing off critical information from the bulk bullshit on the page prior to feeding it to the machine. My poor Fellowes shredder is barely up to the chore and periodically shuts down from overheating. Hang in there, man!

[Unintentionally_Blank]

I’ve gone from:

1 filing each bill in their own manillla folder in the box (all gas in gas, all auto in auto, all health insurance in health insurance)

to

2. taking all the bills for the month in one folder (Jan 2006, Feb 2006, etc)

to

3. One big freaking box I throw unopened envelopes in. Most of the Bills are all done on-line, as automatically as possible.

I’m wondering how the boxes burn as I have a small firepit on the back porch.

[Gwyen]

Am I the only person, that once the bill is paid, and both my bank, myself and the company owed registers the payment… I toss out all the paper??

[Finagle]

You’re in Alaska. Isn’t that what wood stoves are good for?

[Kalhoun]

I shred the bills the second I write the check.

But you’ll have to pry my 20 years of tax returns, bank statements and check registers from my cold dead hands.

[gigi]

@Unintentionally_Blank

3. One big freaking box I throw unopened envelopes in. Most of the Bills are all done on-line, as automatically as possible.

Yep, I’ve recently been going paperless wherever possible, but what still comes in I throw in a file drawer. Then every six months or a year I go through and save the latest one of everything and toss the rest.

[Chefguy]

You people are speaking nonsensically. Paperless? Hah! Even when our bills are autopay and our statements for credit card and bank accounts are online, she prints them out anyway. Along with every article that interests her. I keep telling her that you can always find it again on, you know, the freaking Internet, but she’s a very tactile person. It really clashes with her notions of conservation and all, but it’s a habit I can’t break her of. At least (for now) there is curbside paper recycling in our neighborhood, or we would be buried in the stuff. At least I’ve convinced her that keeping catalogs and magazines is pointless.

[Chefguy]

@Kalhoun

I shred the bills the second I write the check.

But you’ll have to pry my 20 years of tax returns, bank statements and check registers from my cold dead hands.

Unless you’re under investigation for fraud, you only need three years of tax returns for audit purposes.

[Kalhoun]

@Chefguy

Unless you’re under investigation for fraud, you only need three years of tax returns for audit purposes.

I know. I still can’t part with them.

[Unintentionally_Blank]

Verified here: http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=172250,00.html

Fortunately, you don’t have to keep all tax records around forever. Normally, tax records should be kept for three years, but some documents — such as records relating to a home purchase or sale, stock transactions, IRA and business or rental property — should be kept longer.

[Johnny Carson] I did not know that! [/Johnny Carson]

[Encinitas]

My credit union hosted a shredding event recently. I showed up with several boxes of papers and they shredded it all while I watched. My Fellows machine has been put out to pasture!

[Chefguy]

@Encinitas

My credit union hosted a shredding event recently. I showed up with several boxes of papers and they shredded it all while I watched. My Fellows machine has been put out to pasture!

Mine just overheated again. It just needs to last until we’re done here, then it can go to the dump for all I care. I understand people wanting to hang on to old tax records and such, I guess. My wife’s life has been in financial management, so numbers on paper are dear to her.

[lizardling]

I wonder if a wood chipper would work.

[silenus]

@Gwyen

Am I the only person, that once the bill is paid, and both my bank, myself and the company owed registers the payment… I toss out all the paper??

Nope. We’ve gone almost completely on-line with everything, so anything more than 30 days old is checked and shredded.

Check registers? I haven’t had one of those in…quite a while. I think I’ve written maybe 3 checks in the last 2 years.

[Chefguy]

@lizardling

I wonder if a wood chipper would work.

For the paper or…?

[AskNott]

Shredders, like most small appliances, are built for a short “duty cycle” of maybe 10 minutes on and a few minutes off, to cool. If you run it for a long time, and it quits, it doesn’t mean it was a piece of junk, it just means it was meant for a shorter duty cycle.

Shredders work better if they’re oiled. Just drip oil over a sheet of paper, and shred it.

By the way, some pet shops and horse barns will be delighted to take your shredstuff as bedding, and it’s cheaper than straw or cedar shavings. It makes pretty good packing material, too.