As I dip my toe into the retirement pool, I'm going though old files and boxes and throwing out documents accumulated. I'd like to have some of these documents shredded. I'll probably end up with about two boxes for the shredder.

It appears my choices are waiting for a Shredding event in the Spring or, possibly finding a place where I can take them to be shredded. Even that seems to involve dropping them off to a FEDEX or UPS facility secure can to be shredded later.

Anyone have experience doing something like this? Thanks.

Yep. More like fifty bank boxes. Shred it might give you a rate if you brought it to them. Do not cheap out on this. The consequences are bad.

With that few you can rent a shredder. Rent a Good one.

For me, about $10 per box and I can witness it at one of the local places. If picked up it may sit on a pallet many months before it gets destroyed.

We cleaned out two households of paper. Searching, I found several organizations hold shredding events. One was our garbage company but there were others.
There didn’t seem to be a limit on how much to shred. I did multiple bags are one. When some more were found I did it again. Each time I asked the operator and got an OK. In both events it was drop the stuff into the container and watch it run up and dump.
Checking the commercial operations a couple had a locked container with scheduled pickup. If it was a box or something, it was OK but with the amount we had, it would be expensive and I had doubts about how much would fit.
Before this I went through two check shredders. I could only shred a couple of pages, had to deal with staples and paperclips. They would jam (mutter) and overheat. I always had pepper bits and scraps left to clean up.

Why not spend $35 on a personal cross-cut shredder?

If it's only two boxes worth, just grab a cheap crosscut shredder of your own, and take 10 minutes to do it yourself.

I've had this one for a few years, and it works great for my home paper shredding needs:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00Y..._encoding=UTF8&psc=1

At $35, it's less than half the price of what our local shredding company wants for a one-time 1-to-5 box shred (~$80).

Plus, you then have your own shredder to continue to use for future paperwork disposal.

Sounds like an opportunity for a nice winter fire.

When my grandparents passed we had to clean their house out and they literally had bank statements for the last 30/40 years. Multiple trips to the local UPS store and they charge for shredding by the pound.

My credit union also would have drive-by shred days once a quarter or so on a Saturday and they’d have the commercial shredding box truck and you pull through and hand them your box of paper. They dump it in a bin and shred it rights there.

I would worry about wearing out a non-commercial use shredder with commercial volume shredding. I have one at home that's been running strong for 15 yrs. So I feel like it owes me nothing and I won't be too disappointed when it dies. I checked with FedEx and I think they wanted $1/lb. to shred. I have a big shred job coming up and am wondering whether to DIY or pay someone else.

One of the cops I worked with started a Shred-it community event on the weekend after Tax day. The City paid for a shred it truck to standby while officers removed records from cars and tossed them into the shredders.

It was a great community event, as it only happened once a year. You really didn’t have to deal with the people we usually dealt with on a daily basis, and it required little prep.

Many other community events were hated by officers as we had to use our time off and didn’t get compensated. And usually had to deal with the caste of people we dealt with mostly….

Call around to you local PD or SO and ask if they offer one around tax day.

quote:

I have a big shred job coming up and am wondering whether to DIY or pay someone else.

^^^^^^^^^^^
I could only find one that would come to my office. The others wanted a monthly contract. It has become big business. DIY is crazy. Most personal shredders take forever will not take staples etc. I pay for stuff like this. Shred it is ok.

Matches are cheap.
I burn our stuff.

I would totally burn it if I had a fireplace or a yard where the neighbors wouldn't notice. Don't have either.

I'll pay to have it done at a drop off site. I'm not feeding two boxes of docs into my personal shredder.

I've owned a Fellowes cross-cut shredder for a couple of decades. It is OK if you can discipline yourself to keep up with it, but it is a royal PITA to put it off until there is just too much to not deal with it any more. There is some periodic maintenance, like when the wife lets the bin get too full and the mechanism gets jammed from picking up the shreds and sucking them back into the chopper. I also spray a sheet of paper with WD40 and feed it through from time-to-time, seems to help.

Buy a shredder. Shred what you have. Then keep using it to shred everything that going forward.

Check with your bank or credit union if they offer a free shedding event.

I use 2 credit unions, not a bank, and the credit unions offer a free shred event, usually about every 3 months or so. They bring in a big truck mounted shredder and shred while you watch. You can usually bring in 3 bankers boxes full of stuff to shred at no charge.

Just for an example, here is a link to Tinker Federal Credit Union (local to me and I am a member) for free shredding. They have not yet announced the 2021 dates yet. TFCU free shredding days
And again, for example, there is another credit union local to me that offers free shredding, and you don't even have to be a member, it's free to all.

You can google free shredding days at your locality. Even your local government may offer such.

FWIW I was at a recycling center and noticed a bunch of pink paper flying around. It's always windy here.

There were probably several hundred sheets on the ground and blowing off to the property. I picked up a few and they were patient medical records and other medical record keeping forms, all with patients personal information and medical info.

For that reason I decided to buy my own shredder. When you drop off something to be shredded you have no idea if it will be properly done or not.
.

Buy a good shredder and shred your documents yourself at your convenience. You can also buy a steel trash can and burn the shredded paper so there's nothing left. When my mom passed I shredded lots and lots of old bills and tax returns but I also took advantage of shredding events. Only downside to shredding events are you're on their timetable which may or may not fit your schedule. Having your own shredder is always a good idea, I shred everything and anything that contains my name, address or account numbers.

Long shot, but if you know anyone in pharmaceutical or biotech industry, someone you trust, they may have shred containers at work.

I have secure shred containers at work and I can dump a lot in them over a little time. I'd be able to get rid of a few boxes in a couple days.

quote:

Originally posted by thumperfbc:
Why not spend $35 on a personal cross-cut shredder?

When there is a build up it can be really labor intensive. My last experience at retirement changed my front end process greatly. Went digital where possible and very selective on the paper records we keep. Even then it's easy for it to get out of hand.

I trolled Ebay until I found a commercial shredder for a reasonable (cheap) price.

I picked up a pair on for home one for my office.

The shipping cost more than the shredders.

I have been using them for about 10 years.

Much more convenient than going out.

9"wx28"H tall sits next to my desks.

If I keep to 15 pages it eats anything.