Shredding

I recently got rid of an old desk I had for many years and replaced it with a different one I had.  The old desk had a drawer that held vertical files which included my more current tax returns and other paper which the new desk doesn't.  So this is making me consolidate those files with others I have in a different file cabinet.

Of course part of the issue is that I can't just throw the old stuff away, I have to decide if it contains personal information and shred it is it does, since someone may very well find or use my old tax returns to become me, at least virtually.

There's something about looking at your old documents and bills and wondering if there's any reason you kept a dentist bill from 1995?  It was simply because there was room so into the shredder it goes. Of course not all the bills are mine so you see a reminder of medical tests you or a loved one took or treatments that weren't very pleasant and it reminds you of the good and the bad. 

I am on my third shredder since the age of shredding, because the first two eventually quit on me.  I don't even shred that much, evidenced by the tremendous amount of old stuff I am faced with now, but my issue is that I always want to see if I can push the envelope on the limits.

I think my first one was only a page at a time and I'm not sure if it broke or I just gave up on it, plus they go on sale frequently.

I know the second one just gave up the ghost one day as I tried to make it shred more pages than it could handle.  I probably could have fixed it, but there was one at sale that handled more pages and also shredded credit cards.

That last bit seemed promising but you really don't shred them as often as you think you might.

This one has worked well, but it hasn't really been challenged until now.   So as I go through my folders I identify quite a bit that needs to go.  So the shredder was doing fine, although once or twice it seemed to get stuck but a bit of reverse to loosen the materials and a reshred worked fine for a while.  That last batch though was chugging along, admittedly very slowly but I had hope for it then the overheat light came on.  Gave me some time to write this at least.

Now the other issue with shredders is the shreds.  Now they go neatly into the bin and the bag I have in the bin, but since I don't empty the bin until the shredder won't take any more, when I take the top off, it has remnants hanging on to it that escape to my floor. 

Now I keep the shredder in an area next to my printer for obvious reasons and these little shreds tend to find there way into all sorts of nooks.  Of course I also have a pile of papers waiting their turn next to the shredder.

Well, the overheat light just went off, so I can go back to turning my past life into tiny scraps of paper.