Today I am having a fight with the paper shredder while I am multitasking. Apparently I have taken a few too many pictures on my phone and its saying my memory is full. While I upload all the photo’s to my computer, I am shredding paper while the computer is busy. I was on a roll, happy with how clever I was using my time. And then the shredder stopped working. With torch and kitchen skewers in hand I’m trying to see what I have done, there is a little bit of paper caught, but surely that can’t be the issue. I have googled and it appears I have excessively used it and it has automatically switched off. Well at least I hope this is it, because it is a fairly new shredder and I won’t be impressed if it has stopped working. Note: After an hour the shredder started working again, yay!
We are trying to streamline our home office to become paperless such as having statements emailed, however we still end up with a lot of paper. It’s very important that you dispose of your personal documents properly. Most of the information found on your documents are confidential, to protect yourself from identity theft you must dispose of these documents properly. We use a cross-cut shredder as it’s more secure than the strip shredder. We shred items such as:
- All documentation with our full name and address
- All documents with account numbers (bank account, membership accounts etc)
- All documents with our date of birth
- All documents with our signature
- All bank/credit card statements
- Pay slips
- Old credit cards
- Medical records, prescriptions
- Tax records
- Basically anything that has your personal information on it
There are services which will destroy and dispose of all your documents securely, which is very important for businesses. However for your home office you could put your shredded paper to use, below you will find a few creative uses for your stock pile.
Creative uses for shredded paper
Use for craft activities | Make and Takes
Shredded Paper Bowl Tutorial | The vintage dresser
To line chook boxes or other pet cages | Civil Eats
Cross-cut shreds (more secure than strip shredding) can be used for packing when moving or posting items {image credit}
Recyled paper | Carolyns Homework
