Comments on: Paper clutter begone, part 4

By: Unclutterer » Archive » Paper clutter begone, part 1

Unclutterer » Archive » Paper clutter begone, part 1 — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 15:55:33 +0000

[...] Part 4 — Shredding unnecessary paper [...]

By: Donna

Donna — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 16:47:40 +0000

An expired passport makes a wonderful addition to a scrapbook - especially if it can be removed from the scrapbook so you can thumb through all the stamped pages and relive your journeys.

Of course, that leads to a whole new category of clutter.

By: Yahhoooo

Yahhoooo — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 14:24:33 +0000

For “convenience” (lazyness) I bought a good (overpriced) home shredder. Most home shredder, including the one I bought, are crap and will die on you. Now, once a month, I shred at work. We have a killer shredder there. You can put a quarter inch stack through it with staples. Look around… our shredder at work is on wheels and the admin secretary usually has it. She doesn’t mind that I use it once a month. We chat while I shred. It’s a nice social visit. That shredder is seriously industrial and better than anything I can afford for my home. Don’t buy what you can borrow or use elsewhere! Look around. You may have access to a shredder you don’t know about. Or hey, once a month, bring your buddy you don’t have time to hang with, a six pack, and you two can chat while you use his overpriced, soon to crap out shredder. You don’t need to buy everything…

By: Lane Scott

Lane Scott — Mon, 28 May 2007 05:17:42 +0000

I finally gave up on having a home shredder. The really good ones cost an arm and a leg. And if you have a large amount of shredding to do, they take forever and overheat easily.

Instead, I found a local shredding company. It costs $6 to shred banker’s box full of papers, CD’s and what-not. I save all my papers that need to be shredded, and drop them off at the shredding company on the way to work. There are also shredding companies that will come and pick up papers at your house. It beats sitting dealing with the hassles of a home shredder.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Fri, 18 May 2007 04:42:21 +0000

I bought the QwikFinish ShredderShark SH8CDCC and the instructions do say to remove all staples. It seems solid and capable, but I think I’m going to take to a shredding store that big stack of old bank statements and other papers I’ve been saving, then use my new shredder for the day to day stuff. Thanks for a good post. It got me moving on shredding and disposing of old papers.

By: Freda

Freda — Thu, 17 May 2007 16:48:07 +0000

When I replaced my cheap shredder with a better one, I moved the old one to the garage. It and the recycling bin sit right next to my car door. Now when I get out of the car with a handful of junk mail, anything with name and address goes to the shredder and generic pages go to recycling, not into the house.

By: Darlene

Darlene — Sun, 13 May 2007 13:30:39 +0000

Tom, your comment doesn’t make sense. If you’re out of country, how are you accessing your documents at home? The passport agency does not request you to relinquish all of your old passports when applying for a new one, they only request your current passport. However, if you feel that you must keep hold of your dozens of old passports, you should store them in a safe deposit box instead of in your home. If someone were to rob you, your expired passports and expired credit cards would be a gold mine for that robber. The reason to shred unnecessary papers is to do everything that you can to protect yourself against identity theft.

If people have a special circumstance, like is mentioned in the post above, then they need to use their brains and do what they need to do instead of blindly following the list.

By: Tom

Tom — Sun, 13 May 2007 07:30:31 +0000

That list is not safe. For example, you may well need your expired passports to document when you were out of the country.

While you can safely shred some things, the best thing I found for dealing with “might be useful some day” is to put it into a big box labeled by year. On the rare occasion that I need something, I can dig through that and find it.

By: R Anderson

R Anderson — Thu, 10 May 2007 23:29:03 +0000

Keep your credit card and check receipts for returns & warranty purposes.

Expired credit cards are dangerous to keep because while they may not be useable, the information on them can be used to request new cards or open new accounts.

By: Daniel Cooper

Daniel Cooper — Wed, 09 May 2007 15:15:21 +0000

As a recovering pack rat, I do have to say that I am glad that I kept receipts for a very long period. I was in a custody dispute in which the parties fighting me for custody attempted to claim that I never came to visit my children during certain periods. I was able to produce receipts showing where I had been on certain dates - gas station receipts because I made sure to fill up close to their home, grocery receipts when they claimed I didn’t offer any support for my kids, copies of cashed checks that had cleared my bank for the same reason, etc.

I’m certain that most people don’t have to worry about that. But I believe in keeping a clear paper trail wherever possible in the event someone ever accused me of something that could be easily disproved.

I don’t have to worry about it as much any more since I was successful in my custody claims for the aforementioned reasons - so I urge anyone to ask themselves if something would come in handy before shredding.

By: Erin

Erin — Wed, 09 May 2007 14:00:41 +0000

Asdf — (Is that your real name? Your old account number, which is found prominently on the front of your old credit card, could be used by someone on a falsified credit application.

By: Asdf

Asdf — Wed, 09 May 2007 13:53:35 +0000

Why is it so risky to keep expired credit cards? None could use them to buy anything anyway.

By: anonymous coward

anonymous coward — Wed, 09 May 2007 01:20:10 +0000

I keep checks and bank statements for the 7 year period. Not just for tax purposes, but to resolve disputes with companies who ‘forget’ you paid them, and come back a year or so later saying you owe them money and interest.

You can pull out your check, and mail them a copy of the front and back (showing their endorement and bank of deposit).

Also, bank statements these days have more than just checks and deposit records, they have ACH (Automated Clearing House) entries, wires, and other useful info that you may need for not just tax, but legal purposes later.

If you’re like me, you have to now go through your bank statements with a highlighter to find ACH/wire/digital check entries to log for tax purposes. If audited, you can use this highlighting as proof as to what your source info was for your tax reporting. For that reason alone, I keep my bank statements.

There is no improvement in security for having one year’s worth of bank records vs several. If you are robbed, and the burglars find your ‘current year’ bank statements to commit ID fraud, it won’t help them any more if they find 1 year of data or several.. you’re screwed either way.

By: St.

St. — Wed, 09 May 2007 01:18:18 +0000

@Rebecca: Good point, to a point. When you mail your passport in to get a new one, they actually send you both the new one and the old one back; once you’ve gotten the new one, you can consider shredding the old one. (Related note: The same website implies that shredding is illegal across the board under 18 USC 1543, but that only applies to mutilation with intent to defraud.)

Beyond having to stand in line, there are other good reasons to keep the old one until the new is ready: there is an extra $30 “execution” fee if you apply in person that you don’t have to pay by mail. You also don’t have to supply anything but the expired passport when you mail it in; if you shred it then have to go in person to get a new one, you have to provide several forms of ID in order to get it.

Moral of the story: Keep the old one until you have the new one in hand, but after that, shred away.

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Wed, 09 May 2007 00:09:26 +0000

On shredding (US) passports–From the State Department website:
“Renewal of a U.S. Passport
You can renew by mail if: Your most recent passport is available to submit and it is not damaged; you received the passport within the past 15 years; you were over age 16 when it was issued; you still have the same name, or can legally document your name change.”

So don’t shred your US password unless you want to stand in line to get a new one.

By: Anna

Anna — Tue, 08 May 2007 23:44:08 +0000

I shred any mail I get that has my name or address on it. Just… “feels good”.

By: Edward

Edward — Tue, 08 May 2007 22:31:25 +0000

Shredding Invalid Passports-There are execptions
If you live in another country, you original visa for that country is stamped in your ol passport. Brazil wanted to see my original visa stamp when I went to renew my ID card. Fortunately I had saved the Old passport and could produce it…

By: Ryan

Ryan — Tue, 08 May 2007 21:23:07 +0000

After 7 years, you can get rid of tax return/documentation. The IRS only requires up to 7 years of history and cannot ask for anything further back. I would also recommend having your accountant hold onto copies of your tax documents, since they would have a more complete record than you.

By: PJ Doland

PJ Doland — Tue, 08 May 2007 20:36:07 +0000

I’ve found that in practice the per-day recommended capacities for mid-grade shredders tend to be conservative. I’ve done a lot more than 600 pages in a day with my PS-65, which is a lower-rated machine than the PS-77Cs. Besides, how often will you be doing more than 600 pages in a day?

By: Mr. Shiney

Mr. Shiney — Tue, 08 May 2007 20:23:18 +0000

I just want to amend the recommendation of the “Fellowes PowerShredder PS-77Cs” for higher volume shredding. The tech specs on Amazon’s site say that the recommended capacity for this machine is 600 pages per day. That’s about a ream of paper which sounds like a lot until you go to shred a year’s worth of paper and realize that you are going to be spending DAYS shredding it.
I find that even mid-grade consumer shredders (like the one recommended) seem to overheat after only 45 min or so of shredding.