The joys of shredding paper

Posted on 2 March 2017 by Scottish-Sceptic

The great thing I’ve discovered with shredding old files is that because they get bulked up in the shredder, it looks like you’ve done a lot more work than you have.
The highlight was shredding the whole Scottish executive (a huge organisational chart poster) which went through with a satisfying squeel.
With seven bin bags full, I’m really starting to appreciate the benefits such as leg room to push my chair back, a lathe that no longer acts as a filing cabinet draw, and £35 which had somehow dropped to the bottom of the real filing cabinet (although it looks so old I’m not sure it’s all still legal tender).

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4 Responses to The joys of shredding paper

  1. TinyCO2 says:
    2 March 2017 at 16:39

    I had to buy a new 10 page shredder to deal with all the paperwork from several deceased relatives. I engineered a stand so that I could hook the big bags under the shredder while it sat on the top of two chair backs. I’d stagger stack the papers 4/6 pages at a time so that I could pick them up and feed them in a continuous motion. 10 mins of shred and 30 mins cooling. 3 sessions a bin bag, three bin bags a blue bin. Took me ages to get rid of the lot. The joy was in finishing.
    Next I’ll tackle my own :-O

  2. Scottish-Sceptic says:
    2 March 2017 at 20:47

    10 sheets!! You lucky lucky B..!
    Ours only does 5 sheets – although to be honest I’m sure I’ve gone well beyond that. That’s not too bad when sorting out piles for filing as there’s usually a gap, but I usually end up going for a cup of tea when emptying a whole file because it just can’t cope.

  3. TinyCO2 says:
    3 March 2017 at 00:25

    I was a lucky B 🙂 At about £35, it was a bargain but it squealed with 10 sheets and the thermal cutoff triggered quite quickly. I broke an earlier 3 page shredder by getting it too hot and the plastic cogs inside melted. I worked out that 4 to 6 pages were optimum for swift munching without strain. I fed continuously so the motor didn’t start and stop. I had about 100 box files so you can imagine how long it took me. I seriously considered burning them or hiring an industrial shredder. Burning turned out to be harder than it looked and I figured I could buy a lot of shredders for the price of a week’s rental.

  4. Scottish-Sceptic says:
    3 March 2017 at 00:31

    Sounds like we’ve been fortunate with our one then. It grumbles, stops when it overheats, but as I said – I just go and make a cup of tea and by the time I finish it starts up again (although – it always catches we unawares).
    But big problem today is all those odd bits which just don’t match anything else.

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