It seems to me that in my organizing business, I see clients on either end of the shredding spectrum. On the one hand, some feel that every piece of paper that has their name, address or any other bit of personal information on it should be shredded. And on the other, there are some people who really can’t believe that there are dumpster divers who would take the trouble to find out their personal information and don’t feel that anything is really worth shredding, except maybe financial information. In order to fend off identity theft, experts say that at the least, you need to shred anything has a signature, account number, social security number, or legal or medical information, as well as those pesky credit card offers that keep coming in the mail. While you might not need to shred every piece of junk mail that has your name and address on it, it certainly won’t hurt, and it is advised that you shred any mailings from your financial institutions, even if they don’t contain any account information, and of course, expired credit cards.
The kind of shredder you use is important as well – stay away from strip shredders, which are basically useless, and get a cross-cut, diamond-cut, or confetti shredder instead. No thief will ever be able to reconstruct anything that goes through them. And if you have a large job, consider taking it to a professional shredding company. Here in the Washington DC area, we are lucky to have FreeSecureShredding.com (link to www.freesecureshredding.com) , which actually will shred up to 10 boxes for free per customer, as well as hard drives and other digital data. All of their shredded material is recycled as well, so you can feel good about thwarting identity theft and saving trees at the same time!
