How Do I Shred My Personal Documents?

A while back, we decided to do some spring cleaning in our home office in Newton MA. After sorting through and organizing our bookshelves, closets, and desks, we ended up with several hefty binders full of old documents and paper statements that still needed to be shredded. After going through everything and deciding what we needed to keep and what we need to shred, we were left with a large volume of documents that was too much for our “professional shredder” This machine was rated to shred 20 pages at a time but in reality, it is 2 pages at a time! Plus the many headaches that come with it such as noise, dust, overheating, and wasted time!

How To Shred Personal Documents

• Staples and other big box stores offer document shredding as another means to get revenue, it is not their bread and butter and they hire 3rd party to do the service so document custody is an issue here because who knows how many hands will be involved from the time of document drop off to shredding.
• The staff is not vetted on a regular basis, the criminal background checks are done at the hiring stage and not on a regular basis as required by most professional shredding service companies.
• Our documents were to be left in a 96-gallon bin that we have no idea how often it would be shredded or have access to it, other customers may reach out and get my documents. Who knows!

After a little more research I discovered Neighborhood Parcel of Tewksbury MA, they offered the security and peace of mind we were looking for, took full custody of our documents and ensured that the shredding is done at the end of the day, and provided us with a Notarized certificate of destruction. We paid 89¢ / lbs, a little more than Staples or FedEx Office but we received a professional shredding service that was worth it.  After weighing our bag at the store, we came in around 10 lbs, which cost us less than $9.00 Not bad for the huge stack that we had.

So – handy tip in case you’ve got a bunch of paper you need to have shredded and you are short one personal shredder at home! I was this close to throwing a bonfire… I’d get rid of the paper and have a party all at the same time. It was a win-win scenario in my mind. Get a free document shredding quote request here or Call 978-636-0301