I suppose I am ill since I am staggering around when I am not sleeping. The last post I was whining a lot.
For years I have wanted a shredder. I think I had one and it burned out or something. However, I have found other means of shredding paper.
Two years ago, I found a $50 fire pit for $29. I have never used it, but it is not something that will melt away. I may sell it or not. I am afraid of starting a paper fire in the back yard. I know the screen top will keep the fire inside, but the floating fiery paper scares me. What if one floats away despite my best intentions. In the meantime, I get things shredded free.
Open fires and burn barrels are illegal in this town. However, if it called a fire pit, backyard fires are okay. All the houses around here are wood, so a fire could be devastating. Of course, a fire pit used properly is covered with a screen.
The senior center allows seniors to shred paper for free. I did this about a dozen times until I could not longer bend and stuff things into it without pain then for the rest of the day.
My bank shreds things for me. Mostly, I just give them pertinent information from envelopes and forms I get--letters, bills, statements. Every few months, I give them a small packet of statements from them. I take a good sized envelope and stuff it full of tiny bits of paper with my name or ss# or account number on them. I cuts down on the volume of the shredding by doing this.
Some entity in town sponsors a free shredding event. You can bring one bag of stuff to shred. I missed the last one and am prepared for the one after Christmas, first of the year. You drive up, hand them the bag, and leave.
Maybe you work in an office that has a shredder you can use once in a while without taking advantage.
I am not suggesting you wrongly use resources at work. We were welcomed to shred personal papers.
I worked at a place where several businesses shared a shredder. It was about the size of two chest freezers and could handle big shredding jobs. It could handle a two inch book. It just growled a little more.
So, I no longer want or need a shredder.
Your turn
What other way do you have to shred things for free? Are you brave enough to burn things?.
We do burn personal papers in our wood stove when we have a good fire going in the winter! All those little pieces go up the chimney!
ReplyDeleteSusie Q,
DeleteGood, another method. Can the little pieces ever make it to something that can burn?
Most of the stuff I need to shred comes from junk mail, name & address, etc. I just tear that part off, cut into 5 nonsensical pieces and deposit one piece in each of 5 wastebaskets making sure none could be put together. That way someone would have to pick thru kitchen waste, bathroom waste x 2,garage waste, and outside waste to put together the info.
ReplyDeleteFor larger stuff like last year's insurance papers or old legal stuff I wait for the free shredder the local bank sponsors.
Hope you are feeling better. Pain in one area is bad enough but to have it many places is quite unbearable.
Bellen,
DeleteI sometimes cut the cards sent to me unbidden with my name on them and cut into pieces like that. I put them in my pocket after putting one piece in the kitchen garbage. Then, I put the other pieces, one at a time, into trash cans in stores. Since all my trash goes into the kitchen eventually, I don't divide them up in the house trash.
Actually, I am feeling worse, but the pain in shoulder blade and neck are mostly gone. Now, it is generalized malaise and head and chest. the thumb hurts but much less. Thanks.
At this point, we will burn. Burn barrels are not banned here and I miss having one. We burn on the gravel driveway on wet days after a rain. When we lived in the city, my husband would shred at work.
ReplyDeleteJennifer,
DeleteAt least you are taking precautions. Work shredding is a good way to go.
At work we have to shred all, for confidentiality. I shred stuff there.
ReplyDeleteWe heat with wood, so during the winter, it all goes in our wood stove. During the summer I've burned things on our gravel driveway. I actually do own a shredder, but burning is so much easier.
ReplyDelete