Disposing of documents

Soak them in water thoroughly, they should go to mush

I’ve had a shredder for years now and strangely enough, I find it very therapeutic to feed papers through. After DH died there were his payslips, HMRC and bank statements etc going back years. I used to shred a surprising amount in 5 minutes most mornings.
However, I know there are companies who will collect, shred and safely dispose of confidential documents, if you want it all gone in one go.

We shred paperwork every couple of months so it doesn’t build up and overwhelm.

Definitely a shredder. I've gone through a few of them over the years

Oh yes a shredder. I put every receipt from a shop, pub everything through the shredder. Oh an labels on parcels and marketing with your name and address on it.

I'm with GrannyGravy13, I tear the paper into small pieces and then soak them in a bowl of water. Easy peasy.

Ours has burnt out. I reckon I'll have to pay to have this load disposed of the I'll be able to shred or soak them myself as things go and not let it build up. I'll try to cancel paper versions of things too.
I'm feeling virtuous after tackling this horrible job. I'm also very dusty!

You could buy a redacting pen or marker which covers all personal details.

I think my arm would fall off as I'd have so many, many pages to redact but thanks for the suggestion.
It's awful to have to think of identity theft as a genuine worry. Modern life!

We had a similar problem after a huge clearout of our filing system. I shoved all the hugely confidential /dangerous/ ID paperwork in a bucket of water in the shed of my allotment; and after a week or two it turned to pulp so I poured it into the compost heap where worms have eaten it.

Take that, scammers.

😂. Take that indeed! If only I had a shed.

The shredder is my friend - they are fairly cheap to buy…

It takes me back to when I was a typist when we were told to rip papers into small pieces. I still do it now even though we have a shredder.

Ours go in the log burner

There are plenty of good, fairly cheap shredders on the market, so I too advise buying one.

Remember not to put too many pages through it at one, and remove staples and paper-clips before shredding anything.

GrannyGravy13

Soak them in water thoroughly, they should go to mush

Yes GrannyGravy. Great minds think alike.
I too use this method. Old documents are soaked in warm water and shuffled around a bit, until they've basically papier -mache.
It works a treat and is both very effective & far less toxic than the bonfire method. Ps It's rather therapeutic too. 😊

We bought a second hand shredder from an Oxfam shop.

A shredder is the way to go - I am now in the position where much is shredded as soon as it arrives from the postman.
The stuff that gets filed away is annually checked and paperwork from 5/6 years ago is shredded. I used to have dozens of files but now following this system now have only three.

The shredding company is coming next week. After that I plan to be much more ruthless. Also will try to resucitate our old shredder but I think it's burnt out.

I haven’t heard of setting the paper, I do have a shredder but it seizes up if it’s used for too long. I like the idea of soaking it to bits.

GrannyGravy13

Soak them in water thoroughly, they should go to mush

That’s what I do 😊

Ladyleftfieldlover

We bought a second hand shredder from an Oxfam shop.

Someone gave it away because they jam. 😱

Soaking , not setting ….

We had boxes and boxes of old papers after we did a pre-house-move decluttering. Far too much to deal with ourselves. We took them to a licenced waste disposal company, they charged £9 a box, in 2022. It was well worth the money and it was quite interesting to see inside a big recycling centre!