Getting rid of documents

When we moved three years ago we had a filing cabinet and nine largish boxes of paperwork. In the process of decluttering we whistled it down to one large box and some files. We really didn’t need mortgage statements from 1974, though it was shocking to see that the interest rate was going up each month and consequently our payments were increasing monthly too.

We disposed of the waste paper with a recycling company, I think they charged about £9 a box or sack. It was also a day out as the recycling centre was really interesting to visit!

I shred documents and then put the shredded paper on the ocmpost heap.

Thankfully I insist on only keeping 6 years of doccuments plus the current year and I go through the files every autumn

However for the last 5 years when alsorts of banl statements etc come through online. I am saving everything online.

We always burn them.

I've had to shred and burn papers from my parents , which date back some 20 odd years .
They filled three huge storage boxes .
I used my garden incinerator .
It was tedious , but had to be done .

I usually make mine into papier mache , tear them a little and roll into balls for recycling

I have just disposed of mountains of bank statements that my husband has saved since 2016!!!! Our shredder would have blown up. I read somewhere that if you soak the documents in a large washing up bowl overnight they turn to paper maiche, you squeeze them into cricket size balls, they then dry into lightweight lumps. I can confirm that it works, I toss them into the recycling bin. You would be surprised as to how much paper very quickly goes slimy and unreadable, it's quite therapeutic.

I have used a mobile shredding company. They turn up with a big van containing an industrial sized shredder which eats the lot, including staples, in seconds. You can watch it being done and they give you a certificate confirming that the papers have been destroyed. Burning a large quantity of papers is very difficult and time consuming.

confidential waste company yes! That's what I meant!

We use a confidential waste company.
We take it and they destroy it.

I’m pretty sure there are companies that will do bulk shredding for you. A friend used one such when clearing her deceased dh’s vast mass of paperwork - inc. electricity bills dating back to the 70s!! - for a house he’d sold decades previously.
IIRC they charged by weight.

Whether you’d trust them with anything confidential I don’t know, but maybe you could tackle such things yourself and let them take the rest?

My mother-in-law is about to use a document destroying service.
They bring/post bags to your home and charge in multiples of 25kg (I think 25kg).

It's not very expensive.

We bought a bin incinerator from a local shop and burned all our confidential papers.