How much do you shred?

Talking about paper here. 

Obviously financial and health stuff, but I hear of people shredding anything with their name on it. Does this include junk mail, envelopes, etc? How far is prudent to go?

My address is public record so junk mail goes in the recycling bin.

I recently brought a huge bin of old bank statements, bills and tax returns to the UPS store and paid to have it shredded. Going forward I am trying to tear off my name and account number from such documents, shred that and recycle the rest. That can get frustrating because some statements or bills have that information in multiple places. I get worried I will miss it.

Anyway if it is a Bill or statement from an active account I shred it. If it's an inactive bank account I still shred it. Old utility bills from former addresses go in recycling. 

Medicine bottles?

If I have it at work with me, it gets shredded (all of my paper at work that I don't need, gets shredded).  Otherwise junk mail goes in the recycling.  

Luckily, I'm in the habit of paying my bills at work, so statements get shredded.

Shred?  I can't even play bar chords!

max_weisenfeld said:
Shred?  I can't even play bar chords!

The_Soulful_Mr_T said:
Medicine bottles?

 Those are a pain. They don't necessarily have financial information but they are clearly a privacy risk. 

mrincredible said:

The_Soulful_Mr_T said:
Medicine bottles?

 Those are a pain. They don't necessarily have financial information but they are clearly a privacy risk. 

It's a pain to get the label off so I just try to scrape my name off the label before I throw the bottle into the recycling. I think pharmacies should take those little plastic bottles back and reuse them. 

Some junk mail has a "reservation code" those pages I shred.  All other junk mail goes in the recycling bin. I save statements for seven years, just in case.  After seven years they get shredded. 

I have been doing more and more online.  Different concerns but so far so good.  

I have a small shredder for the other papers but just toss the junk mail into the recycling bin.  

joan_crystal said:
Some junk mail has a "reservation code" those pages I shred.  All other junk mail goes in the recycling bin. I save statements for seven years, just in case.  After seven years they get shredded. 

Bank statements? Why?

I go paperless so nothing comes in the mail/on paper and I rarely even download them. 

I reconcile my account records either against the statement or the online banking info and make a note in my register of the point where reconciled. I have done this in the past with traditional paper check registers but now do it with Quicken on my computer, but it’s the same process whether the register is kept on paper or computer. But I never felt the need to keep the statement once reconciled. 

The less paper, the better, but my challenge now is dealing with the paper I saved for years before I started going paperless (making sure I shred what needs to be shredded and don’t discard the minuscule number of papers that actually need to be kept in paper form.)

The_Soulful_Mr_T said:
It's a pain to get the label off so I just try to scrape my name off the label before I throw the bottle into the recycling. I think pharmacies should take those little plastic bottles back and reuse them. 

 Throw them in the garbage. They are not recyclable anymore. 

marylago said:

The_Soulful_Mr_T said:
It's a pain to get the label off so I just try to scrape my name off the label before I throw the bottle into the recycling. I think pharmacies should take those little plastic bottles back and reuse them. 

 Throw them in the garbage. They are not recyclable anymore. 

 Thanks. But they oughta be reusable and recyclable.

The_Soulful_Mr_T said:

marylago said:

The_Soulful_Mr_T said:
It's a pain to get the label off so I just try to scrape my name off the label before I throw the bottle into the recycling. I think pharmacies should take those little plastic bottles back and reuse them. 

 Throw them in the garbage. They are not recyclable anymore. 

 Thanks. But they oughta be reusable and recyclable.

 Although I don’t manage to reuse all of them, they certainly ARE reusable in some cases.

Some are made from the #1 plastic and ARE recyclable.

I wish that the manufacturers would at least use the #1 and #2 plastics rather than the others whenever possible (likely a high percentage of the time) since they are more universally recyclable than the others. (I also wish that plastic bags would be compostable - especially the ones for newspapers that so many of us use for dog poop bags!)

I shred anything with an account number (or other identifying info) on it. Also, all credit card offers that come in the mail.

Both UPS and Staples offer fairly cheap shredding services. And some towns offer yearly free shredding.

I MEAN to shred a lot of stuff, anything with sensitive or identifying information, but I have 2 storage bins that need me to actually go through with it. 

Dang. Last Saturday was shredding day at SO DPW. Next one is October 19th from 8-4.

Coincidentally it's the same day for Maplewood. 

I could have saved some $$$ by waiting for the municipal day instead of going to UPS. Also I could have thinned out paper that didn't have to be shredded like envelopes and the 2-3 pages of superfluous paper that Blur Cross stuffs in every claim notification. But I was looking to jump start my purge and just bit the bullet. Besides, what else was I going to do with $45? Have a burger and two beers at Fox and Falcon?

the18thletter I would put 10/19 on your calendar and just get it done. But get to the DPW early. The truck is there until it fills up and I heard a story that last time two guys showed up with a van stuffed to the gills with paper to shred. 

sac said:
Bank statements? Why?


I go paperless so nothing comes in the mail/on paper and I rarely even download them. 


I reconcile my account records either against the statement or the online banking info and make a note in my register of the point where reconciled. I have done this in the past with traditional paper check registers but now do it with Quicken on my computer, but it’s the same process whether the register is kept on paper or computer. But I never felt the need to keep the statement once reconciled. 


The less paper, the better, but my challenge now is dealing with the paper I saved for years before I started going paperless (making sure I shred what needs to be shredded and don’t discard the minuscule number of papers that actually need to be kept in paper form.)

 Because of Medicaid look-back.

Your bank will charge you to create a record that you already have, if you have the room to store it.  And you will need it in all that bloody detail if you ever need to take advantage of the paltry pathetic safety net this country provides.