Mega boring question but how do I dispose of personal paperwork?

[Hurryupfashion]

I’m on a mission to clear my house of crap during January and I’m now piling up a load of paperwork that can go out eg ancient bank statements, old credit agreements etc etc. It’d take forever to shred using my little home shredder and neighbours are never happy about fires outside so burning not really an option.

what do people do with this stuff? I can imagine it being a massive challenge when clearing houses after a death for example.

Any advice welcome, thank you.

Watching for ideas!!!

Shredder, bonfire or a combination of both..

Fill the bath with water and add plenty of washing up liquid. Leave over night. Then drain the water and scoop the mush into a bin bag.

I take mine to work and put in the confidential waste bins

I bought a cross cut shredder. I try to keep on top of it by disposing of bank statements etc that are more than 7 years old.

My friend paid for a confidential waste company to collect their bags of shredding.

I purchased a micro cut shredder for this, it’s Amazon basics so affordable but has lots of decent features. Works for my seldom use - I used it for an initial purge, and then letters as they come through the post (which is very infrequently!) It can also shred old cards or cds. The shreddings are secure ie someone wouldn’t be able to put anything back together

I bought one of those metal dustbins with a lid that has like a small chimney in it. I have a burn up once every 4-6 months and do it late in the evening so no washing out in neighbouring gardens.

I cut out personal details from bank statements and just torn the rest. It took me a while but it was my excuse for sitting in front of the TV for ages.

There are plenty of shredding disposal businesses. Some of them only deal with business customers but some are happy to help individuals. There's one on an industrial estate near me. I buy a large paper sack from them and keep it in my study next to the bin. Anything with personal details on goes into the sack not the bin. When it's full I seal the sack shut and take it back to the disposal company and they chuck the whole thing into their massive shredder machine. I would be allowed to stay and witness the destruction if I wanted. Costs £10 per bag.

you can buy shredding scissors if you prefer that.

Homeshreduk offer a service for households & businesses. I've looked into it, as we have a mountain of old paperwork!

Also did this for late father's paperwork. I watched it and it was gone in seconds!

Turn it into papier mache, or add to compost heap.

I've got something like this and just ink over the details, that means I can recycle the paper too (we can't put shredded paper in our recycling bin)

You can search "identity theft stamp" to find others

https://stamptastic.co.uk/products/id-protection-stamp-camouflage-roller-stamp

As above, homeshred
You buy the sacks and then pay to get collected once full.
Not cheap but great if you have a lot to get rid of!

Sorry can’t help because I take mine to work. We have a huge postbox like thing for confidential paper work. They get shredded by a commercial company. I can imagine how time consuming it is to shred a large amount of paper work.

I just use a permanent marker and scribble out personal details

I periodically sort it all out then put it through the big shredder at work on one of my WFO days.

If you don't have confidential waste bins at work, go to Ryman, buy a shredder and shred the documents before putting them in the recycling

Don't shred paper clips

OP has a shredder.

Bucket of water washing up liquid leave it a few days then stir every couple of days

if it is a letter I rip off the heading with my name and address on and put it in the compost bin. Any scammers are welcome to come and find it. Stuff like credit card statements I shred. I recently had a mammoth confidential clear out and got rid of ancient stuff. I am going to try to keep on top of it now.

I use a shredder, we've sometimes used a garden burner when it's been a big backlog, but you're not really supposed to burn paper in those; a bonfire might be better

We just chuck ours in the log burner