Damn paperwork!

[Insidious Von]

So I backed up a whole bunch of important documents to pdf files. Now I'm left with a mountain of paper.

How do I get rid of it without the threat of identity theft?

 

[Ref]

So I backed up a whole bunch of important documents to pdf files. Now I'm left with a mountain of paper.

How do I get rid of it without the threat of identity theft?

Double shred it, burn it or soak in water to form a ball of wet paste.

 

[essguy_]

So I backed up a whole bunch of important documents to pdf files. Now I'm left with a mountain of paper.

How do I get rid of it without the threat of identity theft?

Depending upon how much you could buy a decent shredder and do it yourself, or get it shredded professionally. Staples has a deal with one of the shredding companies so that is another option.

 

[|2 /-\ | /|/]

Just get a good paper shredder that that cuts into little squares. Don’t cheap out on the device because you want to avoid the unit overheating and jamming.

Maybe try burning it.

There are also secured companies or places where you can take this paper and they will do it for you, or I think you can even drop them off in their grinders yourself.

 

[mrcheeks]

Check out your region's website. Some waste/community recycling centres offer shredding services. I know in Peel that there is a centre that offers a free shredding day to residents once a year. Peel did it as recently as last spring. I am even checking their website periodically to see if it will happen again this year.

 

[Phil C. McNasty]

You can buy shredding machines at Staples stores

 

[malata]

So I backed up a whole bunch of important documents to pdf files. Now I'm left with a mountain of paper.

How do I get rid of it without the threat of identity theft?

if you don't have a fireplace, burn it in an oil barrel

 

[oldjones]

Burning masses of paper is harder than you'd think. As WWII and Viet Nam era diplomats have attested in their memoirs, and more than one criminal has learned to their sorrow when their 'destroyed' evidence was reconstituted in a lab.

Do your best to pulverize the ashes, and divide them between a couple of trash sites or pick-up days, if you are truly concerned.

 

[Insidious Von]

Like my good friend Take Out Cat, I'm a typhoon. I have reason to be thorough.

 

[explorerzip]

All Staples stores have a shredding box where you can bring your files. You could also bring them to your office shredding box. The most important info to destroy would obviously be your name, address, SIN number, etc. That info is always listed together so you could cut it out with scissors and take a one hole punch to shred it smaller. Financials are not much use without the name, address, etc.

The other thing to do is sign up for online billing wherever possible so you don't have to worry about piles of paper to destroy.

 

[TeeJay]

You aren't that important
Paranoid yes, important no

Just shred it

 

[fall]

Just in case of computer malfunction, make sure you make photocopies of all the documents before you shred them.

 

[Ref]

just in case of computer malfunction, make sure you make photocopies of all the documents before you shred them.

lol!!!

 

[Aardvark154]

Purchase or see if you can rent a burn cage -- the paper needs lots of circulating air (needs to be made out of wire mesh for this reason). You can't dump in boxes of paper at the same time it has to be small amounts so it thoroughly combusts. Using a leaf blower or bellows on it wouldn't be a bad idea either. Then you have to wet and stir the thoroughly burned ash.

 

[waterloodude]

So I backed up a whole bunch of important documents to pdf files. Now I'm left with a mountain of paper.

How do I get rid of it without the threat of identity theft?

Do you happen to work in an office with shred boxes? Bring them into work and just dump them in. Less time than buying your own shredder and feeding page after page in.

 

[Ceiling Cat]

Like my good friend Take Out Cat, I'm a typhoon. I have reason to be thorough.

Von, ( Il Gambero )

You are a typhoon. ( a hot air typhoon ). You are paranoid about your papers because you do not want people to find out that your name was Aldo Fiore before you went into witness protection.

The best way to handle the problem of papers you may need later is to sort through your pile every 2-3 months. Very important papers go into one pile and less important papers go into another pile to be thrown out after 10 years. The scans remain in your computer and/or external hard drive. I keep a hard copy and e-mail my papers to myself so I can search for them in the e-mail. The papers that are kept for 10 years are in packets. From the emails I know exactly which packet they are in, and in which month folder in the packet. ( e.g. Packet 3 / 2012 / March file folder ) This way they can be giant pile and I can still find the papers I want.

You can do this with bits and pieces or odds and ends as well. Recently I broke a shear pin on my snow blower. I knew I has some from when I bought the blower 12 years ago. I went on a search in my e-mail
and typed shear pin. I was able to find these pins that I kept under my basement stairs in a 5 gallon bucket in one of 10 bags ( labeled 1-10 ) It took me 3 minutes, otherwise I would have to go out to Home Depot and pick up shear pins that I already had.

 

[TeeJay]

The fact he scanned the important papers into PDF means he is far more likely to get hacked than anyone would ever have bothered to look in his blue box for originals