How to shred papers/letters without using a shredder machine

Question

I have a lot of letters which I would like to throw away. But for security and privacy reasons I will always tear it with my hands, one by one. It tends to get tiring with the monotonous work. So I bought a paper shredder recently, which allows maximum of 9 pieces of paper each time.

However this does not solve my problem as the paper shredder is very noisy and very often get stucked in the machine even with only 5 pieces paper inserted. Thus I need to spend more time to fix the mess than the time to manually tear the papers.

Is there any life hack I can use to shred my letters neatly without using the paper shredder or getting stuck with the monotonous work tearing them one by one??

Answer 1

My first answer here isn't so much a hack as it is using something that is on the market to achieve what you want.
Have you ever heard of paper shredding scissors? Basically they are a pair of scissors with multiple (~5) blades and you can use these to quickly shred your paper.

This is what I am talking about:

These can be found on Amazon here.

You could also try burning the documents, just get a metal bucket or something non-flammable to put the bits of paper in and then take it outside and set it on fire - if you smoke it would make a nice outside heater during the winter but could be a bit of a hazard so is something to think about.

Another method: Soak them in water. This method may take a while however but you will be able to dispose of large quantities of documents in any one go - adding things like vinegar or salt to the warm water solution would help to speed up the process.

There are also independent paper disposal companies that you could look into if you want to pass the job off onto someone else. Your local area or city might do a document destruction day which you can hop along to and destroy all your documents for free but you would have research into this.

Recap:

• Shredding scissors
• Fire
• Water or chemical solution
• Independent companies / destruction day

My personal favourite would be the water one, you could also use bleach which would do more damage and I would personally give it a good mix with a long stick or something to really break up the paper. Even if the paper doesn't tear apart, most of the writing should become illegible so it wouldn't even matter!

Answer 2

Soak the papers with ordinary water and immediately crumple and squeeze them to compact lumps. Nobody is ever going to read those again!

This method doesn't take a lot of time and does not involve chemicals, in fact you don't even need a bucket. Use warm water for comfort, if available.

I call this the "papier maché method", although the glue is left out. Papier maché modelling would be a cute way of hiding your discarded sensitive documents in plain sight.

Answer 3

Use a 5 gallon bucket half filled with water; add enough paper to absorb most of the water and let sit for 24 hours; attach a paint mixing drill attachment to your power drill and power stir the saturated documents; drain mulch onto plastic garbage bag in corner of your back yard and let dry; discard in your trash.

Answer 4

This is how I do it,

Tub – A lot of pages quickly:
Fill a plastic tub with water, soap, salt, and a little bit of sand or ice and bleach. Or if you do not have this just water and soap. Mix it around for about 5 minutes then poor it away. The tiny pieces of paper should clump up so you can scoop them out and throw it away.

Fire – Unlimited number of pages in seconds:
Light a fire, put it in.

Bleach – depends:
Soak it in a pan of bleach, take it out.

Blender – A few pages in seconds:
Soak the paper in water, then put it in a blender with a red food coloring and ice.

Answer 5

I suggest you try putting your letters in a blender.

Sounds ridiculous but it should work.

Answer 6

Simple. Put papers in a mesh type laundry bag (that's big enough to allow them to move around) and wash and dry them. Don't forget the bleach. Destruction!!

Answer 7

If I am in a hurry, I tear the paper and put the pieces in two Different recycling/garbage bags. At least there would be pieces missing. I shed anything associated with banking etc. but this works in a jiff.

Answer 8

This may be of limited value depending on where your location and transportation situation, but what I've done is searched online for things like "shredding event [my city]" or "free shredding [my city]" and looked for upcoming free shredding events.

I've done this several times; they've usually been on Saturdays, sponsored by banks or cities, and used giant industrial shredders. It's been more cost- and time-effective than buying a shredder for my small shredding needs.

Answer 9

put the papers into a big black trash bag; add the contents of your cat box: excrement- and urine-soaked litter. Close bag tightly and shake it around. No one will want to paw through to learn your secrets.

Answer 10

I utilize my printer to feed 8-1/2 x 11 paper to my shredder, this way I don't have to manually feed the shredder. Just line up the shredder's feed slot with the sheet that comes out of your printer as soon as the sheet falls off your printer. You will have to do some experimentation like positioning the shredder with the printer. I put 2 pieces of cardboard between the shredder's feed slot so the paper falls exactly where you want it. Stack up your printer with as many sheets as you want, go to your computer's Word App, click on Blank Document, type a period symbol, choose how may copies you want and hit print. Once in a while a sheet may miss the slot, just do the shredding while surfing the web so you can monitor this operation. Hope this helps. Have fun!

Answer 11

You can fold the paper in various ways and then cut it with a scissor. With one cut many pieces will be formed.

Another way--

If you have any printer then you can insert those pages into it and print a page full of alphabets, symbols, etc. This will overwrite your important letters. Now even if it gives large strips, one can hardly understand whats written over there.

Answer 12

If you have kids you could let them use them for things like hand paintings or other actions that may or may not result in the absolute destruction of the document

Answer 13

Receipts plague my life and if not destroyed relatively soon, they can build up into a mammoth job to discard. My current strategy is simply hand-shred them as soon as I get home/work and notice them lying around or in my pocket.

Firstly, decide if it's worth keeping (for warranty etc.) then simply tear the receipt around where sensitive information is displayed.

Discard the surrounding receipt like normal but with the bit containing sensitive information, I find that receipt paper is surprisingly easy to tear into thin shreds by hand!

Answer 14

Most methods here are silly and time consuming. All you have to do is put the document(s) in a bucket of water. I tear them up in 6 or 8 pieces, but that might be an over-reach. Leave them there for 10 mins or so. Come back, shred with your fingers, takes only a couple minutes. Then simply separate the pieces here and there, mush them and create little balls with your fists to take the water out. Dump them in your bin. You are done!

Answer 15

If all you're concerned about is your name, address and any reference numbers getting into the wrong hands then just cut these bits off with scissors, rip into small pieces and flush down the loo or burn them. As long as the rest of the information isn't important then the rest can be disposed of as normal.

Answer 16

You can do what I do! Eat your info! (kind of..)

Toss them in a bucket of cold water for about an hour, then stick em in a bag with mushroom spawn, let them spread, and eat the mushrooms! =P

Granted, that's a bit of an oversimplified explanation, but hey, nobody has said it yet!

Answer 17

I do like in spy movies. Metal ashtray + lighter. Do it right after receiving a package so it does not accumulate. We don't want smoke. This works for both pure paper and sticker like labels.