Peace of Mind Organizing

Has your shredding piled up?

29 January 2010

Shredding is so important. I’m often shocked when I meet new clients to learn that they don’t own a shredder. They think tearing up sensitive documents is sufficient. Then I’ll share with them a little experiment done on one of the morning shows that a client told me about. They took a credit card offer and tore it up. Then they taped it back together, photocopied it, filled it out and got the credit card. To me, that’s proof enough that shredding is essential. Identity theft is too devastating to mess with.

The problem with shredders, in my experience, is that they’re loud and people tend not to do shred right at the moment they identify a piece of paper that needs destroying. I’m guilty of this: right now there’s a pile of papers to be shredded resting on top of my shredder.

An even bigger problem is when you clean out your files and have a whole lot of shredding to be done. You risk burning out your shredder if you do it all at once. I often recommend using a commercial shredder. You can take all your shredding to them and, for a nominal fee, get it done all at once. Some commercial shredders will even come to your home.

NAPO St. Louis is fortunate to have Shred and Protect Document Services as one of its associate members. As part of NAPO’s national Get Organized Month, the two are pairing up to sponsor a Shred Event tomorrow from 9 to 1. If you live in St. Louis, you can bring a banker’s box full of documents that need to be shredded (about 25 pounds) to Shred and Protect, which is located in Hanley Industrial Court in Brentwood and get it securely shredded free of charge. Additional boxes are $5 each. Such a deal.

Complete details are available on NAPO St. Louis’s website, but here’s the bare-bones info.

Shred Event sponsored by NAPO St. Louis and Shred and Protect Document Services
Saturday, January 30, 2010
9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Shred and Protect Document Services
1429 Strassner
Brentwood, MO 63144

Special thanks to NAPO St. Louis’s Director of Marketing Shannon Zipoy for organizing this event!

Tagged with: identity theft, napo st. louis, paper management, shannon zipoy, shred and protect, shredders

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