The Ultimate Guide to Shredding Your Documents

Safeguarding and protecting sensitive information has become more critical than ever, which makes document shredding services even more valuable. At XYZ Storage, we acknowledge how beneficial a document shredding service is to those who already use our storage facilities for storage purposes. We have taken the time to compile the ultimate guide to teach you about the shredding process for essential documents that contain sensitive data, including medical bills, tax returns, travel itineraries, or any other paper records.

Reasons To Shred Your Documents

Whether you’re an individual who wants to protect your personal information or a small business with highly classified documentation, the shredding documentation process is crucial. Before diving right into shredding documents, let’s talk about why individuals or businesses should shred their documents. Here are three main reasons why you should decide to shred your documents:

1. Theft Protection

The need to protect your identity and personal information is more critical now than ever, especially with the growing concern about safety with having a digital presence. Sort through all your paper documents that have your name, home address, social security number, or any other sensitive information so that you can have them properly destroyed.

For example, tax-related receipts, bank statements, medical records, utility bills, junk mail, adoption papers, credit card statements, sales receipts, pay stubs, or any other confidential documents that pertain to confidential information should be shredded so you can avoid them falling into the wrong hands.

2. Peace of Mind

Looking into paper shredding services to shred documents that contain sensitive information can give you or your business peace of mind knowing that no one can gain unauthorized access to said information. This way you will get rid of unwanted documents securely without the added fear of the wrong hands having access to certain documents.

3. Environmentally Responsible

As mentioned, there are benefits to shredding your documents to safeguard sensitive or highly classified information. However, there is also a positive environmental impact that comes from shredding your paper. Shredding your paper allows you to reduce the need for new paper production. Whether done at home or one of the many shredding services out there helps to ensure the paper becomes recycled versus being thrown in the garbage can.

All About Shredding Your Documents

Now that we’ve covered the benefits of shredding your documents. If you’re still interested in learning more, we’re going to cover how to go about document shredding, the most cost-effective ways to do so, and where to go to shred them.

Should I Shred Everything with My Name and Address?

Shredding everything with your name and address is not necessary, however, if it’s written on bank statements, tax records, credit card statements, or any other sensitive documentation it can be worth doing to ultimately protect your identity.

Where Is the Safest Place to Shred Documents?

Choosing a secure location for paper shredding can be a difficult decision, especially if your documentation contains highly classified information and you want to avoid identity theft. With that being said, it’s important when choosing among the paper shredding companies to pick one that you trust. Here are a few options you can look into:

1. At-home: invest in a personal shredder and shred your documents at home, especially if you don’t have much. For example, if you’ve compiled a bunch of old receipts, files, and other papers after doing some spring cleaning, home shredding can be a great solution.
2. In-Store Shredding Services: there might be retailers in your neighbourhood that offer accessible and convenient shredding services.
3. Self-Shredding with Secure Bins: secure bins are provided by shredding service providers, so users can deposit their documents securely to prevent unauthorized access before they can be shredded.
4. Professional Shredding Services: ideal for most companies with large amounts of documents or data that contain highly confidential information and can be better off opting for a professional shredding service, such as the UPS store. For example, if you run a large company with over seven years of office files and old documents with account numbers, sales data, and employee records, leaving it to professional paper shredding services may be best.

A quick Google search “paper shredding near me” can help you locate the closest place to get your documents shredded, and further research may be needed to determine which company offers the best service within your budget.

Our XYZ Storage facilities offer professional shredding services supplied by Shred-it for personal and commercial purposes. Similar to how we operate our storage services, you can trust us to securely destroy and recycle the papers that you wish to discard. At the end, we provide you a certificate of destruction to state that all the paper was destroyed, and 100% securely recycled.

To learn more, you can check out our document shredding services page on our website. If you still have any questions, please speak with one of our managers at one of our storage locations. 

What Is the Most Cost-Effective Way to Shred Documents?

The most cost-effective way to shred documents depends on your specific shredding needs, budget, and level of security required. For example, if you are shredding a stack of personal letters with your address on it. An investment in a personal shredder for at-home use may be sufficient. However, if you have boxes of confidential information about your business, it may be best to turn it over to the professionals and get it professionally shredded. Many services can also offer a certificate stating that what you have given them to shred is indeed destroyed and recycled properly.

There is no one-size-fits-all situation, and choosing the best option depends on the requirements of the individual or business and their desired level of security. It’s critical to find the balance between cost and how much assurance you require to ensure that sensitive information is handled and disposed of properly.

How Much Does It Cost to Get Shredded?

At XYZ Storage, we offer document shredding for $13.99 per banker box load, $9.99 per box load for 10-25+ boxes, and $5.99 per box load for 26+ boxes. This is similar to many places that help you shred your documentation; there is a price per box. We highly recommend you shop around for the best option for you or your business to find a service that fits your needs.

In addition to helping you protect your documents by helping you shred them, we can also help with hard drive shredding and media destruction. At XYZ Storage, we can certainly help with destroying your hard drives, such as CDs, tapes, or USBs. We charge $38.99 per bank box load of hard drives and other media or $24.99 per hardware destruction.

What Documents Should Not Be Shredded?

For the most part, many files can be shredded, however, there are a few exceptions to that rule. There are documents relating to anything that needs to be kept for legal purposes, including social security cards, estate planning files, passports, or tax returns that should indeed be kept in a secure location.

It’s important to sort through your documents and decide whether records are meant to be kept safely in your own home or shredded and disposed of. Some documents should be kept for several years, including tax returns in case a tax audit needs to be conducted, so perhaps look into a filing system or a safety deposit box to securely store important information to avoid identity theft. Consult a financial or legal professional if you have any questions about what should be stored for a few years or what can be shredded right away like junk mail.

At XYZ Storage, our commitment and services extend beyond helping you move and store your belongings. Visit one of our self-storage facilities across Toronto and the GTA and our storage experts would be more than happy to assist you, whether you’re seeking document shredding, hard drive destruction, or storage solutions. Our dedicated team will be available to answer any questions or concerns you may have. Time to get shredding!