CD Shredding: Example

I thought I'd try out the CD shredder. I found an old CD off of The Observer, featuring tunes by Radiohead, Nick Cave and some other people I now can't remember because I also shredded the case. Here's the video:



It seems to work, though I was expecting smaller pieces. I guess it still makes the CD quite hard to use afterwards should you be of a mind to.

Death of Shredder (not the one out of TMNT)

Although I mentioned that Tescos have a fine range of spices and sauces, I forgot to mention that they have a shite range of shredders. Just the one, and a "value" one at that. And even if you wanted it, it's on top of some shelves so you couldn't reach it if you tried.

This is relevant because we wanted to buy a new shredder. The old one (a relatively cheap one from Sainsbury's, who do at least stock a choice) died recently. Not sure what caused it but I think it may just have been left turned on for too long and irrevocably overheated. I figured this time we could get a sturdier one. So since Tescos failed me I had a look around town this lunchtime. In the end I got one from Rymans (or whatever it's called now). It does 8 sheets at once and also does credit cards. And it also has a special slot for shredding CDs. I've never felt the need to shred a CD before, but I reckon you could make good Christmas decorations out of the bits.

But most importantly it claims to have an overheating cut-off so that it will last longer than the old one.

I'm going to have a lot of shredding to do tonight - a large stack has built up since the death of Shredder #1. Paper only though.

The main problem I had with the old one (apart from it being rubbish) was that I always used to make a mess when emptying it. When I tipped the basket into a plastic bag I'd always miss a bit. One time I missed completely. But it did occur to me this morning when I gave some though to this matter that you could just put a bin liner or plastic bag in the basket before doing the shredding. It might work. Emptying it would then be as simple as emptying a bin. Anyone got any experience of this?

The Enron Solution

I didn't string my mandolin today (not a euphemism) but I did go through my filing mountain. There has been a large pile of bills, bank statements and other random papers on my table for a long time and it needed putting away / binning (delete as appropriate).

When I got into this I found items going back to the start of 2005. Is it really that long since I've been arsed to properly file anything? Clearly it is. A bit worrying. I guess I just got so used to the pile being there that it became the place for filing to live rather than the place for items to wait until they are filed.

It had been so long that a lot of the crap could just be thrown straight away without an intermediate step of being put in a box for several years. I'm never really sure how long you are supposed to keep financial records for. In the end I made quite a big new pile of things that could be binned, not filed. And then I filed the things that could be filed and not yet binned. I put the binned, not filed pile in a plastic bag (a kind of filing in itself) and then put this to one side rather than binning it.

Because I decided I needed to get a shredder.

Generally I wouldn't bother shredding. It seems a bit over-cautious. I reckon you're fine just throwing things out with the kitchen waste so that if some ne'er-do-well goes through your rubbish they'll get old wet tea bags and bits of meat along with the bank details. That'd teach them.

But since today it was rather a lot of paper to be thrown, a higher level of security could be sensible.

And besides: shredding's fun!