How to securely throw away documents

In today's world, your information is everywhere. It's on your computer, documents that you've printed from the Internet, and especially your mail. I don't know about you, but there have been times that I have held on to paper for far longer than any person should just because I didn't feel that I had a safe enough way to dispose of it. Times have changed and I've put a lot of thought into where the weak-points are in the disposal of my own garbage.

There are a number of things to consider:

• How much paper does your home produce?
• How much of this paper needs to be securely disposed of?
• What kind of data could be obtained from this paper if it were reassembled?
• What is your trash removal scenario?
• Garbage day?
• How frequent is garbage removal carried out?
• What time of day is your trash picked up?
• How long will your trash sit curb-side before being picked up?
• Public dumpsters?
• Are the dumpsters opened or closed?
• Are they guarded?

After carefully considering each of the above, I offer the following tips from my own practices:

• Purchase a "confetti" shredder
• Cross-cut and diamond-cut are both nice choices and should meet the needs of most homes and businesses.
• The smaller the "confetti", the more secure the shred
• Shred all documents containing information that you wouldn't want to be public knowledge
• This includes bank statements, credit card bills, cell phone bills, and any bills that contain account data on them.
• Remember that bank statements, credit card bills, and cell phone bills show your shopping and eating habits and people that you talk to on a regular basis.
• This information can be used by a person wishing to obtain more information about you. It enables them to know enough to seem legitimate if they were to "bump into" one of your friends.
• Some companies require nothing more than your name, billing address, and a phone number to verify your identity. Most of your bills will have this information printed on it.
• This should also include those pesky credit card offers and offers from any company trying to sell you insurance or services since many only need a signature and some silly sticker that was in the same envelope.
• Paper that you've written down passwords on.
• Shred some non-document junk such as the envelopes that it came in to add "confusion" to your confetti blend.
• Don't put all of your "confetti" out at once!
• Accumulate your confetti shreds into a bag or bin.
• Distribute it amongst your trash bags by placing two large "gobs" of confetti in the bottom of every trash bag.
• Grab your "gobs" from different sections of your bag or bin, or mix the confetti prior to obtaining gobs.
• It makes a great buffer/barrier for heavy items in the bottom of the bag.
• It works to absorb any liquid that may make it into the bag.
• By following the confetti guidelines above, it should help prevent any complete document from going out on the same trash day.