How to Choose the Best Paper Shredder for Your Home Office

There is no doubt about it, a paper shredder is an essential piece of home office equipment that you should not do without.

I use mine every single day.

So, it really surprises me when people tell me that they don’t even own one.

With all of the identity theft issues going on the world – I think that a paper shredder is not an optional kind of thing – it is required, even at home.

According to usa.gov – one way to prevent identity theft is to:

Shred receipts, credit offers, account statements, and expired credit cards. This can prevent “dumpster divers” from getting your personal information.

Maybe I’m a little paranoid – but I do shred just about everything from junk mail (especially those unsolicited credit card offers) to documents that I no longer need.

If you are in the market for a paper shredder for your home office, keep these tips in mind because not all shredders are created equally.

Don’t Go For the Cheapest Model

Because a paper shredder is such a work horse – you should not just go with the cheapest one you can find.

You want a large capacity shredder that doesn’t easily overheat. And it is important to choose a model that makes a nice, fine dice of the paper it is shredding so that your sensitive information cannot be pieced back together.

Luckily, the paper shredders for home use are relatively affordable.

Microcut Shredders are More Secure

The whole point of having a paper shredder is the security that it offers.

You want the actual shreds to be small and chopped up enough that no one would be able to piece your documents back together.

A cross cut shredder cuts the paper into tiny, diagonal shreds that are all jumbled up.

On the other hand, a strip cut paper shredder is more affordable but offers less security – because someone in theory could tape the strips back together and be able to read your document.

There are also microcut paper shredders on the market. These shred paper into fine particles – even smaller than the cross cut. However, this type of shredder tends to be more costly and for business use.

My choice will always be a cross cut or microcut shredder.

Don’t Skimp on Sheet Capacity

You may think that you are not going to use your paper shredder all that much – but the frequency of use is not what matters.

The sheet capacity is much more important.

You see, paper shredders have a tendency to overheat because the motors are working hard to rip those pages apart.

Let’s say a light use paper shredder has a sheet capacity of 6 pages.

This means that you can typically feed through a stack of 6 average weight sheets of paper at a time.

However, the motor will be smaller on this type of a shredder.

So, if you do your paperwork once a week and shred stacks of documents in one sitting then your 6 sheet capacity shredder will likely overheat before your work is done.

This can be frustrating and cost you time as you wait for the shredder to cool down between batches.

The paper shredder that I use in my own home office is a 15 sheet capacity unit and I have used it day in and day out for years without issue.

Personally, I would not go with anything smaller.

So, make sure that the paper shredder that you choose has enough capacity to handle your typical workload.

A Large Emptying Bin Is More Efficient

Along these lines, you also want to make sure that the receptacle for all the shredded paper is fairly large.

This way you are not constantly emptying the bin.

It is human nature to procrastinate, so if the bin is full, you might just let your shredding pile stack up until you get around to it.

Can Handle Credit Cards, CD’s, and Staples

Chances are that paper is not the only thing that you will be shredding.

It is a good idea to shred expired credit cards (the plastic cards, not the metal cards).

You also may have some old CD’s lying around with sensitive data that you will want to shred.

Finally, it is nice if you don’t have to remove any staples from your documents before shredding them.

If these features are important to you – make sure that the shredder that you choose is designed for these types of jobs.

Size of the Paper Shredder

The downside to more powerful and larger capacity paper shredders for personal use, is the size of the unit. They tend to be rather large.

The good news is that you can tuck it into a corner or under your desk but you definitely want have it located near where you do your paperwork.

Wheels or Casters

Some paper shredders have wheels or casters so you can easily roll the unit around.

You might not think of this as too important of a feature, but I have found the wheels on mine to be very convenient.

I keep my shredder in a tight space between my desk and file cabinet and it is not very easy for me to empty the bin given the way that the unit is situated.

So, the wheels come in really handy. I simply roll the unit out from that tight space to empty the bin and then roll it back.

Noise Level

Some paper shredders – especially older ones like mine, are super noisy. There was a time when many of my family members were working from home, that I could not shred and process my paperwork during the work day because everyone was on conference calls.

Today’s models tend to be much quieter than those old ones. But when choosing yours take note in the manufacturer’s description as to whether quietness is a feature.

5 Paper Shredders for Under 200 Dollars

Here are 5 choices of paper shredders to fit a range of budgets.

What to Look For In a Paper Shredder

A paper shredder is an important piece of equipment for every home office. Processing my snail mail is one of the 10 organizing tasks that I do daily, so mine gets a ton of use.

Bypass the cheapest model and go for a cross cut or microcut model for maximum security and select the highest sheet capacity that you can afford.

Consider things like a large emptying bin, wheels or casters for rolling around, noise level, and whether it can shred things like credit cards, CD’s, and staples too.

Happy Shredding!