==Mini Paper Shredder==

We have a ton of paperwork come through the door nowadays and considering every company is trying to go paperless it seems that there are more and more documents needing disposing of than ever. A lot of the information that I have from my banks and what not needs to be disposed of in a secure way as you really never know who would want to steal my debt from me! For this reason I needed a shredder a good while ago as I was fed up taking all my documents into work and feeding them through the industrial sized shredder that they have there.

I purchased this mini shredder from Staples a good year or so ago now (around the time that we were going through the process of purchasing a house and needed to have so much proof of earnings and so forth which once the bank had seen needed disposing of). It cost around the £12 region but having had a look online it would seem that can indeed get the very same manual shredder for a little less were you to shop around.

I opted for a manual shredder as I am loathed to keep buying electrical appliances that cost money to run and I felt that having to use a manual one which couldn't take as many sheets at one time would mean that I get into the habit of shredding documents as soon as they need to be disposed of and this would save the mountains of paperwork that seems to collect on the kitchen worktop or in the kitchen cupboard.

The mini paper shredder I have is by Draper and is basically a small box unit with a little blue plastic handle on the right hand side which needs to be turned as the paper is fed into the slot on the top section of the box. The box is a good 35 cm in length and around 15 cm in depth. I have found that really it can take a good few sheets at a time without jamming up and still being able to cut the paper adequately. Three sheets is probably the maximum you can put in there at a time but this hasn't really ever bothered me too much.

The little clear plastic storage box underneath the shredding section can hold a fair few sheets of paper once shredded although if you are doing a fair bit of shredding it will need emptying what seems like on a fairly regular basis. The shredder handle is easy to turn and does surprisingly feel rather tough and sturdy. There is no bending or excessive pressure on the handle unless you try and ram too many pages in the top then this handle feels as though it is built to last.

Once the paper has been fed through the shredder and the little handle turned around the bits of paper than come out the bottom of the machine are around 3 mm in width and pretty much what is needed to not be able to read any of the information that is on the paper. Another good thing about having the paper shredded up means that I can pop the waste product out in my composter in the garden and it mulches down very nicely and unless the worms decide to stick it back together and decipher my bank details I think this is probably the safest option going for dealing with identity theft. Not only that but of course I am being super environmentally friendly too. Not using power to shred the paper and then turning the paper into something useful - compost.

I think this little shredder was a great purchase of mine. It can be stored nicely in one of my kitchen cupboards and doesn't take up a ton of room like some of these larger electricity powered shredders do and if I want to keep it out on the kitchen worktop it doesn't look too in obtrusive or out of place. It works well and I can't see it breaking any time soon as it is a top quality item which was worth every penny.

For those reasons I feel that this product deserves a top score of 5 out of 5 stars and and exceptionally high recommendation.


I do hope that this has been of some help/interest to you

Many thanks for taking the time to read.