Paper to Pulp: Protecting Your Money!
Sometimes you throw away very important things don't you? So you take your time to rip them up properly... to be certain you don't find your bank account empty the next time you make a withdrawal.
A paper shredder is great, but you may not need one.
I mean, how many times do you throw away private documents at home? Occasionally. Certainly not enough to invest in a shredder.
If you are still shredding your private information by hand like me, then this solution might work for you. When you are ready to dispose of your private documents...
(1) Fill your sink up with water.
(2) Soak the private documents (that you are planning to throw away) in water for at least 20-30 seconds. You may have to do this in groups--several times if you have a large pile.
(3) When they are completely wet, ring the excess water out of the documents (as if you were ringing a wash cloth dry). Be certain to leave them damp. Do not ring them completely dry.
(4) Head to a trash can and break the documents apart. You should be able to ACTUALLY break/pull the pieces of paper apart. Rather than rip them up. They should be extremely easy to break apart. So break them apart in reasonably small pieces with the same precaution you take when you rip up your private documents. Small enough so that one individual piece of pulp does not contain the private information on it that could be used against you by a thief.
(Note: Due to the different grains of paper out there this solution may not be affective in all instances.)
The difference between ripping up private information and pulling it apart as pulp is that it is much quicker to shred. But that's just one of the benefits.
Here are several more benefits YOU get out of making paper into pulp:
(1) It will assure you that it will be impossible for a would-be-trash-searching-thief to put any of the pieces back together. You know how easy it is to fit some pieces of paper back together when you rip them up. Pulp makes it impossible to connect the pieces together. Take a look at the edges of your paper when you pull your pulp apart. You'll see what I mean.
(2) Soaking your paper in water makes some of the print less legible. Sometimes it just makes it mildly blurry and other times the ink actually runs. That helps give you greater protection against private information being easily legible to a thief.
(3) Your pulp will remain damp for a reasonable amount of time. Wet paper, as opposed to dry, can sometimes be easier for dirt particles and stains to cling to. You're just giving your pulp an extra advantage by welcoming dirt particles to come along and make it even a little more disgusting and illegible.
(4) Your pulp will dry in illegible clumps. Have you ever tried to break apart pulp? If you have, then you know that in the process of doing so you make matters worse. The small pieces of paper are even further ripped up and destroyed as you try to pull them apart with your fingers.
So if a would-be thief is going to try and steal your private information. Make it hard on him. And maybe if he runs into enough pulp he'll realize it takes just as much work to steal as it does to make an honest living.
Protect yourself with pulp.
(c) Copyright 2003 Tameka Norris
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