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When it comes to managing paperwork at your office, time and clutter-free space come at a cost. Sometimes, everything from contracts to invoices, statements, and other financial documents keeps piling up with no end in sight. To help keep things under control and make sure that you don’t end up with paper waste, choosing the right shredder for your office is important.
Things to Consider When Choosing a Shredder for Your Office
There are a lot of them out there, from automatic shredding machines to manual ones with specific features you need. To help you choose the ideal shredder for your office, consider some of the following factors before you purchase one:
Know what you’re looking for
Choosing a shredder can seem like a daunting and time-consuming task, especially if you’re not sure what you’re looking for. So it’s helpful to break down the selection process into a few manageable steps:
1. Determine the purpose of your office paper shredder. For example, if you work with a lot of contracts and sensitive documents, you may need to shred those documents with a particular shredder to make them unreadable. But if you just want to shred documents to create a clutter-free space, a generic office shredder should be enough. Knowing the specific requirements will help you narrow down your search.
2. Research different shredder types and features to see which would be the best fit for your office. There are different shredder types, like cross-cut shredders, which shred both sides of paper. There are also smaller-capacity paper shredders that are good for documents such as receipts and credit card statements. And there are also shredder types that shred paper by type, like credit card shredders, which shred plastic and paper documents together.
3. Check online reviews to see what other users are saying about the shredder they purchased. This can help you identify any issues that other users have had with a particular shredder.
4. Make sure that the shredder meets your security requirements. Some shredders have built-in security features that make them great for protecting sensitive data. This includes data encryption, which scrambles the information in such a way that only the user can access it. These security features make the shredder an ideal choice for protecting sensitive information, like financial records.
Size and weight of the paper to be shredded
When selecting a shredder for your business or home office, you’ll want to make sure that it has enough capacity to handle the volume of paper that your office generates. Although you might find that a small-capacity shredder is affordable, you’ll quickly notice that it doesn’t have enough capacity to handle a large volume of paper, particularly if you work for a large organisation.
Another important consideration when choosing a shredder is the size of the paper that you will be shredding. If you shred documents that are larger or smaller than the shredder can shred, you may end up with half-shredded paper with information still on it. Hence, it’s important to make sure that you take into account the size of the paper that you will be shredding.
This will help you select a shredder with enough capacity to handle your paper size requirements. For example, if you’re shredding a lot of credit card statements, you’ll want to select a shredder that has a larger capacity to shred larger documents. Similarly, if you’re mostly shredding small receipts and other similar documents, you’ll want to choose a shredder that has a small enough size to easily shred them.
Budget and user requirement
Once you’ve determined the type of shredder that you want to buy for your office, it is a good idea to estimate how much you can spend and how often you will be using the shredder. If you shred a lot of paper every day, you’ll want to select a shredder that has the capacity to handle the volume. You can get a commercial-grade shredder that has adjustable cutting plates and can easily shred 7–10 sheets of paper at a time.
However, if you are looking to shred credit card statements or other similar-sized documents with sensitive information, you can get a small office shredder that can easily shred these types of documents.
Security features you need
If your goal is to keep sensitive information private, you’ll need to look for a shredder that comes with extra security trends. Specifically, you’ll need features that prevent unauthorised personnel from opening the shredder and removing shredded documents. A good shredder will have a security slot at the bottom that can only be opened with a key, for example. You’ll also want a shredder that keeps all information locked inside, rather than allowing anything to fall out if someone opens the bin.
Final Words
Choosing the right shredder for your office can help reduce the amount of paper that you need to shred, saving you time and money. However, it’s important to remember that there are many types of shredding machines designed for different purposes. Before you settle on a shredder, try making sure that it has enough capacity to handle the volume and type of paper you will be shredding.
