Mini Paper Shredder Models
For personal use and very small or infrequent jobs, there are the mini shredders on the market. These little machines eliminate unwanted papers in small quantity and are battery powered, manually operated or can attach to the USB on your laptop. Mini paper shredders are not, contrary to popular belief, paper shredders that shred mini papers. This is a common misconception. Don't feel bad about it. Anyway, what the mini paper shredder is mostly used for personal purposes, as opposed to industrial paper shredders.
You can still rid yourself of papers that might leave you open to identity theft or other security issues, just on a smaller scale than with the desk-side or professional grade shredders. These models are portable as well, which makes them even more convenient.
Uses for Mini Shredders
Mini shredders are useful for destroying smaller items such as shopping receipts and old credit cards. With a hand-crank operation, the receipt shredder has approximately a 2 1/2 inch slot for smaller sheets of paper. If you're so inclined, you can even use the mini paper shredder to get rid of family documents, personal letters,credit card statements, unwanted debris such as paper scraps and used stick-on notes.
While a mini shredder is a small investment, you want to be aware of what you're buying. You also don't want to make a mistake and overload the machine, rendering it useless or have it break down too quickly. Decide if you can make due with a hand cranking shredder or need more power from a battery operated one.
Probably the best reason for getting a mini paper shredder is for protecting yourself from identity fraud. Identity fraud is getting easier and easier to do with the dawning of the internet, and as a result, more and more people are falling prey to it. Simply refusing to shred your personal documents before you put them in the trash is not a good idea anymore. You should shred all of your bank statements and anything that might have personal information about you that could be useful to an identity thief. This is the best use that you can have for a mini paper shredder, honestly, as it is one of the biggest pains in the ass you can possibly go through to have your identity stolen. It takes months to clean up and will generally make everything you do more difficult for years, particularly when you try to use a credit card. So it's probably better to just shred everything and be smart about what you decide to put on the internet.
The other uses are simply to make sure that you have more garbage space for the paper. Paper is something that is pretty easy to limit space on, and the shredder puts a lot more air between the items in the trash - or, probably better, the recycling - which means you will be using less space in each of the bags and thus losing less of the bags because they are overstuffed. Point being, you can save money and the environment and your identity with a paper shredder.
Three-in-One Minis
Even though they may be small, some of the mini shredders have more might than they lead on, and can shred credit cards, CDs and paper. Some of the larger sized mini paper shredders will take up to a few sheets of paper. They may also have safety features such as an safety switch and protection from overheating.
Mini Shredder Brands
Just because the job you have to do is small, this doesn't mean that the product has to be flimsy or questionable. After all, if you're choosing to shred documents of any size, you care about your own personal security. Otherwise, the papers would have been crumbled up and thrown directly into the trash. Your best bet is to search for reliable manufacturers who make mini shredders.
Some of the Fellowes brand paper shredders that have a 5-gallon bin for paper waste. While these might not be describe as "mini" in size, they are smaller than professional sized shredders and meant for one-person use. Fellowes are well-known for the quality office products and even the small, individual use shredders have a manufacturer's warranty.
Aurora makes a well-rated small 10-sheet crosscut paper shredder called the Auroroa AS1018CD that shreds CDs and DVDs as well as credit cards. Look to Black & Decker to make machines for the home, like a mini shredder that sits easily on a counter or desktop, the Black & Decker CC2000 or the CC2001 Identity Theft Buster. This model takes 20 sheets at a pass and has a lightweight design that makes mince of CDs, credit cards, staples and DVDs.
Think Tank Tech has a hand crank paper shredder that turns 81/2-inch or smaller papers into 3 mm strips. The container is just smaller enough to operate and catch a few jobs worth of shredding, and the paper feed is limited to one page at a pass. It's a great solution if you don't shred papers very often. You can also find similarly sized hand-crank shredders that take CDs and plastic, but you might pay more in price.
Perhaps the most intriguing of the mini paper shredders is the USB shredder. These nifty gadgets hook right up to your laptop and use the energy form the computer or you can simply use the 4 AAs of battery power. Either boxy with a tiny bin for waste or wand-shaped and open-ended, these USB paper shredders turn useless paper into strips in the click of a button.
Regardless, you can find plenty of models of different mini shredder brands and styles online. Just look up some on Amazon or a related office supply site, or go to your local office supply store. You shouldn't have any problems in finding a significant amount of mini shredder brands scattered all about the place. There are other larger ones that will basically be a contraption on top of a trash bin, which you can get, or you can go with those nifty USB paper shredders. So do some research, and find something that suits what it is you are looking for!
