Ugh - doesn't that mean you have to look at every single piece of paper to determine if and where on the page there is sensitive info? And then stamp? Dark ages, I know, but I still get paper copies of investments and some bank accounts and of course there is medical/insurance stuff and so on. Sounds tedious.

I have a roller stamp. Easy, but I suspect I overdo it just to be safe.

At this point I know where the sensitive info is. When I'm ready to do wholesale shredding I'll take it to a service. But in the meantime there's stuff that just needs a block obscured.

Cyn, is the roller easy to use? I was hoping I could just WHACK the thing down lol. But maybe rolling is easier.

I throw everything in bankers boxes and take it when they have community shredding.

I have a brown paper bag into which toss my shredding stuff, save up a bit and then take it to a local shred event. Various churches or other groups will rent a big shredder and take in your shredables. I donate to the church group. you can stay and watch your precious data go into the hopper if you want!

Scissors? I toss anything with my name on it in the fireplace.

I bought my 87 year old mother a rolling stamp and she loves it. I just use a black magic marker.

I have both a stamp and a roller. Although I tend to feed things through the shredder more often than not, when I do use it I prefer the stamp as it covers a larger area. So, one stamp vs. two or three rolls.

I never heard of such a thing. I usually shred, and other times I put sheets of paper in the green bin under the sink where it gets coffee grounds, raw scraps veggie scraps etc.

I use a big black permanent Sharpie.

bpath, my son gave it to me one Christmas. I will take a picture tomorrow (new phone arriving-old one is so old that it won't take photos anymore!). It has a plastic cover and the roller is self-inking. I just roll the whole gizmo over the print that needs to be obscured. No ink on me. yay. Oh wait! Here you are! Mine is green, though. Link is to Amazon to buy.

I use a black Sharpie and black out the info I don't want distributed. Or my DH's office is right off kitchen and I just shred the pages as they come in from the mailbox. I used to have a stamp that x-ed out the info(got it from some catalog) but it ultimately was more of a pain than the Sharpie.

We shred sensitive mail when it comes in. For outdated filed papers, we burn them in our fire pit.

I use a Sharpie too.

I toss anyting that I don't want anybody to read in with the food scraps for composting. I make layers of food scraps then papers. Food usually is moist enough to obscure any writing. Plus people are less likely to go through composting containers to find information.

Yay, I'm not the only one who composts this stuff. :)

I shred as I open the mail or as soon as I no longer need the paperwork. When the shredder is full it gets tied into a clear plastic bag and put into the recycling.

For those using Sharpies to obliterate information, please be careful. At work, we occasionally need to read something that has been "blacked out" too soon. If you work at it, and view from the back side of the paper, you can frequently decipher the information. Someone trying to steal your info will certainly go thru the effort.

I tried using a magic marker on something and when I held it up I could see through it. Composting and shredding makes it secure.

Maybe I need a bigger shredder! When I go through Dad's mail I'm not always near a shredder. Not to mention the sound is like a dentist's drill for me. I thought the roller would be harder than the stamp but it sounds like it's easy.

Elmer, DH has cut down on our paper mail enormously, he hates paper. But my Dad likes the paper, and it works well for me, too, because it's easy for me to see things that I might not otherwise know to look for in his computer.

One of the things I have thought about although I have everything I can paperless is when I die or become unable how will my family know what accounts I have and where they are located beyond waiting to the end of the year for email notifications that a 1099 is available. While I keep a file folder with passwords and most accounts they change so frequently that they would be a massive jigsaw puzzle for someone to put together.

Maifleur, you are so smart to think of this now. When my dad had his stroke 18 months ago, it was right before property tax time. He was able to communicate (thank God!) so when I asked him if he'd paid the full amount in June or if he needed to make the second installment, he was able to tell me that yes, we needed to make the installment, that he uses an account specifically for that, and where to find that checkbook. I would NEVER have known that. I'd have been looking through his regular checkbook trying to find the payments.

He also reminded me to make the quarterly IRS payment, I hadn't thought of that, either.

I'm not sure how true this story is, but I saw an item recently that the director of a cryptocurrency died quite suddenly, and he was the only one with the password.

I agree with ldstarr about being careful that things really are blacked out beyond recognition. When DD needs paperwork for school that needs a SSN or medical record number or such blacked out, I use a sharpie and then make a copy. The original can still be read in the right light or at the proper angle.

I have a paper box that things get tossed in. Then while I'm watching TV I sort it into a recycling bin or a shred box. That, and then the subsequent shredding, takes very little time. Or, as someone else has said, if someone in your community offers shredding services, that can make things very easy.

bpath, it sounds like you're satisfied with what you're doing.

In caring for our family oldsters, especially during our working years, we asked for their help to help us do the most during the time available and to avoid extra work. We also lived at some distance from them. I always pushed back when they suggested a more time consuming or difficult choice when that task could be done more simply. I remember once on a visit being told of a shopping list - "I get apples from Store A, bananas from Store B, and carrots at Store C." I said "I only have time to go to Store A, so you only want apples and no bananas or carrots?" To which the reply went, "Well okay, if that's my only choice".

It was the same with bill paying. In response to "I always send the power company a check", I responded "if you want me to pay them for you, I want to set it up for autopay. If you want to send them a check every month, fine, you do that, I don't have time." To which the response was, "Okay, if that's easier for you".