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