Do you know what important documents you should shred? 

If you have old documents in a stocking pile in your office, it may be time to get rid of them. Of course, if they aren’t helpful anymore! And what’s the best method to destroy them? By shredding!

Before shredding, it’s important to take a look at each document to see if it’s classified or not. To safeguard your identity, your finances, and your family, it’s crucial to know what to destroy. And with the substantially growing number of identity thefts, you must know what documents you should shred!

Curious about them? Click on the next page to see the rest of the article. If you don’t have a shredding machine at home, once you’ve gone through them all, keep reading to learn about other equally effective techniques to get rid of your documents.

1. Shipping labels

Your package has finally arrived, and you couldn’t be more happy about it! But I bet that you forgot a small, simple detail about it: to remove the shipping label from it before throwing the box in the garbage. That’s called a shipping label, and it’s usually found under a plastic pouch. This piece of paper helps the courier find you easily; therefore, it contains valuable information about you: your address, full name, and the money you paid (or have to pay) for the package.

Before throwing or recycling the box, make sure you double-check it, pull out all the shipping labels it might have, and shred them as soon as possible. This is one of the first documents you should shred for your safety!

2. Papers with a Social Security number

Did you know that 158 million Social Security numbers were exposed in 2017? And the worrying thing is that the numbers keep growing! The social security number you have is one of the key means of verification for all US citizens. This number, which is given to you at birth and is used by many governmental organizations to authenticate your identification, may be found on several sorts of paperwork, such as credit applications, payroll documents, tax documents, and college applications.

After you decide what documents you should shred, make sure you also destroy the numbers on them. Someone else may use your social security number to apply for credit, find work, or rent a place to live in your name.

3. Birth and death announcements

Another bunch of documents you should shred are birth and death announcements. The exploitation of the identities of more than 2 million Americans who have passed away each year to file taxes, create credit card accounts, and apply for loans is on the rise, while child identity theft is also on the rise. Documents containing details regarding children or deceased individuals should be destroyed.

4. Unused resumes

From all the documents you should shred if you don’t use them anymore or they expired (your ID card, for example), a resume is something not many people think about. Well, surprisingly unused resumes can provide a lot of personal information about you—information that scammers can’t wait to put their hands on. All that employment history, addresses, and courses you’ve passed are more than enough to steal your identity or use your name for various credits you didn’t even think about! Be careful!

5. Junk mail

Junk mail indeed comes in every day and we tend to neglect to sort it out, but unfortunately, with so much information accessible to companies, a lot of your details might be included in it. If it’s possible, before tossing it in the trash, shred it or simply break it into small pieces. You should destroy junk mail, or you can choose not to get it and pre-screen credit offers in the United States by visiting the Federal Trade Commission’s page on unwanted mail.

6. Old airline tickets

Another document you should shred is printed airline tickets. Why? Well, first of all, they contain a lot of information about you that you shouldn’t be sharing or throwing away without shredding. Your airline tickets contain your name and a barcode that can disclose your frequent flier number and other critical information. For your safety, as soon as you land and arrive home, make sure you shred it as soon as possible.

Furthermore, avoid posting your printed tickets somewhere on social media. Not even in a story or a reel! While airlines require the information from your tickets, identity fraudsters can make use of it!

7. Photos of you and your family

Oh, wait! Are there any people who simply throw their family photos in the trash can? Well, some people have duplicates of the pictures and dispose of them in the blink of an eye without thinking about the consequences. A malicious person can use these pictures with bad intentions, especially to steal someone’s identity. And we all know how dangerous social media has become nowadays!

This rule of shredding also applies to old IDs that contain precious information about yourself! Be cautious, and when you decide what documents you should shred, make sure old IDs and old photos are on the list as well.

8. Old bank statements

It doesn’t matter if they’re old; you must shred them too! Old bank statements are another type of document you should shred if they’re no longer available. Mostly because they contain crucial information about your name, phone number, and home address. Shred it even if you’ve already closed the account!

9. Canceled checks

Shred any physical copies or printouts of your bank’s check cancellations, as most banks now only provide digital versions. They have a lot of specific personal data, which can put you in danger. Have the canceled checks destroyed to eliminate any risk they may pose.

Curious to see what other methods are as efficient as shredding? Click on the next page to see them all!

Use multi-cut scissors

You don’t own a shredding machine, and you need a fast method to get rid of some documents. No worries! A pair of multi-cut scissors will get the job done in the blink of an eye. They make multiple cuts at once, so it kind of works like a shredder, except that you must do the job. Since it won’t work for any type of document, consider using this method combined with other methods from the list.

Add them to your compost

Are you seeking an efficient, eco-friendly method to shred your documents? Try adding the documents after you use the multi-cut scissors to your compost along with other items like food, coffee, and filters. Because most of the documents are printed on softer paper, they will break down very easily in the compost pile.

However, if you choose this method, make sure you don’t throw in glossy paper. This type of paper is usually harder to shred, plus it contains a higher level of chemicals compared to regular paper.

Shred them by hand

Indeed, this method is not as efficient as the previous ones, but you can still combine them for good results. It’s simple and doesn’t require too much effort, except for your skilled hands!

Make sure to rip the documents into many pieces before manually shredding them. Additionally, I strongly advise separating the different shredded pieces into distinct trash or recycling bins. By doing this, the likelihood that someone may discover all of a certain document’s components in your trash or recycle bin is reduced.

If you find this article about documents you should shred for security reasons useful, you can also check out 5 Surprising Things You Can’t Return To Amazon.