What Qualifies as a Good Home Office Paper Shredder ?

First you must consider what you are shredding.  While strip shredders are becoming a thing of the past, the confetti or crosscut paper shredder is becoming the choice of business smart individuals.  The reason is simple.  These units will turn your documents into small pieces of confetti, and the smaller the better.

You should also consider your amount of use.  The less expensive units are adequate for several pages per day, but will likely be overtaxed if used for constant multiple sheet shredding.  Each manufacturer advises on the maximum amount of pages per day that their equipment will handle.  Follow their guidelines, and you will extend the life of your shredder.

Price is always a consideration, but beware.  Know that the more expensive units do have added value over their less expensive counterparts.  Cheaper paper shredders often use more plastic, while the shredding components of a good home office paper shredder have metal shredding parts.  Also check to see if the unit you have can shred credit cards, dvds and cds, as well as staples.  Those that can are usually more robust, and will give you long life on basic paper shredding needs.

Be sure to check if the trash bin beneath the unit will accept trash, without having to shred it.  This will eliminate the need for a second trash can in your office that will simply take up more space.  And the larger the shredding bin is, the more security you will have.  It is far easier to reconstruct 10 shredded sheets of paper than 100.

Remember, paper is very abrasive, and a shredder must be made well to withstand shredding thousands of sheets of paper.  An inexpensive paper shredder is made for intermittent use.  If you suspect that you will shred documents daily, spending a few more dollars now will most likely save you from having to replace your home office shredder in the near future.