Shredder Review: Staples MailMate & Tips on What to Shred

The Staples MailMate Shredder is an excellent personal shredder for day-to-day moderate usage -- like shredding those credit offers and other junk mail as SOON AS it comes in.  No more piles of "To Shred"  paper! I keep mine right under my desk which is where I open mail. (I also have a bin for paper to be recycled.) They are small and inexpensive enough that you may want to have one in your kitchen as well as in your home office or whereever you bring your mail into the house.

Here are the “pros” of the shredder: 

• VERY Easy to empty basket  
• Shreds using the Cross-cut method which truly destroys what you are shredding.  It comes out in tiny bits!
• It's very powerful and can shred non-paper items like CDs, credit cards, etc.
• Can shred quite 20 pages at a time - even unopened mail like those stupid credit card offers & all those "convenience checks" the credit card companies send
• Compact size &  Light weight
• Has Child safety features like auto off
• Fast shredding
• Jam resistant - I haven't not had a single jam with it in the year and a half I've had it.  My old shredder jammed all the time.
• Price - with a $20 rebate which is very easy to submit online, this cost around $40.

Here are the “cons” of the shredder: 

• A little loud but quieter then my previous shredder!
• Shredder slot is small for paper - you have to fold the paper first to shred it
• Small basket (needs to be emptied often, but it's extremely easy to pull out the basket and dump it into your wastebasket)

What to Do With Your Old Shredder
If, like me, your spouse has a home office in the basement and you are on the second floor, you can put your old shredder in the office of whoever uses it least!  (My husband got the old one : ) 

WHAT TO SHRED AND WHAT NOT TO SHRED

I only shred paper that has financial account numbers or my SSN on it.  If I shredded everything with my name & address on it, I'd spend way too much time and energy sweating.  You can just tear it and recycle it, or mark it out with a Sharpie.

Besides, most identity theft occurs from people with access to your files.  Beyond that, identify theft has gone high tech.  Your info can be gotten from public records, easily available mailing lists, and from places where you actually use your cards to shop. E.g., a hacker gets into a company's stored credit card numbers, etc. 

See Related Links & Posts:

• OptOut - never receive a pesky pre-approved credit card offer again. Do it online or call 1-888-5-OPTOUT.
• Getting Rid of Junk Mail
• Tips for Processing Incoming Mail

Comments

[Cynthia Friedlob, The Thoughtful Consumer]

I don't know what I'd do without a shredder, but this one looks like a smart upgrade from our current model, even though it is smaller. Being able to shred credit cards and CD/DVDs would be great! And it looks like it has a good handle to pull out the basket. Thanks for the tip.

[Ariane Benefit]

Yeah, I really like it. It's small, but so much easier to empty, it's well worth it. Let me know if you get it!

[Cynthia Friedlob, The Thoughtful Consumer]

Got it!

We're keeping our large shredder in another convenient location because it does a great job with up to twelve sheets of paper per shred and we use it regularly. We also have a big shredding project coming up -- but that's another story.

This shredder is so small that it's a perfect fit on top of a bookcase right by my computer. Now I have no excuse not to shred useless stuff immediately.

Thanks for the tip!

[Ariane Benefit]

So glad it worked out for you!! It's so nice to never have a TO SHRED pile!

[Mike Rybeck]

Just FYI:
The unit draws a small amount of power even when it's turned off (blue light out); measured on my power meter. There's not much difference when the blue LED is on (ready mode) and when it's off, so the whole power saving concept of automatic turnoff is negated.
Not sure why it was designed like this, but to turn it off completely, pull out the container slightly until the microswitch disengages, then the power draw drops to zero.

[Ariane Benefit]

Thanks for the tip Mike!

[CeeJay]

Last week i bought computer accessories from Staple store at Couponalbum.com and got good discount ..

[Fellowes Paper Shredders]

These Destroyit Shredders are compact enough to keep beside the desk and sleekly styled for any decor, yet all have the same high-grade steel cutting heads and 10-year warranty as the largest Destroyit shredders. Every model takes staples and paper clips.

[Clay W.]

Sounds like a great personal shredder, but for most people it would drive them a bit madding to have to fold all their papers in half just to shred. Do they make a strip cut shredder?

[Ariane Benefit, M.S.Ed.]

I believe they do...but I haven't been looking lately. Mine is still working great. still no jams. I shred immediately so folding the papers is not that much of a hassle compared to how easy it is to empty the shredder. If you have a LOT of full-size paper to shred, definitely get the larger one. : )