by Sue Crum, Ed.D. Professional Organizer

Spring has sprung and with it new beginnings, great opportunities, and longer days!

It’s the time of year for putting away the Ugg boots and heavy sweaters, clearing out the cobwebs of our homes and lives and creating a world how we imagine it could be: Calm, Clutter-Free and Happy.

How do we do that?

We can start by looking at our environments, home and work. It’s the perfect time to shed old habits that haven’t served us well, shred old papers and files we no longer need and wed ourselves to fresh starts.

Look around and see where you could begin. Whether you live alone or with others, make it into a spring fling party. What clothes are you no longer wearing that could be donated? If you have children, now is the perfect time to attack those closets and see what no longer fits. With hefty bags at the ready, see if you can make some breathing room in the dresser drawers and closets of your home. Put the filled bags in your car and drop them off at the nearest donation center.

Once you finish this, you’ll be in the mood to spring fling another area of your home or business. How about your office or the place where your papers have been dwelling? By this time of year your tax reports should be completed. How “Zen” can you make your office space now?

Sometimes we leave files and piles out on countertops because our file cabinets are bursting. Use these longer days and later sunsets to take a look at the back of those file drawers. Can you release to the universe files you haven’t looked at in months or even years? Is it possible to create “breathing space” in those file cabinets rather than going out and buying more file drawers?

If you have sensitive documents, of course the man to contact is Mike Krauss at 619.295.5474 at Total Secure Shredding! You can drop off your items to be shredded at his place near the San Diego Sports Arena or arrange for mobile shredding services if you have quite a bit.

So, shed your sweatshirts and long pants, crank up some music and start creating more open space for new opportunities and experiences. Summer’s just around the corner; it’s time to spring toward it!

“What the world really needs is more love and less paperwork.” – Pearl Bailey 

Sue Crum is an international speaker and founder of De-Clutteryourlife.com and the owner of the RED team.  She consults and shows people how to de-clutter and organize their lives for better productivity. Her forthcoming book, De-Clutter Your Life – 50 Ways to Organize Your Life, Home or Business so that you can be More Calm, Focused, and Happy, will be available in June.  Call her to speak to one of your groups or help you with de-cluttering and organizing. 760.803.2786.

To receive her latest EBook, Red Hot etips List for De-Cluttering Your Life, sign up at www.de-clutteryourlife.com. You will also receive monthly RED Hot etips for energized and efficient people and learn where Sue is next presenting.

We will be closed Thursday November 22nd and Friday November 23rd for Thanksgiving.

However, since Saturday is Small Business Saturday, we will be open for drop-off shredding on Saturday November 24th.

Have a great Thanksgiving.

Your Friend,

Mike
Head Shredding Guy

Hey Folks,

I’ve been sitting around for the last week wondering what the next blog should be about.

After looking around on the website to see what I’ve all covered, it dawned on me that I’ve never talked about recycling.

And the funny thing is that just about every person that comes down to our facility for paper shredding asks us, “So what do you do with all the shredded paper?”

The simple answer is that all the shredded paper gets bailed and recycled.

It’s a pretty cool situation since not only are you making sure that you are protecting your identity by getting everything shredded, you’re at the same time making sure none of these documents are taking up valuable space in the landfill.

Second, the recycling results in the final and complete destruction of your shredded documents as they are turned into new paper fiber products.

It’s one of those “Win-Win” situations!

However, this does present one problem…

I do keep a close eye on what is allowed to get mixed in with the paper.

One of the biggest sticking points we run into is x-rays that are contained within paper patient files.

It doesn’t take very many x-rays within a full load of paper to significantly diminish the recyclability of the entire load.

Consequently, there’s been more than one customer I’ve lost (or refused to take on) because they had x-rays mixed in with their paper.

It’s not practical to try to shred everything on-site while at the same time trying to separate out the x-rays for separate destruction.

I typically recommend that we provide off-site shredding services in these instances so that we can take the documents back to our facility, remove the x-rays, shred the paper documents, and then destroy the x-rays separately.

Of course, that means a lot of extra work… Which means extra cost… Which means we charge double to perform this service!

It’s kind of a bummer when the customer is faced with removing the x-rays themselves, the additional cost we charge is often a lot less then doing it yourself.

And, since I’m on the topic of what should and should not be included with your paper documents when it comes to shredding, here’s a list I’ve put together over the years:

What can be Shredded:

• White Ledger Paper
• Computer Paper
• Colored Ledger Paper
• Envelopes
• Staples
• Paper Clips
• Manila Folders
• Hanging Files
• Two Prong Fasteners
• Small Binder Clips

What can’t be Shredded:

• 3 Ring Binders
• Plastic Binders
• Plastics
• Large Metal Objects
• Plastic Bags
• Magazines
• Food or Drink Containers
• Cardboard
• Brown Bags
• Hazardous Materials
• Newspapers

I hope this helps…

So remember, not only are you getting your documents shredded, your also helping to contribute to a more renewable environment.

Until next time.

Keep Totally Secure,

Mike

“I always feel like somebody’s watching me… ” (Rockwell)

Hey Folks,

I often get questions about what should and shouldn’t get shredded…

Actually, I get that question on a daily basis!

It’s funny that sometimes customers will come in for shredding down at our facility and actually make the excuse that the stuff they are shredding isn’t even that important – However they still want to watch and make sure it all gets shredded.

And for sure, not everything that is or should be shredded is just old tax returns, utility bills, bank statements, and cancelled checks.

We see a lot of old business cards, holiday cards, and the mailing addresses ripped off of old magazines.

Perhaps this is where customers get the notion that the stuff they are shredding isn’t all that important.

First of all, I don’t judge what my customers do and don’t deem important enough to shred.

I for one shred everything. I even had a customer that brought in multiple boxes of old Playboys for shredding… Go Figure!

Second of all, there’s a very good reason to make sure everything that has your name plus any sort of contact information should be properly destroyed…

That reason is called Social Engineering.

You may or may not have heard of social engineering.

… But is goes something like this:

Let’s say you throw away a bunch of old copies of Business Week or your subscription to the Wall Street Journal.

And let’s say that this old magazine or newspaper has your name and address – Sometimes they’ll even have your phone number listed.

Now, let’s say some Jerk finds your old magazine or newspaper, with your contact information, and decides to give you a friendly reminder call…

Maybe he’ll say that your subscription is about to expire and if you would like to provide your credit card information he can continue sending your subscription without interruption.

Maybe he’ll be so cunning as to ask if you want to extend the subscription for another year for only 50% more. Or maybe he’ll even throw in the free football phone!

And on top of everything, there’s a good chance you’ll hastily pull out your credit card and provide him exactly everything he needs in order to make the charge.

If this Jerk is smart, and you’re lucky, he’ll only make a small charge on your credit card so you won’t even know you’ve been scammed.

If you’re unlucky, he’ll run up your credit card so there will be no doubt you’re the victim of I.D. Fraud.

Or perhaps, he will just put a small charge on your card and then sell the information to someone in Nigeria who will max it out.

Don’t think these Jerks exist?

… Here’s one…

His name is Kevin Mitnick and apparently his biggest problem is “Staying Legal.” Here’s the full article.

This guy spent 5 years in the hoosegow for calling up employees of various large companies such as Novell, Motorola, and Nokia and using his “schmoozing” skills “to get source code and other sensitive information.”

To good news is that this guy uses his infamous reputation to make a living as a consultant, speaker, and author (sarcastic tone).

Here’s the deal…

This guy was able to talk his way into some pretty sensitive information from people who really should have known better.

I guarantee there are loads of just as sophisticated people out there trying to pry you from your hard earned money. All they have to do is get enough contact information, with just enough relevant personal information, in order to sound believable… and then it’s just a matter of making enough phone calls.

Just this year I had someone from a cell phone company call me to settle a small bill (about $35) that supposedly was overdue. I told them to send me a bill. They wouldn’t until I confirmed some more personal information. I refused and they got upset and eventually hung up – never to call back.

So indeed, these jerks are out there (it’s not always a “he”; in my “phone company call,” it was a “she”).

But there are some precautions you can take. In a recent blog, I listed 10 Identity Fraud Prevention Tips…

Tip “Two” specifically discusses how not to fall victim to Social Engineering.

Another good tip is to shred anything that may contain your personal information… even if at first glance it may seem silly or paranoid.

In the end, I won’t think any less of you for bringing in as much as you see fit to ensure you remain free from I.D. Fraud.

Actually… Welcome to my world of Paper Shredding Paranoia!

Until next time…

Keep Totally Secure,

Mike

Hey Folks,

It looks like the end of summer is here…

All the kids are getting back to school (Last night I had my first school event where I got to meet the teachers and check out the new classroom)

Down here on the San Diego Coast, I think we actually had a few weeks of warm weather.

Not that you’ll find too many complaints around here… Paper Shredding is much more enjoyable when the temps are a bit cooler.

This summer has screened by and seems like it was just yesterday I was rearranging the shredding schedule in order to prepare for the long Memorial and 4th of July weekends.

But, no matter how fast the last few month have passed by, I’m still looking forward to a three day holiday weekend away from the grind.

Consequently, we’ll be closed this Saturday (9/04/10) and on Monday (9/06/10) for Drop-Off Shredding Services. We’ll be open again bright and early on Tuesday.

We’ve also moved all our Monday regular Monthly Shredding customers to either today (Friday) or to next Tuesday.

So, with that being said, have Safe and Secure Labor Day Weekend.

Until next time…

Keep Totally Secure,

Mike