If you are like me, I have lots of paper documents which have accumulated over the years.

Past business documents, inherited papers from parents and grandparents, your kids report cards (and some of our own), tax returns, etc..

Many of these documents have confidential information on them, so simply adding to the recycling bin is not prudent.

You want to get rid of them, however fear that you will need something in the future.

It can be paralyzing, you want to do something, however are frozen into inaction.  Scanning it gives you permission to “release” the paper, knowing you can find it if needed.

Wanted to share my recent experience and hope it helps.

My wife and I committed to get rid of the clutter stored in our basement.

We purchased an Epson ES-580W scanner.  My sister told me about a different Epson model she purchased (she wanted to scan photos).  Note there a number of Epson models to meet your specific needs.  There are other brands which accomplish the same, your choice.

Figure out what you need and find a model that matches that need.

Buy on Amazon.smile and add Cincinnati SAR as a charitable organization to help us out with some “cash back” to the CCSAR.

We needed a unit which would gobble up many years of stored 8 1/2″ x 11″ sheets of paper.

This baby will scan 50 sheets of paper, double sided in no time.  It will continue to add pages to a single PDF document until you tell it you are finished and save it as / where you like.

Store these PDF documents in an organized file system on your computer to permit finding them.  Always add these new file to your file backups to assure you are protected in the event of an emergency.

It will not copy items taped or stapled to a sheet of paper, so those need to be removed and the individual receipts can be center orientated and fed into the machine.  It does not like staples, so those need to be removed.  The little time spent making sure the documents are in good order will save you time.  We noted it doesn’t care if it is a standard 11″ page or 14″ (legal) documents.

Our experience was simply awesome!

At this point, we have created 18 banker boxes of paper to be shredded.  We have contracted with a service which stops at our home (or business) and grinds the documents on the spot.  They stop by tomorrow and I can report on our experience with them.

This topic may not be SAR specific, however is intended to be a “Member Benefit”.

There is now an empty section of shelves in my basement, my wife and I are feeling good about our effort.  These documents are now on our computer and backed up to an external source – hows that for document protection!

Good luck with your efforts to reduce and downsize!

Happier New Year!

UPDATE 1/11/2023

We had the on-site shredding company arrive at our home.  They took our 18 copy paper boxes full of paper to be shredded.  They completed the shredding at the end or our driveway.  We watched them stuff the boxes into the grinder/shredder.  Took about 15 minutes!  They did a fantastic job and this completed our “clean out effort”.

Sharing the following for you to reach out to them to discuss your needs and how / if they can help you.  Please do your own research and vetting of the vendor.  We are not selling their services, just providing you a potential resource and solution to your need.  You make the decision to use them if it makes sense for you.

The contact info for the company we used is:

• Erth Systems Shredding
• 937-470-2593
• gaines4321@yahoo.com
• https://erthsystemsshredding.com