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Post by spatiallychallengd on Jun 13, 2008 13:24:50 GMT -5
I am looking for ideas on how to organize my paper shredder and my paper recycling.
We have a large paper shredder, about a couple of feet tall. And I also need some way to corral the paper that is waiting to get shredded (when the shredder gets too hot) and the paper recycling. We have a decent amount of paper to recycle. We get a daily newspaper. It gets left all over the place-- a huge mess. Right now I have the paper shredder near the mail cabinet/sorter and I like that area. But I need something where I put the paper recycling too. What sort of thing might work well? In the kitchen we have a larger container for the cans and plastics but paper tends to be heavier as well... Right now we use a random empty cardboard box or a bag. Its not a good system. And we only have that half the time. I was thinking of a shelf or table or something for these things-- any thoughts on where I would find an affordable one? (My husband says he will always build stuff-- but I don't want to wait forever to be organized).
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Post by peppermint66 on Jun 13, 2008 16:56:55 GMT -5
a milk crate orone of those square stacking crates works wonderfully well for corralling paper.
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Post by syzygy on Jun 13, 2008 20:23:32 GMT -5
Where are you when you're handling paper that's likely to be shredded?
I have a 2-step process. Downstairs next to the front door is a paper grocery bad into which I drop all the junk mail. When the bag is filled up, I carry it out that door and to the curb for recycling. (Spare paper bags are under the one being used.)
The mail that makes it upstairs goes into my "Inbox". Once I'm ready to do something with it, I take the stack (I only do this once in a while) to my desk. Right next to the desk is a regular small garbage bin and another grocery bag for recycled paper. As I go through the mail, I toss whatever I can into the appropriate container.
The stuff I need to shred is usually credit card applications which have my name on them, bills, etc. That goes into a pile on my desk as I'm going through the pile.
A short rolling chair push away is my shredder, which is back out of the way. If there are only a few pages to shred, I put them on top of the shredder (I do the shredding in spurts). If there are a bunch, I shred them right away. Once the shredder is full, the shreds go into a grocery bag and onto the steps for recycling.
That works for me. See what works for you. Where do you put your mail now? Where do you open it? Is there a place that seems to "naturally" collect to-be-shredded stuff? Or junk mail? Set things up there.
You probably care more about how things look than I do. I don't mind having grocery bags of recycling on my stairs, but you might. So you might want to use nice bins for the grocery bags and find something like a wicker in-box kind of thing to put on top of the shredder to collect stuff you want to shred. Once the in-box is full, its shredding time. By keeping the in-box small, you have to shred more often.
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Post by spatiallychallengd on Jun 20, 2008 14:42:47 GMT -5
we have some stuff near our entry way which is where it collects. I have an idea for a system or two-- but its how to set it up that baffles me. I think I need a table or shelf or something. Otherwise I know that the container to hold paper recycling will drift. Other things will get thrown in there-- "temporarily" laid across top, etc. And its really hard for me to try and keep things neat and organized esp when bits of paper are involved without a hard structure to help shape out the area.
Maybe some colorful recycling bins/bags will help. Or maybe I could do one of those bench things that have the cubbies in them. I could possibly put my shredder on top of it, and then put containers to hold the recycling in the cubbies. This is an area where the mail cabinet would be directly across from it with a small trash bin under it I am thinking (not right dimensions to put piece there) and this could go under command central sort of cuppord I have. Or I could see about switching those cabinets.... Of course I would need or want to do something else with surface of bench if that is what I used. I could put some baskets on top maybe to contain large things that we want for our "command center" and for comming and going as we rush about-- sweaters some days, someone's water bottle, etc. I'm not sure. I'd also like some space of some sort to put the laptop and hook up the small scanner for bill opening, etc. I suppose with a bench I could move those sorts of baskets and have enough room on the surface for that...
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