What to do with mountains of files?

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This is a stupid question and I’m probably just procrastinating but I’ve decided it’s time to sort out my overflowing study - books to Emmaus etc. But one of the things that stops me is I really don’t know what to do with masses of papers in files - devis and project manager reports for restoring the house when we first moved here, accounts from my defunct business in the UK over 16 years ago, papers from conferences, etc, etc. It all feels like too much to put in our recycling and whereabouts would it all go if I took it to the dechetterie?

I’d be grateful for advice please from someone who’s been through this, because at the moment I’m stuck and I’m tired of the mess. :roll_eyes:

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I can sympathise but not help much. I started shredding documents a while back - mainly work-related and rather sensitive so are not going to the tip. It helps if you oil the mechanism really frequently but even so, I managed to kill the shredder :roll_eyes: Prior to that the shredded stuff did compost down quite nicely in my heap :smiley:

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Shredder, of course, but shredding only stuff that you wouldn’t want others to see.

Keep the shredder oiled - you can buy sachets of oil which you just shred in the shredder, so it’s easy.

Then make the shredded paper into briquettes to burn? How To Make Briquettes From Paper or Household Waste

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Ah yes - my approach too @Porridge . Only problem is that a normal domestic shredder just can’t deal with the quantities we have and also it takes forever feeding them through at 5-10 sheets a time.

Interesting about turning them into briquettes though - I’d not looked into that.

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We had a massive clear out before we moved. Nearly everything over 10 years old went to recycling, as did everything irrelevant to the future. Anything “sensitive” got burnt or shredded (mainly burnt as I’d probably still be doing the shredding now)

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I had the same in UK - I scanned it all then shredded it.

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Burnt all my old business files - takes the chill off right about now. If it’s not sensitive just bung it in the recycling surely.

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I’ve burnt most of the old files from our gîte and b&b days plus personal and financial papers. I don’t think a shredder would be up to it all! But the briquette idea does sound interesting.

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I would save these, always helpful info if you ever decide to sell

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Oh I am so lazy these days - use a professional service? This is one example there are many others.

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That sounds interesting. I’m not sure about all this burning thing though - surely we’re not supposed to have bonfires?
None of it is confidential so I don’t think I need to shred it.
Fair point @JohnBoy but I’ve got three of everything as we had a project manager who got us quotes - at least I can get rid of two of the three - I’ve got a whole shelf load just on the build.

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I think professional burning is high temperature sealed burns that produce much less smoke and are not as polluting.

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Buy a sheet feed scanner and a good shredder. I’ve everything scanned. It took a bit of time but I’d no decisions to make and no worries that I what I was shredding was the the one document I’d need in the fiture.

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If that is the case then simply rip everything in 2 or 4 and place the bits in separate recycle bins.

I am a terrible hoarder and, after filling 2 filing cabinets to bursting now have a 10 cm high pile on an old desk. I know it can’t be dumped as I have so much trouble searching through it to find stuff I need from time to time. And if I need to do that, it obviously can’t be trashed.

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I thought France paperasse required all documents to be kept for eternity and beyond and in triplicate :slight_smile:

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Yes, but they don’t need to require me, I keep everything anyway. :slightly_frowning_face:

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Only if you are a gerbil, when 7 years would be an enternity.

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I’m sure that would be fine. I’m just commenting on @Mark and @chrisell and @Fleur who all said they burnt theirs.

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We burn sensitive stuff in the wood burner.

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Oh good - so that means my procrastination is doing just fine as it will be weeks before we need to use the wood fire. :slight_smile: Thirty degrees plus again next week. :roll_eyes:

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