Drowning in Paper

So I’m breaking in a new shredder because I busted the old one. No fault of the older machine, a very nice model by Fellowes, but of the operator who forgot to check his junk mail to make sure there wasn’t one of those fake credit cards in it before he put it through the shredder and completely jammed up the machine. I really hate shredding my mail. The breakdown is usually

  • 30% credit card solicitations
  • 30% political donation solicitations
  • 10% student loan consolidation solicitation
  • 30% desperate pleas from various charitable organizations with noble purposes, no awareness that grad students and recently-graduated students are not the most fertile ground for philanthropy, and an unerring capacity to make me feel like the most uncaring schmuck on the planet.

On the other hand, it is nice to have a lot of that paper someplace other than the office floor. I’ll take the small victories where I can get ’em.