How many times do you tear it in half if you are trashing an accounts document or similar at work?

How many times do you tear it in half if you are trashing an accounts document or similar at work?
You can buy shredders quite cheaply in office supply stores and I have even seen them in supermarkets (in UK). I bought one the other day for £11.99 which is about US$20. That was for home use. For office use buy a more powerful one, still not expensive in the great scheme of things.They are much more efficient, quicker and fun to use, a great job for the office junior or the work experience kid.If you shred the documents and then separate the pieces the identity thieves will move on to someone who is not so diligent. Answer I mainly tear up things at work by hand. The secret is to only tear two or three sheets up at a time. You can tear them in half three or four times quite easily and then tear off a small piece from the bundle, and continue tearing small pieces of the bundle until the bundle is itself a small piece. You can tear sheets 10 or 12 times like that and end up with pieces the size of postage stamps or smaller. It's as quick as a shredder if you don't have masses to do and much more fun! When you've finished doing a few sheets, mix all the little clumps of pieces round with your hand to break them all up. They'll be impossible to reconstruct after that. Hope it helps. Sara.