Do you have to remove staples before running papers through a small shredder?

I definitely would. We have a bigger one in my office at work and that one I can put staples through but I would not try it with the smaller versions that people typically have at home.

My small home one handles staples just fine.

I don’t. Stapled stuff gets shopped up too. Just not too many pages at a time.

My shredder has a slot for CDs and DVDs and those are hard plastic. A little staple isn’t going to be a problem.

When in doubt, RTFM. The manual says “yes” to staples. Woohoo! I am a shredding queen.

^^^ You go, girl!

I burn through a couple of small shredders each year. Despite this being the age of electronic communications, much of what I do ends up on paper. I need to protect my client’s sensitive information, so I join you as your Shredding Co-Queen. Staples have never been a problem.

Shredded paper with no staples is the best for my wood burning stove. Of course I will take shredded stuff with staples. They light off so quickly and ignite the wood beautifully. I also use it to start fires in my fire pit. S’mores anyone?

If we were neighbors I’d offer to take your bags of shreds.

I do for the small shredder I have at home. For large shredders at businesses or if you bring it to a shredding service you don’t need to.

Varies from machine to machine. Some handle desktop ones fine, larger ones not so good.
Check the spec versus the model number online.

Cross cut and confetti cut paper shredders are the way to go for most secure shredding.

^^ See my conclusion above.

I knew a guy who printed out all his Twitter responses and then shredded them.

Shredded Tweet.

RTFM foo sure!

You made me look – - both shredders in the house can handle staples.

No.

I’ve been disassembling staples in my cheap shredder for a decade. Though that isn’t much of a test, I am paper averse so it gets light duty. I am all-electronic for bank statements, tax returns, etc.

Fun shredder story: I worked high-security IT support job with hard-drive shredders. Whenever a computer or copier or anything else with on-board memory was retired, we removed the pieces and fed them to the jaws of doom. We wore face shields to protect against shrapnel. Good times.

Quit making me laugh!! It hurts my neck!

In case you wanted to know where the word “shrapnel” came from (used above):

Henry Shrapnel (born June 3, 1761, Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire, Eng.—died March 13, 1842, Southampton, Hampshire) was an artillery officer and inventor of a form of artillery case shot. Commissioned in the Royal Artillery in 1779, he served in Newfoundland, Gibraltar, and the West Indies and was wounded in Flanders in the Duke of York’s unsuccessful campaign against the French in 1793. In 1804 he became an inspector of artillery and spent several years at Woolwich arsenal.