Refi wave spawns latest amenity: The basement shredder

The current wave of refinancing has produced a glut of highly confidential information wending paper trails through a co-op or condo near you.

With some of this information turning up (legibly so) in the trash, one managing agent is recommending that buildings outfit their laundry rooms with a commercial-grade paper shredder to encourage proper slicing and dicing.

“You put them in the laundry room because it allows board members to access it easily in lieu of a shredder in their apartment,” says Michael Wolfe, the president of Midboro Management.  “Find something that not only does paper but also compact disks, and put the child guard on so kids don’t get their hands caught in it.”

Residents can also use the shredder for sensitive documents to ward off identity theft. 

Depending on the amount of use the electric chomper is likely to get, Wolfe recommends choosing between two commercial-grade shredders available through Staples. One retails for $399; the other for $999.

Some buildings that have a room set aside for board use opt to privatize their shredders there, but the basement shredder sounds like a great amenity to us: The last two (cheaper) household models we bought died within a week. We gave up and went back to burying sensitive stuff in the sloppiest depths of our kitchen garbage.