Destroying confidential documents at home: what you can do yourself and when to call for help
Half of all people have somewhere in the house a drawer, a box or a folder full of old documents they ‘mean to go through one day’. Tax returns from 2009, bank statements from a closed account, copies of an expired passport, an old employment contract from an employer three jobs ago.
Those documents contain personal data: your citizen service number, your account number, your address, your salary. If they end up unshredded in the waste-paper bin, or worse, unknowingly with the rubbish, you run the risk of identity fraud, exactly the type of data breach the Dutch Data Protection Authority enforces against. And although the GDPR is formally written for companies, the risks of poorly destroyed paper apply to everyone.
This article gives you a practical guide: what to keep, what may go, how to destroy it safely at home and when a professional collection service is the better choice.
Which documents are confidential at home?
Not every piece of paper calls for shredding. But the following categories contain data with which a malicious person can do a lot of damage:
- Bank statements and credit card overviews, account number, IBAN, transaction history
- Payslips, citizen service number, income, employer, bank details
- Tax returns and assessments, BSN, assets, address, income
- Copies of passport or ID card, photo, BSN, document number
- Care declarations and medical overviews, diagnosis codes, treatments
- Correspondence with your bank, insurer or employer, account numbers, policy numbers
- Old employment contracts, salary, address, bank account
- Mortgage documents, assets, mortgage amount, property address
- Notarial deeds and wills (drafts), ownership data, inheritance data
- Registration forms (sport, school, energy), personal data, sometimes BSN
How long do you keep what at home?
Private individuals have no formal GDPR retention obligation, but there are practical guidelines to avoid problems:
| Document | Keep until |
|---|---|
| Tax return | 5 years after filing (for objection and additional assessment) |
| Bank statements | 2 to 3 years (for complaints and disputes) |
| Medical bills / care declarations | Until the final settlement is correct |
| Warranty certificates and receipts | As long as the warranty runs |
| Insurance policies | As long as the policy is active plus 1 year |
| Purchase / rental agreement of home | As long as you live there plus 5 years |
| Employment contract | As long as you are employed plus 5 years |
| Mortgage documents | As long as the mortgage runs plus 10 years |
| ID copy (old passport) | Destroy as soon as you have a new document |
Destroying it yourself, how do you do it well?
Choose at least a P-4 cross-cut machine
Strip-cut shredders produce long strips that are still legible. Cross-cut and micro-cut machines produce small shreds that can no longer be reconstructed. Look on the device for ‘DIN 66399 P-4’ or higher.
Destroy credit cards, bank cards and health cards too
Cutting in half is not enough. Cut the chip and magnetic stripe separately, or use a shredder that also processes plastic cards.
Do not throw the shreds in one bag
Throw shreds in several portions or mix them with coffee grounds or wet paper. More tips on what does and does not belong in the paper bin can be found in what does not belong in the paper container.
When is a professional collection service the better choice?
You have more than two or three boxes
Home shredders are not built for large volumes. A professional collection service picks up your boxes, destroys them at P-5 level and you spend less than an hour on it.
There are hard drives, SSDs or old phones included
A home shredder cannot handle these. And formatting a phone or ‘wiping’ a hard drive is not the same as destroying it, read why in wiping versus destroying a hard drive. A factory reset on an Android or iOS device does not remove the data permanently. Physical destruction is the only certainty.
You are clearing an estate
With an inheritance you deal with documents of the deceased: bank papers, medical documents, notarial deeds. Professional destruction with a certificate is the most careful route.
You also have business documents at home
If you are a freelancer or work from home, you probably have client paper, invoices and possibly employment contracts. Those do fall under the GDPR and require a Certificate of Destruction.
Home collection for private individuals, how does it work?
DeSnipperaar also collects at home for private individuals, the same rates as business, no minimum volume, no contract. The most common home situations:
- Moving: Fewer boxes of old paper means lower moving costs.
- Estate / inheritance: A one-off collection at the parental home.
- Attic or cellar clean-up: Stacks of records from the past twenty years.
- Old laptops and hard drives: Physical destruction of the drive when discarding.
Rates (excl. 21% VAT): From € 30 for the first box, € 25 per extra box. Hard drives from € 9 per unit, with certificate and serial-number registration.
Checklist for home
- Tax papers older than 5 years
- Bank statements older than 3 years from closed accounts
- Copies of expired ID documents
- Payslips from more than 7 years ago
- Medical bills that have been settled and are older than 2 years
- Warranty certificates for devices you no longer own
- Insurance policies for closed insurances
- Old employment contracts from more than 7 years ago
- Old address book with handwritten details of others
- Credit cards and bank cards no longer in use
We collect at your home too
The same rates as business, no minimum, a certificate with every order. When moving, dealing with an estate or clearing an attic full of records.
Request a quoteFrequently asked questions
May I just throw my bank statements in the paper bin?
No. Bank statements contain your account number, IBAN and transaction history. That is data that makes identity fraud possible. Always destroy them.
Do I have to consider the GDPR as a private individual?
The GDPR is about personal data you process about others. As a private individual you usually do not fall under it for your own records. But the risks (identity fraud, theft) are the same.
How do I destroy a hard drive at home?
You cannot safely destroy a hard drive at home without specialist equipment. Have it collected by a destruction service that physically crushes it. More on this in how is a hard drive shredded?
What do I do with the passport of someone who has died?
An expired passport of a deceased person does not need to be handed in at the municipality. Destroy it safely by shredding or via a destruction service.
Is there a minimum volume for a home collection?
Not at DeSnipperaar. One box is already collectable. You can also have only data carriers destroyed without any paper.
May I throw my old records out with the waste paper if I have shredded them?
If you used a P-4 or P-5 machine: yes, the shreds can be disposed of safely. Make sure you mix the shreds and do not throw them out as recognisable blocks.
Conclusion
Handling confidential documents well at home is a small investment that considerably reduces identity fraud and privacy risks. A good cross-cut shredder covers most everyday needs.
Do you have a larger clean-up, an estate to process, or also hard drives and old phones? Then a professional home collection is the fastest and most demonstrable solution.
We collect at your home too. Call us or request a quote via desnipperaar.nl. The same rates as business, no minimum, a certificate with every order.