Fellowes Powershred Paper Shredder

When this first arrived, putting it together took a couple minutes at most. I started out by taking some of the junk mail that came in the mail that same day and put it to the test. To my surprise, it handled it very well! I could see the thicker junk mail becoming a hassle with it as when you put in a piece of mail or what have you, it will tell you how burdened the shredder is based on how thick the paper is that you put into it. You can gauge pretty quickly what you can and can't put through this thing. I personally bought this because I find myself throwing away a LOT of mail that has my personal information on it and that makes me uncomfortable. Already, this shredder has brought me a lot of comfort knowing someone won't be able to go through my trash and open up a huge line of credit under my name. You just never know these days and can never be too safe. Never again will I throw away whole pieces of mail! I also have a lot of government documents with my social security number on them that will find their new home in the wastebasket of this shredder, too! Probably the most surprising aspect of this shredder is how quiet it operates! I was very surprised as was my roommate at how quiet it is. It's WAY quieter than the one I've become accustomed to at work where we shred our sensitive documents. Overall, I would highly recommend this. Yeah, the price is steep but if you want something that's built to last and is very high quality, I proudly say this would receive my highest recommendation for paper shredders. FYI, it comes with a little bottle of lube so don't feel like you HAVE to buy a bigger bottle right off the bat like I did. I'm glad I did because I won't have to do it later but for someone who is unsure whether they need one or not and is on a budget, it's definitely not an essential purchase right off the bat. UPDATE: 3/31/2014 I just shredded a Bowflex Catalog and it made mincemeat out of it. I've filled and emptied the trash basket probably 3 full times now. That's a LOT of shredding, and so far 99% of the things that I throw its way it can handle with no problem. This was a great purchase for my home office.