Small Paper Shredders for Desktop, Tabletop and Kitchen Counter
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Space-saving portable paper shredder machines
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Are you looking for a compact shredder that doesn’t take up much space in your home or office? You are then looking for a small shredder that is small enough to fit under or on your desk and can be stored away easily in a closet. For secure shredding of personal documents, we recommend using a cross-cut or micro-cut desktop shredder. These types of shredding machines produce small paper shreds instead of long (still readable) paper strips.
Top 10 Small Shredders
A compact desk shredder is light and portable so you can grab it when you need shredding.
Top 6 Small-Sized Document Shredders
We recommend the mini paper shredders below for light-duty shredding. The shredders won’t take up too much space and are relatively affordable. You can store the paper shredder out of sight easily or place it pretty much everywhere in your home or office.
#1 | Aurora AU820MA – 8 Sheets
Small high security micro-cut shredder
Our Top Pick
The Aurora AU820MA is a compact micro-cut shredder that offers high security and is perfect for moderate daily use. This shredder can shred eight sheets per pass in DIN P-4 particles. The shredder has a relatively sizeable 4.8-gallon wastebasket. Besides confidential paperwork, this unit also shreds CDs, DVDs, credit cards, and small paperclips or staples. It is easy to empty the wastebasket because of the integrated single-hand lifting handle.
- Security level: Micro-cut
- Dimensions: 12.5 x 8.9 x 15.7 inches
- Weight: 14 pounds
- Sheet capacity: 8 pages
- Bin capacity: 4.8 gallons
- App. price: $70
#2 | Bonsaii C204-C – 6 Sheets
Affordable and basic desktop shredder
The Bonsaii 6-Sheet Cross-Cut Paper Shredder is an affordable and small cross-cut paper shredder. The 3.5-gallon lift-up bin can hold 100 sheets of shredder A4 documents. Through the transparent window, you can see when the container is full. The shredder can shred up to 6 sheets per pass for four minutes straight before the shredder needs to cool down. The high sheet capacity and 4 minute cooldown time makes it perfect for occasional shredding at home. The shredding part containing the motor can be removed easily with the convenient handle to empty the wastebasket when it is full.
- Security level: Cross-cut
- Dimensions: 11.9 x 7.4 x 15.2 inches
- Weight: 8,69 pounds
- Sheet capacity: 6 pages
- Bin capacity: 3.5 gallons
- App. price: $50
#3 | Aurora AS420C – 4 Sheets
Tiny desktop-style cross-cut paper shredder
The Aurora AS420C is a very small and portable cross-cut shredder. The top of this mini shredder contains a handle, so you can easily grab and transport it anywhere you want. The feed opening is only 4.5 inches wide, so you need to fold your documents before shredding. The small wastebasket can hold the shredder particles of 40 papers. Besides paper, it can also shred your old credit cards. The Aurora is perfect for light-duty use, and the small and compact design makes it ideal for countertop placement.
- Security level: Cross-cut
- Dimensions: 9 x 7 x 10 inches
- Weight: 8 ounces
- Sheet capacity: 4 pages
- Bin capacity: 1.32 gallons
- App. price: $33
#4 | Aurora AU1200XD – 12 Sheets
Shred paper, CDs, credit cards and junk mail
The Aurora AU1200XD is our top pick for a small paper shredder because this machine offers the total package. Besides the small footprint and lightweight, it shreds pretty much the same as a regular shredder. The cross-cut shredder destroys your confidential documents, CDs, DVDs, credit cards, staples, and even small paper clips. The desktop-style shredder is quiet, has anti-jam reverse functionality, and is safe to thanks to ‘shred safe’ technology.
- Security level: Cross-cut
- Dimensions: 13.2 x 9.9 x 11.8 inches
- Weight: 17.2 pounds
- Sheet capacity: 12 pages
- Bin capacity: 1.8 gallons
- App. price: $95
#5 | Fellowes 12MS30 Powershred – 12 Sheets
Small but mighty deskside shredder
The Fellowes 12MS30 Powershred is not the smallest shredder on this list. However, the Fellowes much power for its size. Moreover, the wheels make it easy to move. It can run for an impressive 30 minutes before needing a cooling down break, and it can handle staples, paper clips, credit cards, and unopened junk mail. Finally, it features Safe Sense Technology, which stops shredding when hands touch the paper opening, therefore protecting your privacy but also your hands.
- Security level: Micro-cut
- Dimensions: 10.13 x 13.5 x 22.25 inches
- Weight: 22.5 pounds
- Sheet capacity: 12 pages
- Bin capacity: 6 gallons
- App. price: $160
#6 | Fellowes Powershred 9C – 9 Sheets
Powerful & quiet shredder from Fellowes
The Fellowes Powershred 9C is a cross-cut shredder that offers good value for money. The shredder is small, shreds up to 9 sheets per pass in cross-cut particles (security level P-4), and can also shred plastic credit cards, staples, and paper clips. For its class, it can shred relatively high volumes of documents. Besides, it is easy to use and operates quietly. It is a decent deskside shredder for your home office, it fits nicely under the desk, and it does an excellent job of shredding.
- Security level: Cross-cut
- Dimensions: 7.75 x 12.12 x 13.75 inches
- Weight: 9.35 pounds
- Sheet capacity: 9 pages
- Bin capacity: 3.8 gallons
- App. price: $65
More about portable shredders
Why use a small shredder?
There are multiple reasons why people buy a small-sized paper shredder instead of a larger-sized model. The most important reason is that it saves up space because of its small footprint. But what are other arguments for buying and not buying this type of shredder? Let’s compare the pros and cons of small shredders:
You don’t want a big and bulky shredder but a small and compact shredder that takes up very little space.
Pros:
- Small footprint takes up very little space.
- Fits under a desk or on a table or kitchen counter.
- Hideaway and bring it out when you need it.
- Less expensive than a regular-sized shredder.
- Lightweight and easy to carry around.
- Great for light and occasional shredding at home.
- Perfect to store away until you need to shred documents.
- Small enough to fit in an RV or small apartment.
- Easy to carry around and transport while traveling.
Cons:
- Can only be used for light-duty shredding.
- Short run-times and less powerful.
- Small wastebaskets that are filled up quickly.
- Some small shredders have a small feed opening so you need to fold your documents before shredding.
- Most are not powerful enough to shred multiple documents at once.
- Most can’t shred CDs, DVDs, or credit cards.
- Most of the small shredders are top-heavy and can fall over.
- Tends to jam more often.
For who is a small shredder for?
A mini paper shredder commonly gets used at home for occasional shredding of confidential documents with personal information on them, such as bank statements, receipts, or documents with social security numbers, addresses, or credit card numbers. These are documents you want to shred and destroy before you recycle them. Small desktop or tabletop shredders can also be used for shredding (unopened) junk mail or even credit cards, but it all depends on the shredding machine’s features and capabilities.
Compare small shredders with everyday products:
Stored out of sight
Some owners of small shredders store their unit away in a closet. It stands there not because the shredder was a wrong purchase but because the machine is only used occasionally by its user. Because small shredders are portable and lightweight machines, they can be grabbed at any time for destroying some occasional documents.
Therefore there is no need to have the paper shredder available all the time. Besides, the shredding machine is out of sight and doesn’t take up floor space. Saving floor space is incredibly convenient when you live in a, respectively, small home or apartment, or you don’t have a lot of space available. You can also place the small shredder under a desk, hence the name ‘deskside shredder,’ or put it on the counter of a table or kitchen cupboard.
Take the shredder wherever you go
Some people travel the world in their RV and feel the need to shred documents while traveling. A small paper shredder is desirable in this situation because it requires little space in your motorhome.
Small shredding machines are also used professionally to shred commercial documents with confidential information anywhere they need to travel for work. The shredder is small enough to travel with and is easy to carry around and set up.
When is a small shredding machine not recommended?
The purpose of a small-sized paper shredder is light-duty shredding of your sensitive paperwork. Light-duty means shredding just a few documents every once in a while. We don’t recommend these types of paper shredders for large ‘catch-up’ shredding or high volume shredding. It will be a real hassle to shred large amounts of paperwork with a shredder with a short run-time, low sheet capacity, and small-sized wastebasket.
I bought a small shredder but I should have bought a bigger one for larger shredding projects.
When you desire a shredder machine that can shred multiple sheets per pass, we suggest a regular-sized paper shredder. Some owners of smaller paper shredders regret their purchase later because of the low capacity of these machines.
Check best paper shredders homePaper shredder size comparison
So how small is a ‘small paper shredder’? It all depends on what you consider ‘small’. But generally a tabletop shredder is a unit that won’t take up a lot of space and features these specifications:
- A small footprint with dimensions similar to: 13 x 10 x 12 inches.
- Lightweight around 15 – 20 pounds.
- Affordable price around $50.
- Low sheet capacity of 1-5 sheets per pass.
- Small-sized wastebasket of around 3 gallons.
- Easy to set up and use.
Compare shredder sizes:
Opt for a cross-cut or micro-cut shredder
The reason most people buy a paper shredder is to shred and destroy confidential documents. They don’t want to throw away confidential documents with personal information on it with the risk of data- or identity theft. In this case, it is essential to make use of a shredder that makes the documents unreadable. Unreadable in this context means you should get at least a cross-cut shredder. This type of shredder destroys your record in tiny particles instead of long strips, known as strip-cut shredding.
Do you prefer higher security? Then it would be best if you are looking for a small micro-cut shredder. These types of shredders produce even smaller shreds in comparison to cross-cut shredding machines.
Check Micro-cut shreddersHandheld shredders without waste basket
The smallest paper shredder is a handheld shredder that doesn’t contain a wastebasket. The shredder only contains the shredding part with the motor and doesn’t include a wastebasket to hold the shredded paper particles.
There are paper shredders without a wastebasket that you can install on the universal trash or recycling bin. But there are also even smaller handheld shredding devices that you can hold in your hand while shredding a document.
For safe and secure shredding, we don’t recommend using these types of shredders.
Check our buying guide
Do you want to know more about paper shredders? Take a look at our paper shredder guide or go to our main paper shredder category page.
Paper shredders for home or office
- Best Paper Shredders for Home Use Under $100
- Best Paper Shredder for Small Business or Small Office
- Best Paper Shredder for Heavy Duty Shredding
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By Recycling.com/ 12 June 2019