We have had a paper shredder for a few years, but it’s a light-duty one. It only eats paper, a couple of sheets at a time. It doesn’t handle bank cards, computer CDs and a few other items that really should be destroyed before going to a trash bin.

And it takes so long to get a pile of paper eaten up that we kept putting off the chore.

That’s why two full office boxes of shred-worthy documents have been taking up space in my closet for about a year.

I got busy a couple of weeks ago and have since sent out about three trash bins full of shredded documents to the curb for trash pickup.

But we’ve still got another box of documents to clear out.

Well, my husband has one of those “rewards” credit cards. Recently, we looked through the offers he could take advantage of with his rewards points.

The one that got our attention was a gift card to Staples.

Hmm … that has possibilities.

He sent away for the gift card. He took that gift card and his Staples rewards certificate (store loyalty program) and bought a powerful shredder that normally retails for about $100 for only $22 out-of-pocket.

He started the “shred party” with the new shredder yesterday.

The light-duty shredder will go to our college-age daughter because she doesn’t have any such equipment yet.

Now here’s the twist: many of the credit card statements, offers and “paper checks” that are getting munched up in our shredder work sessions are from the company whose account provided us with the Staples gift card in the first place.

That’s a perfect purchase for those reward points, don’t you think?