Updated November 2026 · Southern New Hampshire
What to shred before moving: a southern NH checklist
A move is the one week your whole paper life sits in open boxes, in a hallway, in front of strangers. Here is what to shred before moving, what rides with you in a go-bag, and how to set up USPS forwarding so your mail does not wander.
99¢ per pound at our Tewksbury drop-off. Certificate of Destruction on every job.
- 99¢ per pound
- Since 2007
- BBB A+ rated
- No appointment for drop-off
Quick answer
Before moving, shred anything that shows your name next to an account number, Social Security number, policy number, signature or health detail that you no longer need: old bank and card statements, pay stubs, tax years past the IRS three-year period, medical bills, closed-account letters and pre-approved credit offers. Keep your IDs, the new lease or closing papers and a medication list in a go-bag that travels with you, and file a USPS change of address, which forwards First-Class Mail for 12 months. New Hampshire Document Shredding shreds a move’s paper at 1215 Main Street, Unit 115, Tewksbury, MA for 99 cents a pound plus $34.90 per job, so a single banker’s box costs $64.60. It is the same residential shredding service every NH household gets, timed to your moving date.
What to shred before moving out of a southern NH home
Most people think about furniture, a truck and the closing date. Paper comes last, usually at midnight, packed into whatever box is left. That is how a drawer of old statements ends up in a stack of unmarked cartons on a driveway in Nashua or a hallway in a Manchester triple-decker.
A move puts your records in front of more people than any other week of the year. Movers, helpers, the next tenant, a cleaning crew and anyone walking past an open garage all get a look. Boxes get left in storage units, borrowed trucks and the back of a relative’s basement for months.
The fix is simple and it saves money too. Shred the paper you do not need before the movers arrive, so you never pay to haul it. Carry the papers you cannot replace yourself. Then set up forwarding so the next round of statements follows you instead of landing in the old mailbox.
Our counter rule for moves: if you would not hand the page to a stranger, and you will not need it at the new place, it goes in the shred box. If you are not sure, put it in the keep box and decide after you unpack.
The shred pile: what to shred before moving, room by room
Paper hides all over a house. Work room by room and you will find most of it in an afternoon. These are the piles we see in almost every moving-week box at the Tewksbury counter.
Desk and filing cabinet
Bank and credit card statements you have checked and no longer need for taxes, canceled checks, old check registers and statements for accounts you closed. Our post on whether to shred old bank statements covers the timing.
Tax folders
Returns and supporting papers for years past the IRS period of limitations, which is generally three years, plus drafts and printouts from tax software. Check the longer periods first in our tax record retention guide.
Kitchen counter mail pile
Pre-approved credit offers, balance transfer checks, insurance solicitations and anything with your name on a reply form. Our list of junk mail to shred separates the risky pieces from catalogs.
Medicine cabinet and file box
Explanations of benefits, paid medical bills, pharmacy printouts, old insurance cards and prescription labels. Peel the labels off empty bottles before they go in the recycling.
Home office and work bag
Pay stubs that match your W-2, old employee badges, benefit enrollment packets and printed work email. If you run a business from home, client paper belongs in its own sealed box.
Garage and basement boxes
The cartons nobody has opened since the last move. Car loan papers after the title arrived, old leases, utility bills and warranty cards for things you no longer own.
Leave the staples in. You do not need to remove staples, paper clips, binder clips, rubber bands or file folders. Pull three-ring binder hardware and hanging-folder frames. Old phones, laptops, CDs and USB sticks go in a separate bag, since they are physically destroyed and quoted per item on our hard drive destruction page.
Sort every paper with three questions
Sorting stalls when every sheet becomes a debate. Ask three questions in the same order each time and the piles build themselves. The diagram below is the version we sketch for customers on the back of a receipt.
Label boxes by purpose, not by room
Movers sort by the word on the side. A box marked “office” goes wherever the office is. A box marked “keep, papers, do not open” goes where you tell it. Never write “tax returns” or “bank” on the outside of a carton that will sit in a truck.
Give yourself a deadline
The shred box should leave the house at least a week before moving day. After that, the kitchen is full of tape guns and nobody has time to think. A box that is still in the hallway on the last morning gets loaded with everything else.
What goes in the go-bag, not the moving truck
A go-bag is a small bag or a lidded file box that you carry yourself, in your own car, from the old door to the new one. It holds the papers you cannot easily replace and the ones you will need in the first 30 days. Movers never touch it.
Keep it light. A go-bag that weighs 40 pounds is a moving box with a nicer name. If a paper is only needed once a year, it belongs in the keep box, not the bag.
Put the bag somewhere obvious the night before, such as the front seat of the car. The most common moving story we hear is a passport packed in a box labeled “kitchen” that did not turn up for three weeks.
- Driver’s licenses, passports, birth certificates and Social Security cards for everyone in the house.
- The new lease, or the closing papers, deed and homeowner’s insurance binder for the new place.
- The moving company contract, the inventory sheet and the estimate.
- A medication list, current prescriptions and insurance cards for each person.
- Car titles and registrations, which you will need to re-register at the new address.
- School records and vaccination forms if children are changing schools.
- The most recent pay stub and bank statement, which landlords and utilities often ask to see.
- Checkbook, spare keys and a list of every account you need to notify of the new address.
The keep box: papers that move with you
Some paper is not needed next week but cannot be shredded yet. It travels in a sealed box that you load last and unload first. For taxes, the IRS sets the clock with its periods of limitations. For the rest, a short table settles most of it.
| Paper | Keep for | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Tax returns and supporting records | At least 3 years after filing | IRS general period of limitations |
| Returns where you left out income over 25 percent of gross income | 6 years | IRS period for omitted income |
| Records for a bad debt deduction or worthless securities loss | 7 years | IRS period for those claims |
| Purchase and improvement records for the home you are selling | Until the limitations period runs for the year you sell | IRS: property records are kept until the period expires for the year of disposal |
| Household employment tax records, such as a nanny’s pay | At least 4 years | IRS employment tax rule |
| Wills, deeds, car titles, insurance policies in force | Keep the originals | Hard or slow to replace |
The IRS adds a caution worth repeating. Before you discard records you no longer need for taxes, check whether anyone else needs them, because insurance companies or creditors may ask you to keep some records longer. A mortgage lender at the new house may also want a recent statement or two.
If you are selling a home in New Hampshire, keep the improvement receipts with the closing packet. They help you work out the gain when you sell. A kitchen remodel invoice from 2014 is not clutter until that sale year has aged out.
USPS change of address: set it up before you shred
Shredding the old paper is half the job. The other half is stopping new paper from landing at an address you no longer control. The Postal Service handles that with a change of address request, and the details matter more than most people expect.
How to file
USPS lets you file online through its official change of address site, choosing an individual, family or business move. Online filing carries a $1.25 identity verification fee, and the billing address on your card must match either your old or new address. You can also ask for a free Mover’s Guide packet at a Post Office and hand in PS Form 3575 with photo ID.
A temporary request covers moves of 15 days up to one year, such as a winter away or a short-term rental while a house closes. A permanent request is for the real move.
What forwarding does not do
Forwarding is not a substitute for telling your bank. USPS says plainly that a change of address only changes your mailing address with the Post Office, and that you are responsible for telling government agencies, companies and other senders.
It also says that for security, mailers like government agencies and financial institutions do not allow forwarding of sensitive documents, and it lists identity documents, credit cards, bank statements, insurance information and other financial or medical information. Those pieces will not follow you. You have to update each sender yourself.
Give yourself lead time. USPS asks you to allow at least 7 to 10 business days after approval for the change to take effect, and standard forwarding lasts 12 months, with paid extensions available. File two weeks before moving day and the overlap covers the gap.
Mail theft and change of address scams during a move
A house in the middle of a move is an easy target. Mail sits in the box for days while you are at the new place, and nobody notices a missing statement in the chaos. Two things protect you: picking up mail promptly and watching for the confirmation letters USPS sends.
Watch for the Move Validation letter
After you file, USPS sends a Move Validation letter to your old address. If you get one and did not file, someone may be trying to redirect your mail. Call your local Post Office and report it.
Look for the notice at the new place
About five business days before your start date, USPS mails a Customer Notification Letter with your confirmation code to the new address. Keep the code. You need it to change or cancel the request.
Empty the old mailbox
The Postal Inspection Service advises you not to leave letters and packages in your mailbox or at your door for any length of time. Ask a neighbor to collect mail until forwarding starts, or use Hold Mail.
If you think mail has been stolen, report it to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service online at its reporting page or by phone at 1-877-876-2455. The FTC’s identity theft advice backs the same habit from the other direction: take mail out of the mailbox as soon as possible, keep financial records somewhere secure and shred them before you throw them away.
Signs of trouble after a move include statements that stop arriving, bills for accounts you never opened and calls from collectors you do not recognize. Our guide on what to do after identity theft lists the first calls to make, and our post on identity theft from trash explains how discarded paper gets used.
A six-week plan for paper before moving day
Paper takes longer than you think and less time than you fear. Spread over six weeks, it is an hour or two a weekend. Crammed into the last two days, it gets packed unsorted and moved at full price.
- Six weeks out: find the paperWalk every room with three empty boxes labeled go-bag, keep and shred. Pull every drawer, file and basement carton into one room.
- Five weeks out: sort with the three questionsGo box by box. When a page is unclear, put it in keep and move on. Speed matters more than perfect calls.
- Four weeks out: shred the backlogDrive the shred boxes to Tewksbury on a weekday, or book a pickup for a large load. You leave with a Certificate of Destruction for the job.
- Two to three weeks out: file the change of addressFile with USPS, then update your bank, card issuers, employer, insurers and the IRS. Watch for the Move Validation letter at the old address.
- Moving week: pack the go-bag and keep box lastSeal the keep box, label it without naming what is inside and load it into your own car with the go-bag.
- After the move: clear the last trickleMail that arrived during the move, the moving company paperwork once the claim period passes and the old utility final bills. One small box, one more trip.
Our post on how to prepare documents for shredding covers box sizes and packing, so you do not fill a carton too heavy to carry to the car.
What it costs to shred a move’s paper
Shredding is priced by weight, so the bill follows the size of the pile. A full banker’s box of paper weighs about 30 pounds. Under 10 boxes you pay 99 cents a pound. At 10 boxes or more you pay a flat $15 per small box or $20 per large banker’s box. Every job adds $34.90 in per-job fees, a $14.95 HIPAA filing fee for the Certificate of Destruction paperwork and a $19.95 environmental fee for recycling the shred.
| Shred pile | Drop-off in Tewksbury | Zone 1 pickup | Zone 2 pickup | Zone 3 pickup |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 banker’s box (about 30 lb) | $64.60 | $194.55 | $224.55 | $264.55 |
| 3 boxes (about 90 lb) | $124.00 | $253.95 | $283.95 | $323.95 |
| 5 boxes (about 150 lb) | $183.40 | $313.35 | $343.35 | $383.35 |
| 10 large boxes (flat $20 each) | $234.90 | $364.85 | $394.85 | $434.85 |
Drive or book a pickup
For one to five boxes, drive. Our office is on Route 38 near the I-495 interchange, about 15 minutes south of the state line at Salem and Pelham by I-93 or Route 38. Walk in Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with no appointment. Details are on our drop-off shredding page.
When pickup earns its fee
Book a pickup when the boxes are many, heavy or on a third floor, or when moving week leaves nobody free to drive. Border towns such as Salem, Pelham, Windham and Plaistow are Zone 1, greater Nashua and Manchester are Zone 2 and the Seacoast is Zone 3. We confirm your zone when you book. See off-site shredding for how a pickup works.
One trip beats two. The $34.90 is charged once per job, so a single drop-off with everything costs less than one trip now and another after the move. The full price list is on our shredding rates page.
Moving into southern New Hampshire
New arrivals face the same paper problem in reverse. The last owner’s mail keeps coming, old tenants leave folders in closets and your own boxes arrive in a state where you do not yet know the rules. A few habits from day one keep it under control.
Mail for the last occupant
Do not throw a previous resident’s mail in the trash, and do not open it. Write “not at this address” on the envelope and put it back in the mailbox for the carrier. Statements that keep arriving after a few weeks usually mean the sender was never told about the move.
Papers left behind in a closet or basement are a different matter. If they carry someone else’s account numbers, ask your landlord or agent to pass them on. If nobody claims them, shred them rather than leaving them in the curbside bin.
Update the IRS and everyone else
The IRS accepts a new address on your next return, on Form 8822, by a signed written statement, or in person or by phone after it verifies your identity. A USPS change may update your IRS address of record, but the IRS still advises telling it directly.
Add your bank, card issuers, employer, retirement plan, insurers and the motor vehicle office to the same list. Each one sends paper that USPS may not forward.
Once you are settled, a once-a-year purge keeps the next move easy. Our page on estate cleanout shredding helps when a move is a downsizing, and our guide to shred events covers the free community days that run in spring and fall.
Frequently asked questions
What should I shred before moving?
Shred anything you no longer need that shows your name with an account number, Social Security number, policy number, signature or health detail. That covers old bank and card statements, pay stubs, tax years past the IRS period, paid medical bills, closed-account letters and credit offers. Shred it before the movers arrive so you do not pay to haul paper you plan to destroy.
What documents should I keep in a go-bag when I move?
Keep the papers you cannot easily replace and the ones you need in the first month: driver’s licenses, passports, birth certificates, Social Security cards, the new lease or closing papers, the moving contract, insurance cards, a medication list, car titles and registrations, and children’s school records. Carry the bag in your own car, never on the moving truck.
How long does USPS forward mail after a move?
Standard mail forwarding lasts 12 months, and you can pay to extend it. First-Class Mail is forwarded free, and prepaid periodicals are forwarded for 60 days. USPS asks you to allow at least 7 to 10 business days after approval for the change to take effect. Sensitive mail from banks and government agencies is often not forwarded at all, so update those senders directly.
How much does it cost to file a change of address?
Filing online costs a $1.25 identity verification fee, charged to a card whose billing address matches your old or new address. You can also file in person at a Post Office with a free Mover’s Guide packet and PS Form 3575, bringing acceptable photo ID. In-person filing is required if you file for someone else or cannot verify your identity online.
What if I get a Move Validation letter and did not move?
USPS sends a Move Validation letter to the old address after a change of address is filed. If one arrives and nobody in your house filed, someone may be trying to redirect your mail. Contact your local Post Office right away, and report suspected mail theft to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service at 1-877-876-2455 or through its online reporting page.
Can I bring my moving boxes of paper without an appointment?
Yes. Walk-in drop-off at 1215 Main Street, Unit 115, Tewksbury runs Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Park out front and staff help you unload. You pay 99 cents a pound plus $34.90 per job, the paper is shredded the same business day and you leave with a Certificate of Destruction. Pickups need an appointment, booked online or at (978) 636-0301.
Do I need to take staples and folders out before shredding?
No. Staples, paper clips, binder clips, rubber bands and file folders can stay in. Remove three-ring binder hardware, hanging-folder frames and anything that is not paper. Put old phones, CDs, USB sticks and hard drives in a separate bag, because they are physically destroyed and quoted per item rather than priced by the pound.
Should I shred papers the previous owner left in my new house?
Mail addressed to a previous resident should go back to the carrier marked “not at this address,” not in the trash. Papers left behind in closets or basements are different. Ask your landlord or real estate agent to pass them to the owner. If nobody claims them and they carry account numbers or other personal details, shred them instead of recycling them whole.
Sources
- USPS: Change of Address, mail forwarding and what is not forwarded (checked November 2026)
- U.S. Postal Inspection Service: Mail Theft (checked November 2026)
- IRS: Address changes (checked November 2026)
- IRS: How long should I keep records? (checked November 2026)
- FTC Consumer Advice: What To Know About Identity Theft (checked November 2026)
Shred the backlog before the truck arrives
Drive your shred boxes to Tewksbury on any weekday, or book a pickup if moving week leaves no time. Either way you pay by the pound, your paper is cross-cut shredded and recycled, and you get a Certificate of Destruction for the job.
Visit or call
1215 Main Street, Unit 115, Tewksbury, MA 01876. Route 38 near the I-495 interchange, about 15 minutes south of the NH line. Free parking out front.
Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Walk-in drop-off is weekdays only. Pickups and witnessed sessions by appointment.
Three ways to shred: walk-in drop-off at 99¢ per pound, pickup by zone, or a witnessed session at $1.99 per pound.
New Hampshire Document Shredding · 1215 Main Street, Unit 115, Tewksbury, MA 01876 · (978) 636-0301 · Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.