Paper Shredding

Do people shred their papers? Is that something people regularly do? I once took a stack of 10 checkbooks to work and fed them through our industrial paper shredder and it looked like my bank was getting ready to throw a parade. I don't have a shredder at home. What I do is put all of my sensitive documents in an old paper grocery bag and keep them on a shelf in my closet for about five years, then I move. And when I move I toss it in the trash assuming that anything that could be gleaned from that information is so old and useless that the identity thief would only succeed in identifying themselves as a complete idiot.