The shedding vertices of simplicial complexes are studied from an algebraic point of view. Based on this perspective, we introduce the class of ass-decomposable monomial ideals which is a generalization of the class of Stanley-Reisner ideals of vertex decomposable simplicial complexes. The recursive structure of ass-decomposable monomial ideals allows us to find a simple formula for the depth, and in squarefree case, an upper bound for the regularity of such ideals.