One of my friends has a gorgeous safe, looks almost like the one in the primary picture. The safe holds the most precious items...Kindergarten cap and gown from the children's graduation to 1st grade, every report card, baby footprints, locks of hair, 1st tooth shed from each child. I'm sure later it will hold NHS papers, high school and college graduation memorabilia. The goal is to preserve it until they are out on there own. Each also has a rifle, some cash, birth certificates and child specific jewelry (broch, tie clip, pocketwatch, ring, etc.). I thought to myself, "Why didn't I think of this....". Sometimes a safe's contents has no value or use except to the owner.

Viv
Why wold you ask this question? Are you doing a survey for some safe company,? I hope so because otherwise I would like to know the answer. I just bought a safe & havent gotten around to filling it with my thousands of $ worth of jewellery. I probably wont lock it because I like to wear my jewellery. It kinda is a dumb question though.

Why is my full name on this???? I am very angry

Didn't you choose a user name rather than your own real name. Mine's my pen name...... You should be able to change it, and if not, contact a moderator for help.

It is a feature in some homes, therefore it is something to discuss in this type of site. Your privacy is in your control. If you do not wish to divulge private information, don't comment. If you made a comment you are sorry you made, delete it. If you do not want your name published, change your settings. Nobody is forcing you to make any type of comment, you control that.

Tks for the advice Mark. I did not know my full name would come up. Will change that.

Thank you Mark, I think it’s a very pertinent question; no one is forced to answer. I’ve been looking for ideas, and I like the link you posted. Most of the “solutions” I have found are downright dumb and/or in horrible bad taste.

Emily, how about a dilemma as to where we put our hidden house key;)))

Yes a safe hidden in garage with a great disguise.

I guess I'm in a league that's very different from everyone else. I read safe and thought about the small fire safe in my office. I'm thinking for once I'm ahead of the game. My important papers are safely tucked away, then I start reading about safes sunk into the foundations of houses, decoy safes. Safes that hold large sums of money and jewels. All of this made me stop and think for a minute. What is in my little safe may not add up monetarily to what is in those safes but I wouldn't trade what's in mine away for the world. My car title, papers on my little rose cottage and my family's birth certificates are worth more to me than the contents of all of those safe :)

no safe needed...my wife has all my money

And Bluejeanroy, my titles, deed to home, birth certificates, marriage license.... are in the safe deposit box at the bank. In case of fire I don't worry as the stuff is not here.

$350 to have that small electronic tumbler control box safe picked when the electronics scrambled; no safe at home any more.

Posting a picture of the safe in your home would be dumb. Sharing a link to a good one you use would not. I appreciate all ideas here. Thanks for sharing the sensible suggestions! We are looking to buy a safe and now I have even more info to help us sort through our options for all of it; important docs, jewelry, and backup cash.

I will just add a scenario of what might generally not be considered a good idea. Have a customer who long ago rebuilt a home that was burned down. She was very specific in requesting an in wall safe be incorporated in each family member's closet. And they had to be digital combinations that were the birth date of each individual. Over the years, I had to go back and change the batteries after they had lost their charge. Too many things wrong with this scenario, just thought I would share.

Entertaining comments! People are funny.

No safe here. I was thinking about it for the wills and documents when the bank raised their fees, more to preserve from fire or flood, but now there's all kinds of electronic storage.

Yes. Two small hotel style that are bolted down. Using them has become so common to our family. When we leave the house, we take our most prized possessions with us ---our lives. Items secured in the safes are sentimental and would be difficult to replace.

calmsea, : > )

Hi, Astraea! How are you? Speaking of safety, did you get your retaining wall finished?

How much does one cost? I think my bank charges $45.00 a year for a good size drawer.

I, too, wear my jewelry. Want to enjoy it every day of my life.

JudyG Designs, you can spend as much or as little on a safe as you want. However, you will get what you pay for. Things to remember when buying a safe:

1. Be sure the location you are installing it is able to bear the weight. Often homeowners will need extra bracing if the safe is being installed anywhere other than a concrete slab.
2. Be sure you know how you will get it in the house and to that location. Moving a safe up or down stairs and through doorways is difficult due to the size and weight. Turning sharp corners may not be possible.
3. Know what you plan to keep in the safe, and how long you want it to stay "safe". Fire safes have a rating that will tell you how many minutes before things inside will start to burn. Non-fire safes will usually be sold by telling you how long you can keep the average burglar out of them if they have access to all the tools they want or a pick-up truck to drag the safe around and try to break it open.
4. Safes that can be picked up and carried away like some of the small fire-safes they sell at office supply stores are easier for the burglar to pick up and carry away and break into at their own pace later. Plan to bolt a safe down if you want it to actually not go missing in the case of a break in.
5. Electrical or digital safes may not work if the battery dies. Old fashioned combinations will work any time you need them.

I'm a competitive shooter and thus have had several gun safes through the years. I know a safe isn't a thing of beauty, but it sure is handy even if it is hard to decorate around.

For those of you who only have a few items you want to preserve, a safe deposit box may be a better choice. Not only do you have the items at a separate location (great for those computer back-up disks since if a tornado destroys your house and computer, at least the backup was hopefully not in the same path and you can retrieve those photos of your kids. Besides, a safe deposit box can be a tax deduction if you itemize.

My safe deposit box is a 'double deep' which means short width, the usual depth, and two of the small ones deep. I could put a wine bottle in it lying down front to back and have room, for $28 a year. The single deep smalls start at $16; and the ones big enough to put a wine bottle standing up, or lying side to side, are about $200 a year. For the debacle of the knee high cube safe that had to be professionally broke into, I can pay for about 30 years of that box.

jgmac2, the internet is not anonymous. It never forgets something that is posted.

@Okedokegal right on! Only protected based on profile setup and understanding of how each social networking site displays what the user has shared. Read the TOS...that will help.

@krissiemarie @okedokegal... Right on!!!

@Margo...Can you share a photo?

:oP

That probably means we won't get a street address, city and state either.

I used to think a safe was a safe, and had a naive habit of giving Sentry fireproof safe boxes to everybody I knew, at one time. When my house was broken into, they took the safe with them (50 lbs, or so) and cracked it open on the pavement outside. The neighbors that got hit reported their locked file cabinet safes got broken into from the back, not the front. My new safe take 3 people to pick up, and you bet I hid the hiding place, this time, but in case of fire.....that is anther box hidden inside the first one!

The average steel safe is going to surive a fire so don't worry that it will melt, and you'll lose everything.

@krissiemarie... what is a "TOS"?

TOS = terms of service

Yes, I do have a safe. It's small. I keep my gun & valuables in another spot. If anyone ever broke in, they'd grab the safe & not get the goodies.

Hayleydaniels, may none of us ever see it work in action!

All my most valuable possessions are out and about walking around! My kids and grand kids. I am rich in love.

We have a little safe under the nightstand where you put your fingers in a handprint shaped area and type in the code. Also, we have a really nice standing safe in the office that almost just looks like it's decoration. Safes really don't have to be bulky or ugly, in fact they can add something really unique to your interior design! :)

I have lived in a few states that have 'make my day' laws; and most of the time that gets invoked the person doing the shooting got off (i.e., someone coming in head first and stomach down through a foundation vent window is NOT being invited into the home. People welcome in your home do not enter that way. Or a story about a woman in Oklahoma City OK a few years ago; Christmas eve, she is on the phone to 911 asking when can she shoot someone trying to break into her house? She had blocked the front door with a couch and two guys were trying to get IN; she shot the one when he got the door open. He was armed with a knife. His accomplice ran; they caught him. She had lost her husband to cancer a week before, she had an infant in crib, and the two men were trying to break in thinking her husband' s painkillers were still around. They weren't.) I am much more comfortable these days having the few vital non-living things I own in the safety deposit box.

One big city pawnshop I used to buy camera stuff from; had a few nice guns for sale. Um, they said they had a huge vatload of firearms that were pawned for $5; worth hundreds to thousands; and the people came in and paid their $1 (20%) a month to have their weapons stored securely; where their kids or grandkids couldn't get at them. Most of them, anyways. Some had a few at home but most of their collection was there. If they wanted to get them out, they paid $6, took their weapon, and left; a week or so later they'd be back and pawn them back into storage.....

I agree with Patricia Sommers; the most valuable things in our life we would never put in a safe.

A safe is a reasonable item to have to protect those valuables, too. A break-in can take under 10 minutes, and all a burglar needs to find is a birth certificate, address and social that match, and he/she can be on their way. Laptops and personal files have become the most sought after items in burglarized homes, and keeping them out of harm's way when the family is on vacation is tantamount to keeping our loved ones out of harm's way.

Don't say anything is likely to "stay put." Where we used to live near Virginia City NV, 5 guys wrestled two 700 lb safes up a flight of stairs (from the basement) and into a stolen pickup truck. They got a ton of valuables. One was stupid (aren't they always) and tried to buy gas for the stolen truck with the stolen debit card (on camera). When all was said and done, they got back most of the "stuff" but lost a whole lotta cash and an antique shotgun. The only way a safe is truly "safe" is if the bad guys can't find it. If they can see it, they can steal it.

is it evil of me to wish they got hernias along with their sentences?

Just a warning about the smaller fire proof safes: they're only good up to a particular temperature! Put your safe somewhere, like the basement, that is least likely to burn.

We had a small fire proof safe located on the first floor of our home. Because of the convenience of having it in our home, we placed in it property abstracts, car titles, bonds, cash, passports, etc. Our house caught on fire and was a total loss. We found what was left of our safe in the basement, very charred, with nothing but ashes inside.

Also, don't forget that even though a fire-proof safe may keep the fire away from your belongings it will NOT prevent them from getting HOT. Things like floppy disks can melt, and paper, cloth, or wood can char from the heat even if they don't actually catch fire. A friend who is a gunsmith once showed me 6 rifles that had been stored in a safe in a house that caught fire. The safe was "fire proof" but the fire was not extinguished right away. The ones with plastic stocks had completely melted and the ones with wooden stocks had charcoal on the outside of the stock from the heat. They'd been brought to my friend to have new stocks put on and to be checked and tested to make sure the heat hadn't done any other damage to them. This photo of a safe opened after a fire that I found on the internet looks a lot like what I was shown:

We have a gun safe, and it is visible. We use it to store guns so kids can't get at them. The safe has an electronic lock and it has a key to unlock it in case the batteries die. One copy of the key is buried in a neighbor's yard - but the neighbor doesn't know it. The safe is bolted into a concrete base so I doubt anyone is going to be taking it anywhere. Valuable papers and jewelry are in the safe deposit box.

I mentioned this discussion to my husband who has been a firefighter for almost 30 years, and asked him what he thought. He said if the fire got hot enough, any safe could be damaged. He mentioned the hinges giving way, and the door falling off.

One thing that will cause your house to burn hotter is if you have vinyl siding as it keeps the heat in. I've mentioned looking into it before, and he absolutely refuses for that reason.

I don't understand why no one mentions installing a sprinkler system in their home. Maybe it's not glamerous enough...

hayleydaniels, my daughter and her husband just added a master suite addition to their home about six months ago and the city (Scottsdale AZ) had a new requirement for sprinkler systems to be added to the entire home interior. Doesn't affect those that aren't doing additions, but if you add to your home, you have to add the sprinklers. So some municipalities are requiring a sprinkler system.

No one has mentioned what I believe is (or will soon be) the most common reason for needing a safe - prescription medications. I have had addicted friends or family members steal meds from my home and my stepmother also lost meds this way. I learned that the fire safes are useless for this. Pounded or dropped enough, they just fall apart.

We have installed a $300 wall safe in the spot where a medicine cabinet used to go. It is screwed into the wall studs from inside the safe. My carpenter then hid it behind a mirror using a piano hinge that is not really visible from the front at all. I have tried to use a Magnetic Secret Latch system (below) to make it impossible to open the mirror, but I cannot figure how to make it work in my configuration. I would recommend it as a great way to hide a safe, however! If they just think your mirror is firmly attached to the wall, no one will find the safe behind it. I would use one latch at the top, and another at the bottom of the wall mirror. If we remodel, I will have the carpenter work the magnetic latch into the design.

We keep money, unused credit cards, and my pain meds and the dog's pain meds and dog's phenobarbital in the safe. Although it is digital, the safe does have a manual key and a battery-operated back up auxiliary pack for getting in if the internal battery dies. For ease of memory, a childhood address is the code - not from the side of the family with the addict, though!

http://www.leevalley.com/US/hardware/page.aspx?p=40353&cat=3,41399,41403

The best way to keep your valuables secured is to install a safe in your house. The best one to install will be a fireproof safe. As, you can have your important documents protected in the event of fire.
http://security.chubb.co.nz/products/looking-for-a-safe

Each of us have a small safe just to keep valuables and personal items such as passports etc. safe. We have a larger one for important documents. We either keep them in fitted wardrobes or smaller ones in a bookcase. Ever try moving house with one ? Whew, what a task indeed!

This is a really cool design for a safe. It's not really hidden because if I walked in to the room I would open those old doors and want to know what's behind them. The picture in the comments of the safe behind the slim, wall hanging mirror is pure genius. You'd never think to move a mirror to find a safe behind it. That's a true hidden safe. Safes

We inherited an antique safe when we bought our Victorian home. All lined in old rubbed velvet with cubbies and painted on the outside with curlicues and old gold. Works too! Weighs a ton, but we do have the combination. I think it would take ten sticks of dynamite to blow the door off. But it's quite the conversation starter.

I don't have a safe, but I would really like one like the one pictured. I like the idea of having a gun safe in a hidden part of the house behind a wall or something. How do go about getting a safe like that installed?

Safe Installation

My husband and I just bought a new home. He has a very large gun safe that must go on our first floor. It's all black and big!! The only place to put it is in our den. Any suggestions with photos of how I can decorate this room with such a bulky item. It looks so out of place. Please help!

I just got this Sovereign gun safe last week hehe. Really satisfied and keeps my rifles safe from my kids.