Importance of having a safe.
If you’re considering purchasing a home safe, you may be surprised by all of the reasons it will be a good investment. Plenty of people buy a safe for one particular purpose and then wish they had bought a larger one once they discover all of the additional uses a safe can have. In order to help you select the proper size safe for your home, consider these 10 reasons for owning one. Think about how many apply to your life and how large the interior space will need to be to accommodate all of your safekeeping needs.
1. Protecting Items from Thieves
Everything from your rare coin collection to your first-edition Stephen King can be a target for thieves. Small, precious items that can be carried off and pawned easily should be kept in a safe. This is especially true if you frequently have house guests or live in an area where break-ins occur often.
2. Protection from Natural Disasters
If your home was to catch fire or be put underwater in a flood, what irreplaceable documents and possessions would you lose? Items such as your family Bible, the original deed to your house, original birth certificates, genealogy research, and old photographs should be protected. If your collection of documents and pictures are too large for a safe, you can also digitize them and keep the discs in your safe. Safes can stand up to just about anything Mother Nature can throw at them, so you can feel secure that your irreplaceables will be kept pristine despite natural disasters.
3. Storing Important Documents
While today’s tech-heavy world makes it somewhat easier to replace documents such as birth certificates, immigration paperwork, marriage licenses, and death decrees, you may find you need these items the most when disaster strikes. For example, having the original copy of your homeowner’s insurance policy will come in handy if your home is damaged or destroyed in a disaster. Having a family telephone list can be invaluable if your cell phone is lost or destroyed and you need help. Being able to prove your citizenship immediately can keep you out of jail. There are countless scenarios that demand you have access to original paperwork.
4. Protecting Family Heirlooms
In almost every family, some items are passed down through the generations. Think about the irreplaceable trinkets passed to you by your parents or grandparents. They may or may not be worth much money, but their generations of history makes them priceless. From your great-grandmother’s embroidered samplers to the eight-generation family tree, true heirlooms should be treasured and kept safe for future generations.
5. Storing Your Jewelry
When you are not wearing your fine jewels, stashing them in a portable and unsecure jewelry box is a poor idea. Jewelry boxes are great for your costume pieces, but real jewels need to be protected against theft, fire, and other natural disasters. If you develop a habit of always locking your pricey pieces in a safe, you will also be less likely to mislay them
6. Locking Up Gold and Other Tangible Investments
Gold and silver ingots, bearer’s bonds, stock certificates and coins made of precious metals should be kept under lock and key. These items can easily be pawned or sold, making them attractive for thieves. Natural disasters and fires can also destroy them, causing you to lose your entire investment.
7. Storing Cash
Ask your grandparents or great-grandparents about the bank collapses that sparked the Great Depression. Many people lost their entire life savings. While money in banks and credit unions is now insured by the FDIC, not everyone wants to trust that the insurance will be honored if the economy tanks once more. For this reason, some people prefer to keep their cash tucked away at home in a safe and know that it is available for withdrawal at any time.
8. Safeguarding Guns and Other Weapons
Whether you like to target shoot, hunt, or just want to keep a weapon for home protection, keeping the weapon out of the reach of children is a high priority. Guns are not the only weapons that should be locked away. You should also lock away:
• Hunting bows and arrows
• Razor-sharp hunting or filleting knives
• Bayonets
• Throwing blades and other martial arts weapons
If you do intend to store guns, don’t forget to consider space for the ammunition. Always consider whether or not you plan to add any more weapons to your collection, and take your future plans into account when selecting your safe size.
9. Storing Dangerous Medication
For those who take dangerous medications, leaving the bottles in the medicine cabinet may not be the best idea. Children, mentally-handicapped adults, and adults with dementia need to be protected from these medicines, and a safe offers complete security. Depending on your living situation, using a safe to guard your meds may be essential.
10. Hiding Surprises
Remember the year your wife found the diamond tennis bracelet you had hidden in the garage for her birthday? What about the time your child found their Christmas presents tucked away in the attic? If you have a hard time keeping gifts hidden from prying eyes, a safe is the perfect place to stash small items for later. This practice can also allow you to buy small gifts throughout the year during sales and then parcel them out over the holidays with no chance of early discovery.
As you can see, there are plenty of uses for a home safe. Think carefully about what you will be storing inside, now and in the future. This will help you better decide how large of a safe you need to keep all of your expensive, irreplaceable, or dangerous items under lock and key.
