The Top 3 Best Places to Keep a Safe

Do you have a safe in your home? If so, where do you keep it? A safe is a great way to protect personal valuables, family heirlooms, important documents, collectibles and some extra cash. A good security safe can protect your valuables, but keeping it in a hidden or secure location can help to contribute to that security. After all, if a thief has to spend extra time finding your safe before they can rob it, that is less time they have trying to break into it. Time is not something that a thief has a lot of to spare; they need to be quick in order to be successful. Let's take a look at three of the best locations to place your safe.

• Floor - hidden in the floor is a great place to stash a safe, not a location where most thieves will think to look. These safes are most secure by placing them in a basement where the floor is made of concrete, making them more difficult to pry out of their location. For installation, the ideal time is during construction, but a hole can always by drilled later. Being surrounded by concrete also adds extra insulation, increasing the fire protection already offered by the safe. Regardless of what type of floor the safe is placed into, it can then be covered up with a carpet so that it is not immediately visible. The primary down side to floor safes is that they are small, so it all depends upon what type of items you wish to keep secure as to whether this type of safe will work for you.
• Wall - we have all seen it in movies, the safe hidden behind a piece of art or mirror. Sometimes the picture swings open, other times it is opened by a remote control, or the simplest way is to just remove the picture from the wall. This type of safe does have to be narrow, usually no deeper than 4" to 6" (the depth of the wall), and about 18" - 24" wide (the distance between wall studs), but they can be of varying heights. You can even get fairly large ones that are designed to be located behind a door.

  Besides full sized safes that can be installed in a wall, there are also some really handy mini safes that are also hidden in a wall. These often resemble an outlet or switch plate. Though these cannot be used for much, they are great for keeping some extra cash or jewelry.

• Bolted - If you have a large safe, it may be impossible for it to be stored in the wall or floor. This style safe is best bolted to the floor. Though easier to find, it at least stops a thief from taking the safe with them to break into at a different location, where time and sound is not an issue. Of course, if you can place the safe in a closet or other place where it is not so obvious, that will help.

Regardless of the type of safe that you choose to protect your valuables, make sure you give some initial consideration to where you want to place the safe before making your purchase. A hidden safe is a more secure safe. Having a safe makes a thief's job harder, but making the safe difficult to find in the first place makes their occupation even more difficult.