When it comes to precious items like jewelry, money, or documents, there is no other cabinet or box that is as effective in keeping these items away from strangers and burglars as a safe. A safe, also known as a safety box, is a type of box that usually has a durable and sturdy lock that can only be unlocked by a key or by inputting the correct combination of numbers on the built-in keypad. Most safes are made with thick metal that is difficult to saw, smash, or open forcibly, so the contents inside the safe can only be retrieved by opening the lock.
While having a safe highly ensures that important items in your possession will be secured, protected, and hidden, the placement of the safe in your home could further enhance the security that the lockable box provides.
By placing the safe in a specific location, burglars and other strangers may not be able to find the safe, as they may often have the ability to steal the safe with its contents inside or open it using safe-cracking tools. In addition, the location of the safe is also important whenever you want to quickly get its contents if there is a fire or if it is flooding in your house. If you are going to buy a safe, here are a few tips on where it would be best to hide a safe at home.
Behind the Bookshelves
One of the most inconspicuous places to hide a safe is behind the bookshelves, particularly the shelves that are filled with books. Most burglars wouldn’t have the time to go through each book to see what’s behind them, as it would take them a lot of minutes before they could find the safe. However, it would be best to hide a safe behind a bookshelf if there are also more bookshelves next to it or near it to further confuse burglars as to where exactly the safe is.
Of course, to hide a safe behind bookshelves, the wall should be thick and wide enough to accommodate the size of the safe. Luckily, there are several safes that are relatively thin, so those are perfect for embedding in walls.
In the Attic
The attic is primarily used for the storage of items that are no longer working or are no longer useful in the house. While most of us would likely get rid of these, there are just some tools, toys, and other items that have too much sentimental value that we would just rather keep them in the attic. Because burglars would usually assume that items in the attic are useless, it would be great if you could place the safe there too, although in a specific area where it is very hidden, like behind several cardboard boxes or underneath a pile of broken toys.
In this location, you can also disguise the safe as an electric box, which most people won’t touch as they may get electrocuted. Moreover, you can also make it look like a vent, where there is a hole in the attic and at the end of that hole is the safe that only you and people who know about its location can pull.
In the Playroom
Another location in the house that is sometimes as messy as the attic is the children’s playroom, which is typically filled with dozens of toys on the floor. Many burglars would tend not to check the playroom since it would take hours before they could spot the safe in a mess made by children and toys. However, game rooms that have video game consoles or gaming computers may be a hotspot for burglary, so it is not recommended to place a safe in the game room. But, if the playroom only contains toys for toddlers and babies, then it is relatively safer.
As to where exactly you should put the safe in the playroom, the best places are behind the shelves or cabinets and underneath the toy chest. Make sure that your children also don’t know the location of the safe so that they won’t play with it.
In the Kitchen
There are some burglars that would inspect what you have in the fridge and steal meats and other food products, and there are also a few that would take pieces of kitchenware with them if they think it is valuable. However, most of them wouldn’t really think that a safe is hidden in the kitchen, which is why it is one of the best locations in the house to place the safe.
Many of us would think that the master bedroom is the safest area to place a safe, as the safe would be much near to us since we spend most of our time at home in the master bedroom. However, this bedroom is usually the first place that burglars search in since it is already a common location for safes. So, it would be best to be “different” by placing the safe in peculiar places instead, such as the kitchen. You can place the safe underneath the fridge or inside a cabinet (which should have a secret compartment hidden by a false back).
Finding the best place to put a safe in the house is as important as setting a number combination in the lock or hiding its key, as it is crucial in making sure that the safe won’t be found by anyone besides you and your family. Hide it in an inconspicuous area, but always remember where you hid the safe since you may forget after not seeing it for years.